About NCG Top 100s

NCG Top 100s: Our Methodology

Dan Murphy, the editor of NCG Top 100s, chairs our ranking panels, which comprise experienced, enthusiastic and knowledgeable golfers. 
 
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. 
 
A lot of work goes into compiling the NCG Top 100s lists and we are both open and transparent about our methodology. 
 
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. 

What do we base our rankings on?

We are only interested in golf courses – the round begins when we arrive on the 1st tee and ends when we walk off the 18th green. We do not take anything off course into account, whether that is the practice facilities, the clubhouse and service or the pro shop. 
The following categories and weighting in brackets result in a final mark out of 100 for each course. 
 

Architecture and Design

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

(40 points) 

 

Conditioning/presentation/greens

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? 

(20 points) 

 

Surroundings

How attractive a place to play is this course? 

(10 points) 

 

Challenge & playability

When played off the correct set of tees, to what extent does the course challenge and test the skills of the elite golfer, while also being enjoyable and playable for the shorter hitter and higher handicapper? On the one hand, does it give the golfer the chance to display their skills to the limit? On the other hand, are there forced carries and excessively penal hazards that make it difficult for the recreational golfer to enjoy the course to the maximum regardless of how conservatively they play? 

(10 points) 

 

Memorability

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? 

(20 points) 

 
Upweighting Panellists’ Rankings 
We value more the rankings of panellists who have either played a course recently, played a course several times or both. 
This is how we include that in our scoring system: 
  • x2 – If the course was most recently played in the last 10 years OR the reviewer has played the course 3 times or more 
  • x3 – If the course was most recently played in the last 3 years OR the reviewer has played the course 5 times or more 
  • x4 – If the reviewer has played the course 3 times or more and most recently within the last 10 years 
  • x5 – If the reviewer has played the course 5 times or more and most recently within the last 10 years OR the reviewer has played the course 3 times or more and most recently within the last 3 years 
  • x6 – If the reviewer has played the course 5 times or more and most recently within the last 3 years 
Example: Five panellists have played a course. Reviewers A, B, C and D each played the course once, 15 years ago. Their scores are 48, 46, 50 and 56 respectively. Reviewer E has played the course eight times, most recently this year. Their score is 70. 
Score: 48 + 46 + 50 + 56 + (6×70) = 620 / 10 = 62 

Important details

Creating a longlist 
We begin by ensuring that all courses that we deem to have a realistic chance to make a list are on our longlist. Only courses on the longlist can make the final list. We compile this longlist in the winter before a season when we are updating a national list. 
 
Creating a panel 
We use a different group of panellists each year. We insist that all our panellists are widely golfed and enthusiastic. They must also commit to visiting a minimum of eight courses from the longlist in the year of the update. We want our rankings to be contemporaneous. We like to use panellists who are strong in particular countries and we are always on the lookout for additional panellists who will strengthen our group. That is why we refresh our panel each year. 
 
Being visible and accountable 
We write to all courses on our longlist to share with them details of our latest ranking project. We share our methodology and our panel. 
 
Compiling shortlists 
We compiled shortlists of courses from across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales when we are updatinf our national rankings. We seek to include all courses that we feel have a realistic chance of making the final top 100.

Courses who choose not be included
Sometimes courses do not wish to be considered for a particular ranking.

We are always entirely respectful of their decision but we list them alongside a list because you might otherwise wondered why they do not appear in the list.

Panellist visits
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.

Whose opinions count?
All panellists who have played a course submitted a ranking. However, we value more the rankings of panellists who had either a) played a course recently, b) played a course several times or c) both.
See above for details.
 
How many lists are there?
There are many NCG Top 100s lists. 
 
We begin with what may be considered as the Mother List – our list of the best golf courses in Great Britain & Ireland.

We regularly update our lists for each of the home nations. 
England, Ireland, Scotland Wales each have their own dedicated lists on the NCG Top 100s site. 
 
There are also lists of courses by counties and regions, 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. 
 
Our golf resorts lists focus on both Great Britain & Ireland and also Continental Europe.
 
How often do we update our lists?
We work on our England list one year, our Scotland list the next, then our Ireland and Wales ones the third.
After each list is updated, we feed this into our GB&I list, which is consequently updated every year.
A course that is above another in a national list will also be above it in our GB&I lists – and vice versa.