What is the best golf course you have never played?

Steve CarrollDan MurphyMatt Chivers

What’s that one course that you are absolutely desperate to play, but you just haven’t got around to it yet?

There’s always somewhere we’ve yearned to tee it up, a must-play course we’re desperate to sample but have never quite managed to get it done.

Let’s not get silly now. We can all say Augusta National or Pebble Beach. Maybe you will get there one day, but we want to tackle the golf courses with some local value, somewhere you can attach to a golf trip with your friends and family.

You might have already ticked off the Old Course, Royal Birkdale or Royal County Down, so where is the next best place that occupies a spot in your dreams?

Even for such a well-travelled squad as the one NCG has assembled below, we still want to reach all corners of the golf landscape as you do. So we got our heads together and picked out which courses we would love to tackle next that we haven’t already…

Steve Carroll

I always used to say the Old Course but I managed to tick that one off in 2021 and on my birthday to boot! That was quite a day.

So with the St Andrews itch well and firmly scratched I’m going to go to the opposite end of the country and reveal my deep yearning to play Sunningdale Old and New.

I might need a mortgage to tick them both off on the same day but what is money? Life’s all about experiences, isn’t it?

It would have to be when the heather’s out as there is just something about the colours in that Berkshire setting that are just magnificent.

As our GB&I Top 100s say, it’s “surely the prettiest heathland in the world”. Firm and springy turf, generous fairways on the Old and amazing greens, what’s not to love?

I’m starting the car right now.

Dan Murphy

Sticking to my area of speciality, Great Britain & Ireland, I have recently ticked off first visits to the likes of St Patrick’s Links at Rosapenna, the JCB Club, Narin & Portnoo (in its current form) and North West.

I completely fell for St Patrick’s Links and can’t wait to return. So that leaves, at the very top of my list, and indeed the only GB&I NCG Top 100s course that I have yet to play, Ardfin, on Jura. The closest I have come to date is to sail past it on a ferry, close enough to pick out individual fairways. What anguish.

Close behind it is Royal Birkdale, following the extensive changes made over the course of last winter and the spring. And then there would have to be a respectful nod to Beaverbrook, Royal Wimbledon, Royal Household, Wentworth’s Edinburgh course, Reay, Durness, and Hadley Wood.

I have still not managed to play North Wales or Prestatyn either, so there are two more. And I have been intending to visit Pleasington for most of 2024 and still not done so. Flempton, in Suffolk, also continues to elude me. So do Rochester & Cobham. How’s that for a bucket list?

Now, where did I forget? That’s right – Spey Bay, on the Moray Firth, where my friend and architect Sam Cooper is currently building a reversible course – as in, you will be able to play it backwards and forwards. Now Sam is very clever, but that still has to be a head-scratching challenge. I can’t wait to see it.

Matt Chivers

I am unfortunately nowhere near as well travelled as Dan and Steve, who are both probably near the 1000 golf course mark of their portfolio. I will try and arrange my bucket list regionally.

The Old Course at St Andrews, North Berwick and Muirfield all occupy my dreams in Scotland. Coming down the UK, although I live fairly close, I still haven’t played Birkdale, Hillside or Formby. On the other side of the country, I’ve heard Seaton Carew is brilliant.

Like Steve, I would really like to play Sunningdale Old. It just looks like pure magic. I could sit and talk about golf in Ireland all day, I would love to play at Royal Portrush, Waterville and Tralee, while Dan has definitely sold St Patricks Links at Rosapenna to me.

Although we want to keep this local or at least a short plane journey/long drive away, I can’t help but think of foreign lands. I’ve written a little about top golf courses not being used enough on professional tours recently, with one of them being Royal Melbourne.

While the previous courses I’ve stated are a little more realistic to reach, Royal Melbourne would be the ultimate dream.

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About the author

Steve Carroll

A journalist for more than 25 years, Steve has been immersed in club golf for almost as long.

A former club captain, he has passed the Level 3 Rules of Golf exam with distinction having attended the R&A’s prestigious Tournament Administrators and Referees Seminar.

Steve has officiated at a host of high-profile tournaments, including Open Regional Qualifying, PGA Fourball Championship, English Men’s Senior Amateur, and the North of England Amateur Championship. In 2023, he made his international debut as part of the team that refereed England vs Switzerland U16 girls.

A part of NCG’s Top 100s panel, Steve has a particular love of links golf and is frantically trying to restore his single-figure handicap. He’d like to tell you he floats around 10. The reality is more like 13.

Steve plays at Sandburn Hall, in York, and is a country member at Close House in Newcastle. He has served on various club committees during his time in the game, and is the current Rules Secretary at Sandburn.

Having studied history at Newcastle University, he became a journalist having passed his NCTJ exams at Darlington College of Technology. He began his career working on weekly papers in Newcastle, before joining the York Press in 2001. After five years as a news reporter, he joined the sports desk – specialising in horse racing and snooker – and was Digital Sports Editor when he joined National Club Golfer in 2016.

What’s in Steve’s bag: TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver, 3-wood, and hybrids; Caley 01T irons 4-PW; TaylorMade Hi-Toe wedges, Odyssey 2Ball Microhinge putter.

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