- yesterday
In this video, Women's Editor, Alison Root is joined by Top 100 senior panellists Fergus Bisset and Jezz Ellwood. They discuss this years Top 10 from Golf Monthly's Top 100 golf courses in UK & Ireland.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Hello everyone, Alison Root here from Golf Monthly and welcome to Royal Porthcourt Golf Club.
00:06In this video, we're going to look at the top 10 courses in the UK and Ireland from Golf Monthly's
00:13Top 100 rankings in association with Peter Miller. I'm joined here by Rob Smith and Jeremy Elwood
00:21who run the Top 100 Courses panel and we're going to discuss why these 10 courses are so special.
00:28We're going to run through from 10 to 1, so stay tuned to find out which one comes out on top.
00:36So, let's get started.
00:47We're going to start with number 10 and 9 together because this is Sunningdale Golf Club, the old and new courses.
00:56Interestingly, they've swapped around from the last time we did the rankings.
01:00So, at number 10 is the old course and I know, Rob, that's a particular favourite of yours.
01:05So, tell me a bit about that.
01:07It is indeed a particular favourite of mine, but to be fair, so is the new.
01:11Over the years, it's probably the question I've been asked the most is,
01:14which is your favourite course in the Top 100?
01:17And I've always given a wishy-washy answer of both at Sunningdale because it's just the perfect golfing day out.
01:22But I think I'm now veering on the side of the old because it has more old-fashioned charm.
01:27It's perhaps a little more forgiving than the new, which is definitely a more severe test, I would say.
01:32And it's the sort of course that's got so much variety that it just keeps a smile on your face all the way around.
01:39It has swapped this time with the new and I think that's because some of the panellists really appreciated the severity of the test of the new compared to the old.
01:47But they are different, aren't they, even though they're side-by-side in places.
01:51Yeah.
01:52And the new, which I know when we first put it above the old a few years ago, the secretary and some of the members were happy with that
02:02because traditionally the old had always been up there and the new was, even though new is a bit of a misnomer
02:08because it's still a very old golf course, they were pleased that we'd put the new above it.
02:12And I think I probably prefer the new.
02:15I've played it a little more often than the old.
02:18It does start with a very difficult par four and then a nice little par three.
02:22But then once you've played that par three and you're on the third tee, you really are sort of heading into the, not wilderness,
02:28but the middle of nowhere and you do get this wonderful feeling of isolation when you're out in that heathland.
02:34And there isn't really a weak hole, I don't think, and the fifth and the sixth holes as a back-to-back par three, par five pair
02:42are probably as good a two-hole combo as you'll play anywhere in land, certainly.
02:47Well, I think the fifth is just the perfect par three.
02:51I picked out a couple of comments from our panellists because we want to pay heed very closely to what they say.
02:57Jamie Hudson, who's one of our panellists who's recently moved up to Prestwick,
03:00he says, Sunningdale's old course is where golf transcends into art, which I think is lovely.
03:06Every round here is a celebration of the rich history, the precision of design, and the joy of playing golf at its finest.
03:12It's not just a golf course, it's a dream realised, which I think is pretty poetic
03:17and I think perhaps better than I could manage as a writer.
03:20I wouldn't say that, Rob, you'll be doing yourself out of a job.
03:23And similarly, Russ Greenbridge, and he said,
03:25Sunningdale New is maybe not as famous for the old, but in my opinion is the better of the two courses.
03:30He says, as it sets the bar to which I will judge all other courses and golfing experiences.
03:35That bar is now raised so incredibly high and I'm not sure it will ever be beaten.
03:40So high praise indeed from our panellists.
03:43Indeed. Well, there you go, Sunningdale.
03:44It's a great experience all round.
03:45Absolutely.
03:45So moving on to number eight, we have the championship course at Carnoustie.
03:54Yes.
03:54It shows you that the criteria we use are all-encompassing because it's not classically beautiful, is it?
04:01No.
04:01The terrain and the surrounds are not classically beautiful.
04:05The beauty is within the holes themselves.
04:08Absolutely.
04:08And I think people say it's one of the best bunker links courses there is.
04:13If you play it and manage to stay out of the bunkers, you've done a pretty good job.
04:18And it also obviously has one of the toughest finishes of any course in the UK and Ireland.
04:24We all know there have been disasters on that 18th hole over the years.
04:27And it's not difficult to see why when you play there.
04:33Especially if it's into the wind and you're trying to get home into it, it's a very difficult test.
04:39Fall there is something to celebrate in the bar afterwards.
04:44And I think you're quite right.
04:44It's all about the design as opposed to the terrain.
04:47The Barry Burners, of course, is a big feature and it comes into play a number of times,
04:52but particularly obviously on 17 and 18.
04:55But so it's also brutally tough.
04:56I think that's fair to say.
04:59And that won't necessarily be for everybody, but it's absolutely deserving its place in the top 10.
05:06So moving on to number seven, we have Royal Portrush.
05:11This is an absolutely beautiful course, but we have it at number seven.
05:14It's gone up at a place this year.
05:16And of course, it's soon to be hosting the Open Championship this summer.
05:19It's a brilliant Harry Colt design over fabulous rugged dunes and lynx land.
05:27It's tough.
05:28The new holes that came into play last time the Open was there have been very well received.
05:33And everyone who goes gives nothing but good feedback.
05:36It's not one that anyone ever seems to be disappointed with.
05:39People may get beaten up by a Royal Portrush, but they'll still come off smiling at how enjoyable and varied the 18 holes are.
05:47Yeah, I think we asked our panellists, didn't we, for their favourite course from the top 100 to go in the supplement that accompanies this project.
05:55And Royal Portrush was the most popular choice.
05:58The Dunloose links there as their favourite course.
06:01So it has a lot of support out there.
06:02Friendly for everybody.
06:04Friendly for everybody.
06:05Yeah, to a degree, but you probably won't be thinking that when you stand on the tee of Calamity Corner.
06:09Absolutely, it'd be wonderful.
06:10And it's interesting how difficult it is again to define the top 10 based on the feedback from our panellists.
06:16Because if we take a quote from one of them who played Royal Portrush last year, Gronje Killen is one of our panellists who's based over in Ireland.
06:25And she said, for me, my number one course, and definitely in the top five in the golf monthly top 100.
06:31Well, of course, it isn't quite, but maybe it should be.
06:34Everyone has their own view on this and there's no absolutes on it.
06:37So that's very interesting that some people have it so high.
06:40Yeah.
06:40Well, moving on to number six, which is a course that I have played, is Royal Birkdale.
06:49Right, I was lucky enough to play Birkdale a couple of summers ago.
06:51I hadn't been for some time.
06:53And what I completely love about it is that although you don't really get to see too much of the sea from it,
06:59you do go through some lovely dunes and every hole is remarkably different.
07:04It's also one of the friendliest clubs in the top 100, let alone the top 10.
07:08You get an incredibly warm welcome from such an old traditional club, which is a lovely thing to happen.
07:12I found that as well.
07:14Yes, absolutely.
07:15And they are also moving with the times.
07:17So we've got a new par three that's just very recently come into play there, what is now their 15th.
07:23There are other changes happening at the 5th and the 7th.
07:25So there's a lot going on there.
07:27Royal Birkdale is rightly at the very top of the list.
07:30And it's been, I believe, our leading English course throughout the rankings.
07:34And I guess for average golfers, you do get this double par 5 finish.
07:40So even if you've thrown a few shots away, there is this final chance, especially if they're downwind,
07:46to perhaps nick a couple back at the end, which is quite rare.
07:49And we've touched on the warm welcome you get there.
07:52And I think that in evidence of that, a comment from one of our panellists, Richard Healy,
07:57he says that the course, the welcome, the facilities and the experience were all top draw.
08:04What a privilege and a joy.
08:06And the interesting thing there about how warmly he was welcomed is that he was there as a secret shopper,
08:12which a lot of our panellists now do.
08:14So he paid his own way and yet he still felt, it's not cheap,
08:18he still felt an incredibly warm welcome when he went there.
08:20Now, we're now moving on to the top five of our top 100 rankings in association with Peter Millar.
08:31So at number five, we have Royal Doorknock.
08:34We do.
08:35The championship course there, which I did play last year.
08:39So I have played that fairly recently.
08:40I got a chance to see the work that had been done on the seventh and eighth holes,
08:45which you play six holes and then you climb up through the gorse.
08:49I don't know how much that gorse is still there.
08:51Quite a lot, I think.
08:52And the seventh hole used to be a dog leg around to the left,
08:56but it now plays straight on to an infinity green.
08:59I think Mackenzie, Tom Mackenzie did the work up there.
09:02And that was a joy to play that.
09:04And then I think you now play the eighth from a slightly different teeing position as well.
09:08So I have seen it recently.
09:09And the Doorknock, of course, is just, I'd say, of course,
09:12it is investing a huge amount in a new clubhouse.
09:15I think it was something like 14 million pounds.
09:19Wow.
09:19So I think a lot of people think Doorknock and maybe one or two others in Scotland
09:24going to play there is almost like a pilgrimage, a sort of rite of passage.
09:29I think the green fee was 10 pounds the first time I played there.
09:31It isn't now.
09:32It's not now.
09:33But it's still a glorious place to go
09:35and one that attracts pilgrim, golfing pilgrims from all over the world.
09:39Yeah.
09:40And if we look at one of our comments from one of our panellists,
09:44Jason Eaton, who's one of our new panellists,
09:45he says, if you love links, love sea views and love tough golf courses,
09:50then this is the course for you.
09:52Yeah.
09:52I think that sums it up entirely.
09:54So moving on to number four, Rob,
09:59I believe this is a course that you've played fairly recently,
10:02and that is Muirfield.
10:04Yeah, I was lucky enough to go up two or three years ago
10:06and play all of the courses in East Leothian
10:08in a ridiculously tight, short space of time.
10:11And Muirfield, of course, is just a sublime design.
10:16It's classic old-fashioned golf.
10:19The bunkering is just pristine.
10:21Everything is exactly where an expert would put it,
10:24and I'm by no means an expert.
10:26But you just look at every hole and think,
10:28this is how would you ever change it
10:30or why would you ever change it to make it any better?
10:33It's a really great test of golf from start to finish.
10:36Again, the difficulty will sometimes be tested by the wind,
10:40and that these Leothian coasts can be quite windy at times.
10:44Always in tip-top condition.
10:46The clubhouse has tonnes of charm as well
10:49and one of the best lunches in golf.
10:51I loved it.
10:52Having not been there for many years,
10:53I loved going back and enjoyed every minute of being there.
10:56Yeah, I think they say, or have said in the past,
10:58Muirfield, you see it all in front of you, don't you?
11:01It's largely true.
11:02I think there's one hole where you play up and over a crest,
11:04which kind of confounds that just a touch.
11:07But generally, you can see what the task is ahead of you.
11:10And it's just a question of whether your game
11:12is up to meeting the challenge.
11:16For Muirfield, one of our panellists, Andrew Oliver,
11:19who's a member at St Anne's Old Links,
11:21went there for the first time last year
11:22and he was absolutely blown away by it.
11:25He said,
11:26really will you find a course
11:27which is so unrelenting in its strategic options?
11:30It's unobvious difficulty,
11:32but all-round fairness.
11:34Never have I left a course wishing so much
11:36that I could turn the clock back and start again.
11:39So that's Muirfield for you.
11:40Absolutely wonderful.
11:45At number three, we have the Trump Turnberry Resort,
11:49the Ailsa course.
11:50Yes.
11:51Well, this is one I played quite a long time ago
11:55for the first time,
11:55before the changes that Martin Ebert did in 2017.
12:00And I thought it was fantastic then,
12:02loved it then.
12:02And when the changes came in,
12:04I was fortunate to play it.
12:06You are right up close to the shore
12:08on a number of holes.
12:10And with work that's been going on of late,
12:12not in time for these rankings,
12:13but for the next ones,
12:15there's a couple more holes
12:16that are going to be taken closer to the edge
12:18to really optimise the visual drama.
12:21So, you know,
12:23Turnberry famously is far from cheap.
12:25Yep.
12:27But it is a fantastic place to play.
12:29It is stunning.
12:30It is.
12:30I'd love to go back.
12:31I haven't played it since they've made the changes.
12:34The seventh green will be right by the clifftop now
12:37and the eighth tee will be moved accordingly.
12:39There's some new mounding going in
12:41and some other tweaks on the back nine.
12:43So again, it's lovely to see a course
12:44that no matter it being as wonderful as it is,
12:47it's still wanting to get better.
12:49I mean, that shows the commitment.
12:51And so with Turnberry,
12:53one of our panellists, James Holland,
12:54who's a member at Albra and a very good golfer,
12:57he said,
12:58because it had been his first visit up there
13:00for a little while,
13:01he said,
13:01it is so much better than what I played before the changes
13:03and it was good then.
13:05It used to be brilliant and it's now even better.
13:11So now, number two,
13:13we have the old course at St Andrews.
13:16The old course at St Andrews
13:17is probably the most iconic course in the world.
13:21Most famous in the world, probably.
13:22It is.
13:23So people will travel from all over the world
13:24to play the old course
13:26and it's a strange one too
13:27because if you just look at the design of the course itself,
13:31which very much is a product of nature
13:34rather than a brilliant modern architect, if you like,
13:39old Tom Morris is just a natural plot of land
13:41that is seeping with history.
13:44Of course it's a test of goals,
13:46but it's more than that
13:47because it puts chills on your back.
13:52Absolutely.
13:52It's a spine tingler.
13:54It's just a must play.
13:55Probably the most bucket list course we have in the UK and Ireland.
14:00The ultimate experience,
14:03even if when you break it down,
14:05the golf course is probably not the very finest golf course,
14:08but when you factor everything else in,
14:11it's just got everything you'd want, hasn't it?
14:13It absolutely has.
14:14And also it's the only golf course
14:16in our top 100 that only has two par threes
14:19and two par fives.
14:21Indeed.
14:22So, you know,
14:22the majority of the holes are par fours of varying lengths
14:25and there are some that have chances to score
14:28like 12, is it,
14:30and the 9 and 10 around the turn.
14:32Yeah.
14:33And then there are some
14:33that are definitely not chances to score like 17.
14:36Yeah.
14:36One of our panellists made his first trip there last year.
14:41Another very good low single figure handicapper
14:43called Caffel Devlin
14:45and he said it is a must play for golfers worldwide.
14:48It has all the history
14:49but also still has all the quality.
14:52So that combination of the two,
14:53as we've said,
14:54it's really the most atmospheric course we have
14:56in the top 100.
15:00So number one,
15:01we have Royal County Down.
15:04We do the championship course there,
15:06which as a setting,
15:08it's hard to beat.
15:09There aren't,
15:10there isn't really anywhere in our top 100
15:11where you have the sea and mountains
15:14as the backdrop at various points
15:16in Newcastle and County Down.
15:20And you head out along the coast
15:22for three holes,
15:23is it,
15:23and then turn back on the extremely frequently photographed
15:27path three fourth
15:29and you're looking back towards the town
15:31and some of those iconic buildings on the skyline.
15:34And it's just,
15:35it's a magical place to play golf,
15:37isn't it?
15:38It is.
15:38I think it's the place
15:39that has the best combination
15:41of terrain itself
15:42and then,
15:43of course,
15:43the setting,
15:44the mountains of Mourn going around
15:45are spectacular.
15:47The views out over the bay
15:48are wonderful.
15:50It's,
15:50again,
15:51going back to the idea
15:52of a non-golfer
15:53would go there
15:54and think,
15:55wow,
15:55this is just a fantastic place
15:57to go for a walk.
15:58If you take your clubs with you,
16:00so much better.
16:00Yeah.
16:01And it's beautifully bunkered as well,
16:03isn't it?
16:03Those natural bunkers
16:04which really enhance the visuals
16:07at all points of the course.
16:09Yeah.
16:10And,
16:11you know,
16:11there are some cracking holes there.
16:13The ninth,
16:14where you kind of drive over this fairway,
16:17drops down sort of 60 feet,
16:19doesn't it?
16:19Yeah.
16:20So you've got that element of blindness in places,
16:22which,
16:23you know,
16:23not everyone is a fan of,
16:25but I think you've got to factor in
16:27that this course was designed
16:28a hundred and whatever it is years ago
16:30and that was how things were done
16:32back in those days
16:33and some courses have retained some of that.
16:36Some courses have got rid of most of that.
16:38But I think if you take blindness out of golf,
16:42you're losing something
16:43from the overall package of what golf offers.
16:47And so according to one of our panelists,
16:49Gavin Cairns,
16:50this is a Harry Colt design
16:51set within a truly distinguished championship setting.
16:54A course of truly worldwide renown
16:57with storied pedigree
16:58set at the foot of the Montmoren mountain range.
17:01A truly exceptional golfing experience
17:03awaits on this length.
17:05And it does.
17:05It's number one for a reason
17:07and I think we'd all recommend
17:09for anybody to go there
17:10if they ever get the chance.
17:12Indeed.
17:13Thanks for watching this video.
17:15If you've played any of these courses,
17:17we'd love to hear from you.
17:19It's bye for now
17:20from Royal Porthcourt Golf Club.
Recommended
12:01
|
Up next
3:43
21:13
1:29
1:52
5:25
2:44
10:25
9:02
7:03
12:49
13:54