A leaderboard is only as good as the votes behind it. Ours is shaped by real golfers backing courses they'd actually pick — and a lot of what protects that happens quietly, behind the scenes.
Every vote is tied to a single identity: an account, or an email address for guest votes. Registered voters spend a fixed quota of 22 votes per state, with at most 5 on any single course. Guest voters get a single vote per course, and alias tricks that dress the same inbox up as different voters are collapsed into one.
When you vote by email from a shared link, we send a confirmation to that address. Confirming ties your vote to a real inbox — it's a ten-second step that keeps throwaway addresses from shaping the rankings.
Addresses that can't receive mail don't make it in at all: fake and disposable email domains are turned away at the door.
Registered golfers who build out their My Picks lists earn more vote weight — influence on the board comes from participation, not from gaming the system. You can read exactly how the weighting works in How Voting and Rankings Work.
If your course is climbing the board, it's because real people put it there. That's the whole point: a ranking a course can share proudly, and a golfer can trust.