The Importance of the Number of a Club's Reviews

The number of reviews that a club has is an important element in evaluating that club in the tuscl listings. In the first place, a large number of reviews indicates the popularity of a club. Every club that I would rate as one of my favorites consistently has at least several hundred reviews on tusl. The better a club is, the more people who visit and therefore the larger the number of reviews that are generated. Moreover, there is more of an assurance of quality that accompanies a higher number of reviews, whereas a smaller number of reviews carries with it more uncertainty about the ratings given. For example, I would be much more confident in the quality of a club that is rated overall a 6.5 with 500 reviews than I would be about a club that is rated overall a 7.5 with only 50 reviews.

Given the foregoing, I think there should be a minimum number of reviews for a club to be listed on the home page as one of the top ten clubs in any category. I thought of this issue recently when I read through the top ten lists. Many (like Mons Venus and Tootsies) have many hundreds of reviews, have consistently very high ratings, and have deservedly been in the top ten lists for much of the past several years. However, there were others on the top ten lists with a lot fewer reviews that I did not think belonged there based upon my experience with them. One club had a rating of 7.84 based upon only 97 reviews, and when I read some of those reviews it was clear the club is pretty average in most respects. The high numbers given to this club by its 97 reviewers were not supported by the content of most of the written reviews. It appeared that many people rated the club highly at least in part because it is located in a rural area and is the best club around. Thus, the club had a small number of reviews but the numbers given in the reviews tended to be very high because there were no other comparable competing clubs. Such clubs have no place in the same universe as the clubs that have ratings above a 7 based upon hundreds of reviews.

A simplistic comparison of overall ratings in and of itself is an inadequate measure of which clubs are the best ones. Thus, I suggest a minimum of 250 reviews for a club to be included in any of the top ten lists. If a club has not been considered worthy of review by at least 250 people, it is almost certainly not one of the top ten clubs in the country in any category.