Back in 2018, we published our first-ever ranking of England’s best golf courses. This is now our third update of that original list.
RELATED: The new and updated NCG Top 100s: England list
As ever in English golf, much has changed and is changing so you will see some significant movers and shakers.
New courses like the JCB Club are settling in nicely while huge redesign projects are taking place or have recently taken place at the likes of Royal Birkdale, Wallasey and The Addington, to name just three. In fact, there is barely a course on this list that hasn’t engaged in some kind of project over the last seven years since our first NCG Top 100s England list.
You are the judge as to whether we have done a good job of updating our list but I can tell you that this is the strongest panel I have ever assembled. I would like to thank all of them for their enthusiasm and knowledge.
RELATED: Meet the panel behind the new England list
Rest assured, we have been out there and played all of the courses on our near-200-strong shortlist to bring you the most accurate and up-to-date list possible.
Course rankings matter. I am reminded of this every day. I work in the golf industry, I am a golfer, and I have long been a greedy consumer – and critic – of golf course ranking features. If you are going to do a list like this, I think you have at least got to demonstrate a robust methodology.
RELATED: NCG Top 100s course ranking methodology
Our list has a few USPs that I’d like to share with you.
The first is that we pledged to visit each and every course on our shortlist in the 2024 season. When we visited, we made ourselves available to talk to the people there. I think that matters, because golf courses change, evolve and develop. We ask what they’ve done recently, what they are in the process of doing and what they are planning to do.
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Thirdly, we only consider the golf courses – not the clubhouses nor practice facilities nor any of the other things that make up a great golf club. Not because we think they aren’t important, it’s just that we don’t believe our expertise extends beyond the playing experience.
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I’d like to offer my sincere thanks to club officials up and down the land for accommodating us and giving up their time to tell us about their courses. They get plenty of requests for courtesy – I know that. Equally, it is impossible for us to produce a piece of work like this without getting out there and playing.
I personally tackled over 25 courses on the shortlist in 2024 alone and I have been made welcome wherever I have gone – from Kent to Cambridgeshire, and Surrey to Merseyside. I’m very grateful for that.
It’s time to let our Top 100 speak for itself. I hope you enjoy it and, more importantly, go and play some of these incredible courses for yourself.
Dan Murphy
NCG Top 100s Chairman
Listen to the NCG Golf Podcast
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Now have your say
Head on over to the new NCG Top 100s: England list and let us know your thoughts! Click on a particular course you love and leave a review!
What do you make of our new England list? Let us know your thoughts on X, formerly Twitter!
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