What are the best holes you’ve ever played?
4th: Swinley Forest, Par 3, 171 yards
4th Hole, Swinley Forest Golf Club, Ascot, United Kingdom pic.twitter.com/vf5XwtzZCL
— Great Golf Holes ⛳️ (@GreatGolfHoles) August 28, 2019
This 171 yards of wonder at Swinley Forest is the hole I hope I can play every day in the next world.
I just don’t know how you better it. The Redan green, the steep drop off the front, the cavernous bunkers waiting for your misstep – it’s my idea of the perfect par 3.
5th: Castletown, Par 4, 423 yards
It’s one thing finding the fairway, with all that danger running down the right hand side, but the second shot is even harder.
Out of bounds is a constant threat but the foliage hugging the left means you’ve really got to commit even if you do find the short stuff. I did not, and pulled it way into the gorse.
On a course that is full of rugged outcrops and cliff edges, Road – as it is known – deserves to stand with all of them.
6th: Panmure, Par 4, 390 yards
Panmure was the first links course I ever played. I have to confess about wondering what the fuss was about – with about three lost balls already behind me – until I reached the tee at the 6th and suddenly everything made sense.
No wonder Ben Hogan, after whom it is now named, liked it so much. If only he’d been less keen to put that bunker just off the right of the green I’d probably like it even more.
But all you see from the tee is dunes grasses and the briefest outline of fairways, before the hole winds its way up towards the putting surface. Fabulous.
- Related: NCG’s golf guide to Scotland
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Steve Carroll
A journalist for 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 currently floats at around 11.
Steve plays at Close House, in Newcastle, and York GC, where he is a member of the club's matches and competitions committee and referees the annual 36-hole scratch York Rose Bowl.
Having studied history at Newcastle University, he became a journalist having passed his NTCJ exams at Darlington College of Technology.
What's in Steve's bag: TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver, 3-wood, and hybrids; TaylorMade Stealth 2 irons; TaylorMade Hi-Toe, Ping ChipR, Sik Putter.
