Best golf courses in England

Welcome to the NCG Top 100s list of the very best golf courses in England.

Golf dates back to the 15th Century, originating in the eastern part of Scotland. The boom for English golf came some four centuries later. The golf course at Royal North Devon is the oldest in the country, dating back to 1864. 

It would be another three decades before the Open Championship moved south of the border. Royal St George's and Royal Liverpool both hosted the tournament in the latter stages of the 19th Century. In total, six venues - with Royal Cinque Ports, Prince's, Royal Lytham & St Annes and Royal Birkdale being the others - have played host to the sport's oldest competition.

Golf in England is split into three distinct parts. There are your classic links courses which you will find around the coast, the parkland courses of the inner section of the country, and the gorgeous heathland tracks, notably in Sussex and Yorkshire.

The NCG Top 100s: England list stars plenty of other big names when it comes to golf. Moortown, Ganton and Lindrick all hosted the Ryder Cup in the early days, while The Belfry's Brabazon has also gone on to become an annual host on the DP World Tour as well.

How did we get our top 100?
We compiled a shortlist of around 200 courses from across the length and breadth of the country, aiming to include all courses that we felt had a realistic chance of making the final top 100. Our team of panellists spent a full summer season playing courses around England, with their verdicts being brought together to create this NCG Top 100s: England list.

About the courses on our NCG Top 100s England 2025 shortlist 
Our England list is easily the most competitive we do. No wonder, with 1,735 affiliated clubs and anywhere up to 2,000 courses to go at. 

When we prepare to update a ranking, we create a new shortlist. We don’t mind how many are on it, but we want to include any courses that we deem to have a realistic chance of making the top 100. Equally, we want to concentrate our attention on those that do have a chance rather then spending time making visits to courses that don’t. So we try to keep it at tight as we can.

Please note: We also shortlisted some other courses that, for various reasons that we entirely respect, asked not to be considered for this ranking. We list them here only so that readers can see that they were on our shortlist and therefore among the courses we would have liked to visit and rank.

Courses that asked not to be considered for this list: Bearwood Lakes; Beaverbrook; Queenwood; Wentworth (East, Edinburgh and West); Woburn (Duchess, Duke’s, Marquess) 

Read more about our methodology of creating NCG Top 100s lists.
Find out more about the panellists who have the task of rating courses.