Top 100 Golf Courses of England 2012

South East England - Top 50 Golf Courses 2017 This release for England’s South East is the seventh and final update that will inform our upcoming English Top 100 rankings. The South East region is where you’ll find the nation’s largest swathe of heathland, where there is seemingly an infinite number of classic heathery courses from which to choose. There’s also a trio of Open Championship venues in this region (one current and two former), and it’s the venerable Royal St George’s that heads our inaugural South East Top 50 table. England’s South East region incorporates the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Kent, Middlesex, Oxfordshire, Surrey and Sussex. It’s the most densely populated of England’s nine “official” regions where more than eight and a half million people reside. Their golfing needs are served by approximately 475 golf clubs in this region. Selecting the best 10% for our inaugural Top 50 was surprisingly easy because the vast majority are already ranked nationally in our England Top 100. Our new South East regional Top 50 features six World Top 100 ranked courses, twenty-four layouts that are currently ranked in our GB&I hundred, and forty-four that are listed in our current English Top 100. The South East is undeniably the strongest golfing region in England – whichever way you care to analyse it. Underpinning Royal St George’s (#1), the Old course at Sunningdale Golf Club (#2) and its younger sibling the New (#3) are the two premier heathland courses in the country. Many well-travelled golfers believe that Sunningdale is the best 36-hole golf club in the world. Richard Smith, one of our respected reviewers, played here in July: “A day at Sunningdale is a treat to treasure. This is great golf in a beautiful setting on courses oozing with history. This was one of the great golfing days in my life to play the Old and New together.” Swinley Forest (#4) is Harry Colt’s “least bad course” and it’s enjoying a renaissance following the addition of new back tees, which now stretch the layout to around 6,400 yards from the tips. Richard Smith commented as follows: “My first impression after finishing was that this was the hardest 6,400- yard course I had ever played… Swinley is a course that absolutely demands precision and the ability to work the ball in all directions. Every shot needs to be thought and played with a purpose. I think the thing that elevates Swinley to the highest level is a combination of the strategic options available on each shot and the testing greens and approaches.” St George’s Hill (#5) is another outstanding Harry Colt layout which is still vastly underrated by some publications. It has featured in our World Top 100 for a number of years now and its place in that esteemed list is really well deserved. Walton Heath’s Old course (#6) does tend to divide opinion somewhat and its detractors tend to complain about the holes around the turn – which had to be altered to accommodate London’s M25 orbital motorway – but the Old is perhaps the most authentic heathland layout in the South East, where the tangly heather is at its most tenacious. West Sussex (#7) at Pulborough is one of my personal heathland favourites and Bernard Darwin described it as “a little sandy jewel set in the Sussex clay”. It’s considered to be too short by modern standards and maybe it’s one par five away from magnificence, however, along with Rye, it’s one of the toughest par 68s I’ve ever played and holding a score together on the back nine is easier said than done. Talking of brutal homeward nines, few come much tougher than the backside at Royal Cinque Ports (#8) in Deal. Despite its Open pedigree, the rumpled and crumpled links at Sandwich overshadows Deal, but the greensites at Royal Cinque Ports are every bit as good as its more illustrious regal near neighbour. The West course at Wentworth (#9) has been through some tough times in the last decade or so. We did wonder whether lost love would ever return to Virginia Water’s West course – The rise and fall of the troubled Burma Road. We teed it up on the West a couple of weeks ago and the improvements are stark. There is no doubt that the recent multi-million pound revamp, which included creeping bent re-seeding and installation of sub-air greens, has made a marked difference. Retuning the course back to the old Harry Colt design has not only pleased us, but also many of the Tour players – and the work is not yet finished. Further improvements will be undertaken over this coming winter in readiness for next spring’s BMW PGA Championship. Shhh naysayers. Nobody could possibly accuse the Berkshire’s Red course (#10) of being dull. Its exciting 6-6-6 routing keeps you on your toes and there’s only one consecutive pair of holes with the same par values at the back-to-back short par fours (11 and 12) and both these holes are set magnificently on the higher ground. The Old course at Rye (#11) was Harry Colt’s inaugural design where the routing has been altered and improved down the years by several architects, including Tom Simpson and Sir Guy Campbell. Many wonder why Rye is not a permanent feature in the World Top 100, others think – rather like West Sussex – that it’s missing a strong enough mix of holes. Queenwood (#12) is the course that David McLay Kidd built for the club’s small but perfectly formed membership and their very fortunate friends. With probably the best tee to green grooming in England, Queenwood is where many top players hone their game. In the words of Fergal O’Leary: “Expect to feel like a king off the course, and then be challenged like a PGA Tour professional the minute you step on the first tee.” According to Tom Doak, Hankley Common (#13) “provokes mixed emotions; if the strategy ever matched the setting, you could have a world beater.” Undeniably a most enjoyable element of the course is the majesty of the situation, which is quiet and genteel in the classical English mould. Woking (#14) for some is already a world beater and it was here where a few golf mad barristers, with the help of Tom Dunn, created the first experimental heathland layout in 1893. Worplesdon (#15) is perhaps the prettiest of Surrey’s trinity of “Ws” and it was John Abercromby’s inaugural design that dates back to 1908 with the greens and bunkers constructed by Willie Park Junior. Little has changed here after more than 100 years. The East course at Wentworth (#16) was the first course Harry Colt built at Virginia Water. It has remained largely untouched since it was laid out two years before the second unofficial matches between American and British professionals were staged here in 1926, one year prior to the inauguration of the Ryder Cup. Hindhead (#17) has come on in leaps and bounds in the last decade and it’s now one of the premier courses in Surrey thanks to a plethora of subtle modifications and a step change in greenkeeping standards. It’s one of the most memorable courses in the county. West Hill (#18) is the third member of the trio of W’s and it too has improved markedly in the last few years. A massive tree-clearing programme has now completed, creating more width and enabling an already heathery layout to flourish. The Addington (#19) has been underrated for a while now, largely due to tree encroachment which is gradually being addressed. However, there’s no denying the course’s dramatic, tumbling topography that takes golfers on a wild and exciting ride under the watchful gaze of the London city skyline. The Blue course at The Berkshire (#20) is the Red’s understudy. Ed Battye, the founder of Golf Empire, reckons that “the run of holes from the 11th onwards are really what define the Blue… They are all energetic holes and there is more going on over this closing stretch than what has gone before it.” Our first South East Top 50 features courses in the 21-50 range that we’d happily play every week. The undeniable quality and quantity of golf on offer in this region is second to none in the British Isles. It doesn’t make sense to mention every layout here, but we feature each one prominently within our Top 100 web pages. However, we’ll mention a few South East courses that have pleasantly surprised us recently. These have flown under the radar and we think they are worthy of highlighting. Knole Park (#42) has yet to appear within our English Top 100, but that will change very soon. This 1924 John Abercromby design is laid out within an enormous 1,000-acre estate and it’s a thrilling layout which plays firm and fast over an old deer park where fallow deer still roam freely today. We should perhaps pay closer attention to the writings of Bernard Darwin who, in 1925, wrote the following passage in The Golf Courses of Great Britain: [Knole Park] “is still very new, but I think, when it is a little older, few, if any, park courses will be better. Certainly none will be prettier. There are the loveliest holes down winding forest glades, full of romantic possibilities…” Royal Wimbledon (#43) is another club that has perennially missed out on a national ranking position, although in 2008 it did make a brief appearance in our English Top 100. The club really couldn’t care less whether or not their course is ranked, such is their indifference to ratings, however, anyone can play here by following simple protocol. Those that have teed it up at this Harry Colt-touched heathland cum parkland track delight at Colt’s signature par threes. Piltdown (#47) is yet another club in this region that is investing heavily in its primary asset, the golf course. We were very impressed when we played here on two separate occasions recently. Just like its neighbour on the other side of Ashdown Forest, Piltdown is bunkerless, and the absence of sand traps somehow play trickery with distances. It’s a charming course that doesn’t have strong architectural provenance but it’s a solid layout nonetheless. Brokenhurst Manor (#49) is set in the heart of the New Forest and it’s another unsung Harry Colt design which is unusually configured in three returning 6-hole loops. As is often the case with Colt layouts, the stars of the show are the one-shotters which look longer than they actually play, but there are plenty of other solid holes throughout the card. There’s undeniably a heathland look and feel to the entire layout but with a distinct lack of heather which the club is trying to introduce in places. Despite a tree-clearing programme, there’s an opportunity to open the site up further. Farnham (#50) has languished for too long in the lower reaches of our Surrey Best In County rankings. A recent visit to the club proved how important it is to regularly re-play courses. Located in a charming village called The Sands, Farnham is half parkland and half heathland. The course starts and ends on the flatter, parkland ground, and the holes in between are routed across the heathery ground where the land movement is more stirring. Some of these sandy holes would grace any Top 100 heathland course. We played the new and ultra-exclusive David McLay Kidd and Tom Watson co-design at Beaverbrook Golf Club earlier this year and felt it has great potential, but we decided not to list it in our Surrey Best In County rankings this time, largely due to insufficient votes. Finally for those eagle-eyed observers, we’ve extended our Kent Best In County rankings from a Top 25 to a Top 30. We decided there were a number of solid courses in this golf rich county deserving credit. South East England - Top 50 Golf Courses 2017 Rank/ Click the following links to see in detail our latest Best In County rankings for the eight South East England counties: Berkshire Top 15 Golf Courses 2017 Buckinghamshire Top 10 Golf Courses 2017 Hampshire Top 20 Golf Courses 2017 Kent Top 30 Golf Courses 2017 Middlesex Top 10 Golf Courses 2017 Oxfordshire Top 10 Golf Courses 2017 Surrey Top 40 Golf Courses 2017 Sussex Top 20 Golf Courses 2017 Keith Baxter Top 100 Golf Courses

Is England the premier golfing destination in Europe? With a dozen courses in the World Top 100 and more courses than any other country ranked in Britain & Ireland’s Top 100, England expects. 9th October 2011 Visit England, the national tourist board for England, is responsible for promoting the country to domestic and overseas markets and for improving England’s tourism product. Unlike their tourist board counterparts in Scotland and Ireland, Visit England does little to promote golf and we genuinely wonder why, especially given that English professional golfers are flying the St George’s Cross on the world stage. According to IAGTO, the International Association of Golfing Tour Operators, the global golf tourism market is estimated to be worth more than $17 billion annually. Thailand announced last month that the value of foreign golf tourism in 2012 might reach a cool $2 billion. It’s estimated that Scotland earns £200 million each year from golf tourism and even diminutive Northern Ireland collects around £12 million per annum. In a 2010 report, KPMG identified England at position 6 in a list of Hot Spots for golf tourism in the upcoming years. Heading the list was Spain, followed by Portugal, Scotland, Ireland and the USA. Position 6 seems rather high because most people take England, as a golf destination, for granted. Overseas golfers place English courses on their possible rather than probable play lists. If there’s time after visiting Scotland and Ireland, tourists might try and get to Southport to play Royal Birkdale, or perhaps aim to visit Sandwich to tick off Royal St George’s. Naturally, they’d only head to the links after seeing the Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace, doing a spot of shopping at Harrods and searching for the ghost of Shakespeare at Stratford upon Avon. Many English golfers have a take it or leave it approach to English golf courses too. They expect courses to be presented in excellent condition all year round and moan if they are not. Many complain that English green fees are too expensive and then grumble that that they can’t get a game at Queenwood at any price. But most English golfers choose to visit other countries for their annual golf trip. They even choose to visit Ireland, Scotland and Wales rather than planning a trip closer to home. We thought it high time to bang England’s drum, so we decided to take a long hard look at the golf courses under the jurisdiction of the English Golf Union. In February 2011, we started a project to identify the best golf courses in every English county. We’ve now completed the Best In County project having looked at more than 1,000 English courses, polled hundreds of people and listened intently to what local county golfers had to say about their home courses. The result we think is fascinating. Never before has any publication, either in print or online, produced a full series of the best golf courses on a county-by-county basis and we now know why it’s never been done before. The reason is simple. It’s an extremely difficult and contentious process that is fraught with a multitude of issues. Nevertheless, we’ve done it and we’re pleased to have completed the process. However, this is just the beginning, as the county rankings will change alongside the country rankings, continent rankings and the World Top 100 rankings. Please take a look at our dedicated county pages and let us know what you think. We’ll be grateful if you do not assume that the course you know and love is better than the one you’ve not played. We’ve made that mistake time and time again and have found that our preconceptions are simply wrong. Our plan is to change the county rankings on a frequent basis in order to reflect the changing situation as we learn more about the greatest courses in each county. Here’s the list of every English county and the corresponding, current No.1 course. Many No.1 courses are household names, but we bet there are a few you’ve never heard of, let alone played. This link below will take you to the England page on the Top 100 website, where you can select and review the current rankings for each separate county: /golf-courses/britain-ireland/england The Top 100 Team If you play or have played county level golf or are simply passionate about your home county’s golf courses and would like to help us further develop this exciting and first-of-its-kind initiative, then please send an email to info@top100golfcourses.com. We’d love to hear from you.

Your Top 100 Golf Courses in England England is the last home country to receive a re-ranking makeover 6 November 2010 England is one of the few countries in the world that does not appreciate golf from a tourism perspective. Naturally, England welcomes millions of visitors each year and most head for the big-named attractions. Perhaps England is lucky and doesn’t need to promote itself as one of the world’s best golfing destinations? Only Melbourne in Australia comes close to competing with England’s heathland courses that spread out along the glorious sand belt from the west of London all the way to Hampshire. Only Ireland and Scotland can compete with England’s coastal links courses. Wherever you happen to be in England you will be only a few miles away from a golf course. Royal St George’s, Sunningdale, Royal Birkdale, Walton Heath, Royal Lytham & St Annes, Wentworth, the list of world-class English golf courses is very long indeed. In fact, we are planning to extend our English rankings to 200 courses in the not too distant future because England has so much quality on offer. In the entire world, only the USA has more strength and depth but America has a pool of golf courses ten times larger than little England. We were the first to produce an England Top 100. In fact, in 2007, we even went to press and produced a full colour book. Since then, we’ve been tweaking our English rankings and listening to you. On this website everyone has the ability to rate any of the courses they’ve played. We’ve taken every English player review submitted since 2008 and number crunched the golf ball ratings. We think we’ve produced a unique English list of Top 100 of golf courses. It may look a little odd to some people and it’s certainly not the most definitive list but it is based entirely on thousands of course reviews which you’ve taken the time to post here on the Top 100 website. Most golf courses listed below will make it into our “official” England ranking list when we re-rank in the not too distant future. This is because our process is changing. We are extending our England ranking list from its current and rather random 155 courses to a round 200 ranked courses. A number of existing English Gems will therefore achieve a ranking for the first time and numerous other English courses (not currently featured on the site) will be added and ranked before this year is out. You nominated many of these new courses and we’re very excited about the new changes. Your Top 100 Golf Courses in England 1 Royal St George's 2 Bearwood Lakes 3 Woodhall Spa (Hotchkin) 4 Royal Birkdale 5 Royal Cinque Ports 6 Royal West Norfolk 7 Royal Liverpool 8 Sunningdale (Old) 9 Formby 10 Saunton (East) 11 Silloth-on-Solway 12 Hankley Common 13 Belfry (Brabazon) 14 Burnham & Berrow 15 Sandiway 16 Beau Desert 17 Berwick-upon-Tweed 18 Delamere Forest 19 Ganton 20 Notts 21 Addington 22 Royal Lytham & St Annes 23 East Berkshire 24 St Enodoc (Church) 25 West Sussex 26 Hunstanton 27 Southport & Ainsdale 28 St George's Hill 29 Perranporth 30 Moortown 31 Prince's 32 Royal North Devon 33 Rye (Old) 34 Trevose (Championship) 35 Hillside 36 Goodwood (Downs) 37 Sherwood Forest 38 West Hill 39 Remedy Oak 40 Woking 41 Parkstone 42 Walton Heath (Old) 43 St Mellion (Nicklaus) 44 Swinley Forest 45 Chart Hills 46 West Lancs 47 Brocket Hall (Melbourne) 48 Wisley (Garden & Mill) 49 Heythrop Park 50 Oxfordshire 51 Mannings Heath (Waterfall) 52 Berkshire (Red) 53 Hindhead 54 Woburn (Marquess) 55 Sunningdale (New) 56 Kington 57 Worplesdon 58 Burhill (Old) 59 Alwoodley 60 Berkshire (Blue) 61 Slaley Hall (Hunting) 62 Aldeburgh 63 Woburn (Duke's) 64 Saunton (West) 65 Brocket Hall (Palmerston) 66 Woburn (Duchess) 67 Seacroft 68 Ferndown (Old) 69 Seaton Carew 70 Sheringham 71 Mullion 72 Lindrick 73 Moor Park (High) 74 East Sussex National (West) 75 Ashridge 76 Forest Pines (Forest & Pines) 77 Blackmoor 78 Isle of Purbeck 79 Warwickshire 80 Royal Ashdown Forest (Old) 81 Liphook 82 Fulford 83 Stoneham 84 St Annes Old Links 85 Huntercombe 86 Thorpeness 87 Moor Allerton 88 New Zealand 89 Hayling 90 Wentworth (West) 91 Royal Wimbledon 92 Broadstone 93 Manor House 94 Hanbury Manor 95 Coombe Hill 96 Northamptonshire County 97 Wallasey 98 Copt Heath 99 Little Aston 100 Forest of Arden (Arden)