About NCG Top 100s

Our mission is simple: to identify the best courses and rank them without fear or favour. To make one of our NCG Top 100 lists, a course has to be of an elite standard.

We are personally invested in lists because we love golf courses and we love the business of ranking them. 

We compile  knowledgeable panels to devise these lists. These panellists each bring an independence of thought as well as their own perspective and we respect their opinions thoroughly. What they share is our love of great courses.

Our intention is to make credible lists, aimed squarely at the discerning golfer. That’s why a key element of our methodology is that we only consider the courses themselves.

The golfing experience, for us, begins on the 1st tee – and it ends of the final green. That’s not to say that we don’t think clubhouses, practice facilities, service, food and beverage and all of the other many elements that help us get the most out of visiting a golf course don’t matter. They most certainly do. But we don’t believe that the merits of a bacon sandwich or a pyramid of Pro V1s on the range make the course itself better or worse.

We have no doubt that you will, on occasion, disagree with the order of our lists. But we are confident that you won’t find a weak course on any of our lists. 

We hope you share our passion for great courses. Please do let us know what you think of our lists.

We have our own methodology in NCG Top 100 lists to rank the courses. Points are awarded in several categories.

From how pristine the turf is, to the design and challenge of the course, our panellists leave no stone unturned when it comes to marking the courses.

The categories are as follows:

How well designed are the individual holes, and the course as a whole? Do the holes offer the golfer choices? Is there a mix of penal, strategic and heroic holes? (20/100)

How good is the turf to hit off? How good are the greens to putt on? Does each hole play in the same way as the others? (10/100)

How much better is the best hole than the least best hole? Do all the holes feel like they belong on the same course? (10/100)

How attractive a place to play is this course? (10/100)

Is the course enjoyable and playable for the shorter hitter and higher handicapper? (10/100)

To what extent does the course pose a challenge and test the skills of the elite golfer? (10/100)

Does the course test all facets of the game or is it asking the same questions repeatedly? Is the golfer’s ability to play a variety of shots with each club in the bag duly rewarded? Does the course become predictable? (10/100)

How does the course flow? Are tees generally close to the previous green? Does the course ‘fit’ into its surroundings? Are long and short holes interspersed evenly? (10/100)

Does the course inspire affection and live long in the memory? How reluctant are you to leave and how much do you want to return? (10/100)

We add up the marks from all our panellists and weight them accordingly to give to create a final average score. Those scores are then put into a table, and ranked from 1st to 100th to create our NCG Top 100s list.

We compiled a shortlist of 200 courses from across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.  We sought to include all courses that we felt had a realistic chance of making the final top 100.

We shortlisted the following four courses who did not wish be considered for this particular ranking: Queenwood; Royal Automobile Club; Royal Wimbledon; The Wisley. 

We are entirely respectful of their decision and list them here only because you might otherwise have wondered why they do not appear in the list.

We attempt to ensure that at least one member of our panel visits each short-listed course during the run-up to a new list being issued. This enables us to produce an up-to-date list.

All panellists who had played a course submitted a ranking. However, we valued more the rankings of panellists who had either a) played a course recently, b) played a course several times or c) both.

When a panellist ranked a course, the opinion was given the following weighting:

Played the course 1 or 2 times but not in the last 20 years

Played the course 3 or 4 times but not in the last 20 years OR played the course 1 or 2 times most recently between 11 and 20 years ago

 

Played the course 5 or more times but not in the last 20 years OR played the course 3 or 4 times most recently between 11 and 20 years ago OR played the course 1 or 2 times most recently between 4 and 10 years ago

 

Played the course 5 or more times most recently between 11 and 20 years ago; OR played the course 3 or 4 times most recently between 4 and 10 years ago; OR played the course 1 or 2 times most recently within the last 3 years

 

Played the course 5 or more times most recently between 4 and 10 years ago; OR played the course 3 or 4 times most recently within the last 3 years

 

Played the course 5 or more times and most recently within the last 3 years

There are many NCG Top 100s lists. We begin with what may be considered as the Mother List – our Great Britain & Ireland listing.

Coming soon are specific new listings for each of the home nations. England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland will all have their own new dedicated lists on the NCG Top 100s site. There will also be lists of courses by county in England, along with special lists that are based on the characteristics of courses.

As well as courses, the NCG Top 100s team also look at golfing resorts – with a distinct methodology. Look out for two lists in the near future: one focussing on Great Britain & Ireland; and another assessing the best golf resorts in Continental Europe.