NCG Top 100s
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NCG Top 100s
Your hosts Tom Irwin and Dan Murphy talk courses
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Tom Irwin elbows his way back into the host’s chair alongside Dan Murphy for a wide-ranging conversation about what makes a golf course worth travelling for and how our latest…
Duration: 45:27
What makes a great golf club logo? Is it the design, the history, the story behind the badge – or simply the prestige of the name?In this episode of the NCG Top 100s Podcast, host…
Duration: 50:45
Duration: 1:00:26
Duration: 46:11
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NCG Top 100s
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NCG Top 100s
A deep dive into the finest courses in GB&I
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User rating: 5.0 out of 5NCG Top 100s
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Your Comments
See what golfers are saying about courses across GB & Ireland — your review could be next.
Matthew Parslow-Williams
A Harry Colt masterclass, Denham is a remarkable club with its own train station and a clubhouse dining room adorned with stuffed animals. The course is superb, with every tree seemingly in the perfect position, strategically placed bunkers ready to catch wayward shots, and fairways and greens that run true and fast. What really sets Denham apart, though, are its outstanding green sites. Upturned bowls, false fronts and subtle undulations create a wonderful challenge, testing even the finest golfers. Denham is a course full of character, strategic brilliance and architectural charm, offering so much to appreciate.
Read the full review of Denham by Matthew Parslow-Williams
Stephen Dennison
The best course for customer service. The most attentive and thoughtful front of house I have ever met. If you get a chance to stay at the dormy house, do not pass it up, as it a golfing experience like no other.
Darren Hunter
You will not be disappointed. Bucket list experience. Great views
Alistair McVeigh
A charming little links course with a few nice quirky holes but played in a very compact area (a lot like Crail). May be manageable with controlled numbers but like many have been tempted by the $ and cramming as many people as they possibly can into that small parcel of land which makes for a painfully slow and dangerous experience as you weave your way up and down the parallel fairways. Expect a lot of waiting on tees and shouts of fore as balls whistle past your head.
Read the full review of Kilspindie by Alistair McVeigh
Such a visually pleasing place to play, elevation change and clean, clear presentation make it very easy on the eye. Incredible selection of par threes, and teasing short 4s, incredibly well conditioned on the day we played in September
Played here regularly for 30 years and it has never been better. The Clyde Johnson restoration is incredible. The snooker room and locker room are old school cool and the management deserve a lot of plaudits for getting a lot of long term decisions spot on
Gordon ohara
Fantastic course to play. Not easy but not unfair. The green staff take great pride in making this a 12 month of the year course and the members recognise this as extremely valuable. Conditions are excellent to play no matter the time of year. The course is a little hidden in Ayrshire’s big boys but once you find it you will want to play again. The team in the pro shop will take great care of you and the food and the catering team are just what you need after a round here.
Read the full review of Irvine by Gordon oharaChris Myatt
The greens make this a very memorable course.
Chris Myatt
It's undergoing a transition which is improving the golf course significantly. The design has always been solid but the condition of the fairways and bunkers have only improved in the last couple of years. Another that I suspect will climb soon!.
Chris Myatt
Much improvement happening - I suspect this will climb quickly once completed.
Dorian Fourie
Royal Dornoch – Course No. 100 Some golf courses you play and enjoy. Some you remember. And then there are courses like Royal Dornoch. I had the privilege of playing the Championship Course in 2024, and fittingly, it was the 100th different golf course I had ever played. If you’re going to reach a golfing milestone, you might as well do it somewhere rather special. And Royal Dornoch is rather special. Golf has been played on the Dornoch links for centuries, with written evidence dating back to 1616, while the club itself was established in 1877. Old Tom Morris was invited north in 1886 to develop the course, famously declaring, “There canna be better for gowf.” Donald Ross, who was born in Dornoch and became one of the most influential golf-course architects in history, also learned his golf here. So, basically, the place has been producing golfing legends while the rest of us were still trying to work out which way the wind was blowing. I was incredibly lucky to play the course on a cold February day, but what could have been a typically brutal Scottish links experience turned into something rather magical. Blue skies, glorious sunshine and, thankfully, very little of that dreaded Dornoch wind. For once, the weather gods had decided to take pity on a golfer. The Championship Course is everything you hope a great links course will be. Natural, dramatic, beautifully shaped and full of holes that make you think. The famous plateau greens are spectacular to look at and absolutely bloody terrifying to putt on. A shot that looks perfectly good from the fairway can suddenly become a very different proposition when you realise the green appears to have been designed by someone with a personal grudge against golfers. But that is what makes Dornoch so brilliant. It isn’t about simply hitting the ball as hard as you can. It’s about imagination, angles, wind, slopes, bounces and knowing when to take on a shot and when to show a little common sense — something most golfers, myself included, tend to discover approximately three shots too late. One of the great privileges of the day was playing with JD, a member of the club, who made the experience even more memorable. Not only did he share his extensive knowledge of Royal Dornoch’s history, but he guided me around the course, explaining the layout, the strategy and, crucially, the many nuances of those famous greens. For a first-time visitor, having someone who knows the course inside out is invaluable. Rather than simply seeing a collection of magnificent holes, I began to understand why they were there and how they were meant to be played. And that made the experience even better. The setting is breathtaking. The Dornoch Firth, the dunes, the beach, the Highland landscape and the ever-changing sky make the course feel completely at one with its surroundings. There are moments where you genuinely have to stop and take it all in. Although, admittedly, there are also moments where you stop because you’ve just hit your approach 40 yards through the back of the green. Everyone at Royal Dornoch made me feel like a friend rather than a visitor. There was a warmth and friendliness throughout the club that stayed with me long after I had left the 18th green. That is perhaps what I remember most. Yes, the golf is exceptional. Yes, the history is extraordinary. Yes, the scenery is ridiculous. But it is the people and the welcome that turn a great round of golf into a great memory. “Haste ye back.” It’s a wonderfully Scottish expression and one that perfectly captures Royal Dornoch. It’s an invitation to return, but it feels like something more than that. Almost as though the course knows that once you’ve experienced it properly, you’ll already be planning your way back. Course number 100 could have been anywhere. I’m incredibly glad it was Royal Dornoch. A truly unforgettable round of golf, made even more special by JD, the wonderful hospitality of everyone at the club, and the feeling that for one day, I wasn’t simply a visitor playing one of the world’s great courses. I was a friend being shown around. Haste ye back, Royal Dornoch. I sincerely hope it won’t be too long.
Read the full review of Royal Dornoch by Dorian Fourie
Dorian Fourie
A Properly Good Golf Course – Just Don’t Forget Your Legs! Kendal Golf Club is one of those courses that reminds you that golf doesn’t have to be 7,500 yards long and surrounded by £100 million worth of development to be bloody good. Founded way back in 1891, Kendal has some serious golfing pedigree behind it, with the course having links to names such as Old Tom Morris, Harry and Tom Vardon and J.H. Taylor. So before you start blaming the course for your score, just remember that some of the great names of the game have had a hand in shaping the place. No pressure then. The course itself is fantastic fun to play. At around 5,800 yards and a par 69, you might look at the scorecard and think, “This should be easy enough.” It isn’t. Kendal makes you think. There are elevation changes, blind shots, sloping fairways, deceptively tricky greens and plenty of holes where positioning is far more important than simply standing on the tee and attempting to remove the cover from the ball. And then there are the views. Absolutely stunning. The course sits above Kendal with huge views across the town and towards the surrounding Lakeland scenery. There are moments when you should probably be concentrating on your next shot but instead find yourself standing there thinking, “Christ, this is beautiful.” Which is usually followed by finding the bunker you weren’t looking at. The 17th deserves a special mention. A short par 3, but don’t let the yardage fool you. You’re playing over an old section of quarry wall, aptly named Battleship, and suddenly that little 129-yard hole feels like the 18th at Augusta when you’ve got a fiver riding on it. What I really like about Kendal is its character. It isn’t a bland, modern golf course where every hole looks the same. It has quirks. It has blind shots. It has hills. It has holes that make you think. And, occasionally, it has you standing on a tee wondering whether the person who designed the hole actually liked golfers. But that’s part of the fun. It’s also the sort of course that I think gets better the more you play it. Once you learn where you actually need to hit the ball rather than where your ego tells you to hit it, the course starts to reveal itself. And then, after you’ve battled your way around, there’s The View. Quite literally the perfect place to finish the round. Great hospitality, genuinely good food, a welcoming atmosphere and, of course, a cold drink waiting for you. It’s the sort of clubhouse experience where you can sit back, dissect the round, explain to your mates why that lost ball definitely wasn’t your fault and convince yourself that the next round is going to be different. If you’re visiting the Lake District and enjoy your golf, I’d definitely put Kendal on the list. It’s historic, picturesque, challenging without being ridiculously long, and above all, fun. Just one piece of advice: Don’t judge the course by the yardage on the card. Judge it by how your legs feel walking back to the clubhouse. And when you get there, make sure you head into The View. Because a cracking round of golf deserves a cracking end to the day. Kendal Golf Club – great golf, incredible views, plenty of character and a clubhouse worth sticking around for. Highly recommended.
Read the full review of Kendal Golf Club by Dorian Fourie
