THE ULTIMATE TOP 100 GOLF COURSES

When I launched this website a few years ago there was a plethora of good sources ranking the top 100 golf courses in the world. I set up a mathematically robust way of aggregating their scores into one list - my Ultimate Top 100 list.

Alas, since then the sample size has shrunk. Two years ago I removed Golf Digest from the mix when they lost pretty much all credibility by excluding USA courses from their World Top 100! The excellent Derek Duncan has recently joined Golf Digest’s architecture team so here’s hoping things change again in the future.

Darius Oliver collates a great list over at Planet Golf. However, the rapid changes in the world of golf course architecture, with new builds, renovations and restorations, makes it hard for one man to keep up with it all. So this means I have also had to retire his list from the aggregated score. Nonetheless, I would still thoroughly recommend any golf fan lose themselves in Darius’ site for a few hours.

There was also an excellent contribution from architects at Golf Course Architecture magazine, but again the passage of time means that this is now getting a little outdated.

The only two lists which are frequently updated and who have a broad panel supporting their collation are those from Golf Magazine and the website top100golfcourses. Both of these are very high quality. I wrote about the latest Golf.com list here. They have a new editor, Ran Morrissett, who has overhauled the panelists and the list. The top100golfcourses.com list has excellent breadth, with many members like John Sabino who have played the vast majority of courses featured. They also take user reviews into account.

For my Ultimate Top 100, I have averaged the positions of courses on the two lists (giving a course a position of 101 if it only features on one of the lists). Where there is a tie, the course which was higher on my previous Ultimate Top 100 List takes the higher position.

The USA leads the way, with 48 courses, the UK has 29 and Australia comes in third with 7 courses - showing what a hotbed of great golf you will find over there. 21 of the courses were built in the last 30 years, with Sand Hills the leading modern course. Of the 100 courses, 56 are open to green fee play, in fact only half a dozen of those outside of the USA don’t accept visitors (although sometimes visitors are required to pay a hefty price).

If I’ve played a course then you can click on the link to see my review - with plenty more to be added in the future, I hope! If you’re interested in how I rank the courses I’ve played you can see my list here.

1 Cypress Point - USA
2 Pine Valley - USA
3 Shinnecock Hills - USA
4 Royal County Down - Ire
5 National Golf Links of America - USA
6 St Andrews (Old) - UK
7 Royal Melbourne (West) - Australia
8 Oakmont - USA
9 Royal Dornoch - UK
10 Augusta National - USA
11 Sand Hills - USA
12 Royal Portrush - Ire
13 Trump Turnberry (Ailsa) - UK
14 Muirfield - UK
15 Merion - USA
16 Pebble Beach - USA
17 Kingston Heath - Australia
18 Fisher's Island - USA
19 Ballybunion - Republic of Ireland
20 Pinehurst (2) - USA
21 Crystal Downs - USA
22 Chicago - USA
23 Los Angeles (North) - USA
24 Bandon Dunes (Pacific Dunes) - USA
25 Friar's Head - USA
26 Sunningdale Golf Club (Old) - UK
27 Winged Foot (West) - USA
28 Royal St Georges - UK
29 Carnoustie - UK
30 Riviera - USA
31 Tara Iti - New Zealand
32 Prairie Dunes - USA
33 San Francisco - USA
34 Lahinch - Ire
35 Barnbougle Dunes - Australia
36 Seminole - USA
37 Hirono - Japan
38 North Berwick - UK
39 Royal Birkdale - UK
40 Morfontaine - France
41 New South Wales - Australia
42 The Country Club (Brookline) - USA
43 Cape Kidnappers - New Zealand
44 Cabot Cliffs - Canada
45 Somerset Hills - USA
46 Portmarnock - Ire
47 Kawana - Japan
48 Camargo - USA
49 Garden City - USA
50 Ballyneal - USA
51 Swinley Forest - UK
52 Bethpage (Black) - USA
53 California Golf Club of San Francisco - USA
54 Kingsbarns - UK
55 Cape Wickham Links - Australia
56 Woodhall Spa - UK
57 Shoreacres - USA
58 Sunningdale Golf Club (New) - UK
59 Royal Lytham St Annes - UK
60 Castle Stuart - UK
61 Kiawah Island (Ocean) - USA
62 Diamante - Mexico
63 Cruden Bay - UK
64 Maidstone - USA
65 Cabot Links - Canada
66 Casa de Campo - Dominican Republic
67 Oakland Hills (South) - USA
68 TPC Sawgrass - USA
69 Whistling Straits - USA
70 Bandon Dunes - USA
71 Southern Hills - USA
72 Ellerston - Australia
73 Royal Troon - UK
74 St George's Hill - UK
75 Royal Aberdeen - UK
76 St George's - Canada
77 Koninklijke Haagsche - Netherlands
78 Winged Foot East - USA
79 Barnbougle Lost Farm - Australia
80 Trump International - UK
81 Royal Liverpool - UK
82 Old Town Club - USA
83 Royal Porthcawl - UK
84 Rye, UK
85 Muirfield Village - USA
86 Utrecht de Pan - Netherlands
87 Quaker Ridge - USA
88 Prestwick - UK
89 Old Sandwich - USA
90 Sleepy Hollow - USA
91 Ganton - UK
92 Olympic Club (Lake) - USA
93 The Golf Club - US
94 Ardfin - UK
95 Inverness - USA
96 St Enodoch - UK
97 Yale - USA
98 Bandon Dunes Old Macdonald - USA
99 Bandon Trails - USA
100 Naruao - Japan