Put together a list of the best courses – whether it be of Great Britain & Ireland, England, or just a regional round up – and someone is bound to be unhappy.
Maybe their course didn’t hit the spot with panellists. Maybe they believed it should have been higher. Maybe it wasn’t in the list at all.
We all tend to think the course we play the most often rates highly among its peers. That’s why we chose to join the club.
So when a new list is produced, it always sparks debate. Such is the case with our NCG Top 100s GB&I countdown, which we discuss in the latest episode of The NCG Golf Podcast.
In the pod, panel chairman Dan Murphy discussed new dramatic new entries to the 2024 list – such as St Patrick’s Links at Rosapenna and Ardfin – and explained why exclusivity and green fee prices, though frustrating to rank and file golfers, have no impact on where courses are ranked in our list.
But he also addressed a regular query that appears in his email inbox: How can our layout get into a top 100 golf courses list?
Top 100 golf courses rankings: Can your course improve its position?
While there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach, when asked to give advice to clubs who might be seeking help in improving their positions, or breaking into the list at all, Murphy told the podcast:
“I think the magic combination involves a skilled architect, skilled agronomists and ambitious and wise management. All those things need to come together.
“In the case of our lists, we’re very simple people. We only care about the golf courses. So we are not judging any of these golf courses based on what is away from the golf course.
“This can be a difficult conversation but if clubs have built a new putting green or a new practice ground or a new clubhouse or a new 19th, or whatever it may be off the course, they get no credit from us at all.
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“We are focused purely on the golf course itself so the only way to impress us is by making the golf course better. I know that is frustrating to some clubs but that’s what we stand for. We’re purists in that sense.”
Murphy added that even for those clubs that did undertake measures, they should not expect a quick fix or a speedy rise in ratings.
“These things take time,” he said. “It’s all very well saying, ‘OK, we recognise we want to do A, B and C to our golf course’. But you have to then go and do that work. That work may then take some time to bed in. So, before your golf course is better, it could be that months if not years of time have elapsed.
“We then want to get a decent number of our panellists to come and have a look at changes to a course. I know all these things are frustrating, but I don’t want to us to overreact and send a course shooting up the rankings to a place it can’t sustain.
“Achieving a rise in one of our lists is unlikely to happen quickly – that is the absolutely honest truth of it.”
Now listen to The NCG Golf Podcast
Listen to Dan and Steve Carroll talk about our latest top 100 golf courses list – Great Britain & Ireland – in the latest episode of The NCG Golf Podcast.
Have your say
What do you think of Dan’s argument on the top 100 golf courses? And what do you think of our list? Let us know by leaving a comment on X.
