Swinley Forest is one of two courses to have climbed into the top 10 of our new and updated NCG Top 100s: England list for 2025.
The club dates back to the early 20th century and has taken great pride in minimising change ever since. Only the addition of a few bunkers – and a pond – have added to the layout, one that is short in comparison to the modern age.
RELATED: Check out the new NCG Top 100s: England list
Why is Swinley Forest so highly regarded by our panel?
Once the wrought-iron gates have slid back and you arrive on the property, it is almost impossible to imagine you could be within 20 miles of one of the world’s largest cities. Yet Swinley, just outside Ascot on the Berkshire side of the border with Surrey, is within but a few decent par fives of Heathrow.
The club was founded in 1909, and they commissioned renowned golf course architect Harry Colt to design the course. He described it as “the least bad course” he had ever built.
Swinley Forest Golf Club officially opened in 1910, with a design consisting of 18 holes that was ahead of its time, as it emphasised strategy and shot placement over brute force.
Heathland in nature, the turf is firm and springy. Heather, trees and sometimes Rhododendron bushes flank the holes. Hilly in places but never exceptionally so, it offers a quintessentially British equivalent of Augusta National.
READ MORE – NCG Top 100s: Swinley Forest
Why is Colt’s ‘least-worst’ course a new entrant into the English top ten?
Steve Carroll, co-host of the NCG Golf Podcast, is a huge fan of the venue, with Swinley being somewhere he could play every day.
“Swinley Forest is my happy place. It would be the one golf course that if you gave me the option of playing it every day, I would play it,” Carroll said on the NCG Golf Podcast.
“I love everything about it – the clubhouse, the lunch, the holes. It is not too long for me, it is testing, it requires accuracy but it is still playable. It is fantastic.
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“There are courses that appear in a top ten or near a top ten that everyone, or some people at least, raise an eyebrow about. In our GB& Ireland list for example, it is North Berwick.
“There might be people who look at Swinley at No.8 in our England list and wonder why it is at 8. It is thoroughly justified for me. I would genuinely play there forever.”
Tom Irwin, co-host of the NCG Golf Podcast, is another big fan of the heathland venue.
“I went once with Steve, and I can remember the captain standing up and they were the sort of club that didn’t really advertise themselves but they were pleased to welcome familiar faces year in, year out.
“It is that sort of place that once you have got your golf day there, you just go back there every year, because why wouldn’t you?
“The thing I love about Swinley is just how pleasant a walk it is. I think it is the flow of the holes that sticks in my brain – one green seems to fall into the next tee. You never feel like you have got heavy legs when you come off, you feel like you want to keep going.
“I think that is something to do with the quality of the turf, but also to do with the routing. The whole thing sits on the land and there is not a yard wasted.
“That is the thing I think separates it from a lot of newer course – or courses that have been the victims of vanity, and they’ve been lengthened beyond their natural means, Swinley is obviously very comfortable in its own skin and it is not going to change for change’s sake. It is all the better a course for it.”
Although Dan Murphy – chairman of the NCG Top 100s Rankings – could talk about Swinley Forest forever, he is happy that the venue has risen into the top 10.
“It’s simply a testament to the fact that none of our panellists have a bad word to say about Swinley Forest. If you asked each of them to pick five courses in England to play this summer, most would include Swinley.
“I don’t think I need to say much more that Steve and Tom haven’t already beyond that the short holes alone are worth the visit.
“I can remember being open-mouthed on my first visit on one tee after the next at the vistas in front of me. This is heathland golf at its very best.
“We are certainly proud that Swinley Forest is in our top ten,” said Dan.
Listen to the NCG Golf Podcast in full…
Now have your say
Have you been fortunate enough to play at Swinley Forest? If so, what did you make of it? Would you agree with us that it is the best course in the country? Let us know your thoughts with a post on X, formerly Twitter!
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