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Welcome to Top 100 Golf Courses - the only independent website dedicated to the best golf courses of the World.
Our mission is to connect passionate golfers with the world’s greatest golf clubs. Through this connection, we bring you unique and current course information, pictures and special offers from participating clubs. We also give you the ability to share your viewpoint through our “write a review” facility. You can even email your course photographs to us and, if they are suitable, we’ll put them online. Our ultimate aim is to feature every golf course that has ever appeared on a reputable ranking list and also we’ll bring you some gems that shine brightly but are often overshadowed.
We're a team of passionate club golfers with mixed handicaps and we simply love golf courses, their rich heritage and fascinating architecture. We decided to take our passion a step further. We’ve built an independent company and we’re now committed to playing, reviewing and promoting our greatest golf courses. Meet the team:
 Andy is our Golf Operations Director and he plays off a 12 handicap. He has a huge amount of experience in organising golf days and events. Consequently he’s played many hundreds of different courses and more than 250 that feature on the Top 100 site. Favourites include Waterville, Royal County Down, Kingsbarns and Dubai Creek - Andy’s home course is Brickendon Grange. Email Andy here.
 Barry has been a golf writer since 1955 when he became a golfer while living in Bermuda. Once in low single figures, he says his handicap is now comparable to his collar size and is rapidly approaching that of his inside leg measurement. He has visited and written about some 400 golf resorts in 37 countries, playing more than 2,500 courses in the process. He is now Publisher/Editor of www.posh-golf-travel.com the on-line magazine.
 Cédric lives near Paris and is our French Correspondent with an Icelandic twist. He’s our Top 100 long driver who enjoys booming tee shots into the middle distance. His handicap is currently set at a very competitive 8 and he has played many of Europe’s greatest courses with his personal favourites being Royal County Down, Muirfield and Turnberry (Ailsa). He is a member at Golf de Bondues near Lille and Reykjavik Golf Club in Iceland.
Daniel is the Top 100 Company Secretary, his passion is compulsively buying CDs and he claims one day his collection will be worth a small fortune! He started playing golf as a teenager and has whittled his handicap down to 18 despite managing to get out on the course only a couple of times each year. It’s always a serious challenge to persuade him to leave the office, unless there’s a sale on at his local record store.
Ian is our Welsh correspondent who also covers Southwest England. He started playing golf after learning to bike ride, so golf came before exams and even girlfriends, but he still plays off a 7 handicap and reckons he got the balance about right! He played his early golf on England’s south coast and he’s played more than 50 of Britain & Ireland’s Top 100 courses favouring those that offer dramatic settings and unique challenges.
 James was born in Scotland and now lives in Hong Kong. He started playing golf at the age of 8 and played in his formative years at East Renfrewshire and Western Gailes before attending St Andrews University where he studied Philosophy in between rounds on the Old Course. He is a golf writer, golf course photographer and author of The Finest Golf Courses of Asia & Australasia.
 James, or Jim as he is best known, hails from the Home of Golf. He's our Scottish Correspondent and a key member of the editorial team. With a handicap of 12, he knows how to card a decent score on the windy fast-running Scottish links courses (only play Jim for money only on park-like courses). Having played most of his golf in Scotland, we have recently presented him with an English visa to tempt him away from the magnetic north.
Jim heads up the Top 100 web design team and he has a wealth of IT and Internet knowledge. His 28 handicap has not recently been tested on the golf course due to an injury. But he’s now back on the range and perhaps he may actually get to play again soon.
Keith is the Top 100 Editor and MD. His introduction to golf was at Avisford Park where he promptly lost his mate Dave’s entire golf ball collection on the 1st hole. Since then he has ground his handicap down to 10. He's played more than 1,000 different courses worldwide and more than 80 of the Top 100 in Britain & Ireland. He's a member of the International Golf Travel Writers Association and his home course is Bovey Castle.
Malcolm is our Sales and Marketing Director and he’s still on his golfing “Honeymoon” having started playing only a few years ago. Our behatted team baldy is quick to point out that he’s a better skier than golfer. He's often to be found on the range trying to whittle down his handicap.
 Masa is our international consultant, a successful golf writer and golf course commentator; his book Analysis of a Golf Course is a bestseller in Japan. Masa is passionate about golf courses and he has visited 45 countries and played more than 1,700 courses along the way. He was a panellist and international board member from 1991-2005 for Golf Magazine’s Top 100 Courses in the World.
 Mike lives on Vancouver Island, BC and is our Canadian Correspondent. He plays to a 10 handicap, has a Golf Operations Management Diploma and has organised numerous golf tournaments over the years, but his real passion lies in golf course architecture. He started playing Canada’s top ranked golf courses in 2001 and has since played 50 of Canada’s Top 100. He loves travelling and is passionate about golf courses.
Rachelle is a photographer and our graphics expert. Although she’s not a golfer, she loves landscape photography and she knows a great golf course image when she sees one. With more than 10,000 pictures already featured on the Top 100 website, Rachelle’s editing skills are kept finely honed.
There is nothing new about rating and ranking our greatest golf courses. Numerous publications produce their own lists using all types of criteria: design, visual appeal, quality, condition of the courses, etc. They use teams of experts from all walks of golfing life to produce their own “definitive” lists. Judging panels include golf course architects/designers, amateur and professional champions, commentators, photographers and executive members of all types of golfing institutes.
What is completely fresh and original about us is the way in which we have used the data from these ranking tables. We have developed a unique and comprehensive database containing, in some cases, decades of historical ranking information.
We have then applied a series of rules and algorithms to create a current and definitive rating, based on:
Ø Number of times that a golf course has appeared on a ranking table
Ø Weighted in favour of courses appearing in the World rankings
Ø Weighting courses appearing most recently in any ranking tables
Ø Check and balance by our own team of passionate aficionados
Finally, but most importantly, we have created our own unique rating system, which is built into the "write a review" process within each individual golf course web page. This simple rating system allows you to rate each course on a scale of 1 to 6 golf balls. We have set no specific rules for you to follow when you rate a course except, naturally, that you (the reviewer) must have played the course first. Important factors, such as course location, condition (or presentation), difficulty and historical importance are left for you, the reviewer, to judge.
 Biennially, to coincide with our Top 100 book publications, we will publish a Top 100 list based purely on reviews posted by you, the passionate golfer. In the first of our Top 100 books, which is available for purchase via our online shop, your No.1 of the British Isles was Royal Dornoch. Dornoch has never before been voted as the No.1 course, but who would possibly argue with you?
All of the data outlined above is weighted and eventually culminates in our unique and all-encompassing ranking positions for each golf course. We honestly believe that nobody does it better than you and us together.
We have also been out playing as many of the featured golf courses as we possibly can and we have written our own independent golf course reviews for literally hundreds of courses.
There is absolutely no doubt that whenever any list is produced, it provides a lively talking point across the whole of the golfing world, especially at those golf clubs fortunate enough to make it onto the latest list. When a conventional ranking table is produced, there are winners and losers, high climbers, big fallers and new entries. Naturally, it also means that golf courses may drop off the latest list, sometimes never to be seen again. This does not mean that these golf courses are no longer “top courses”; it simply means that other courses (old or new) have improved or come into favour.
Uniquely, here at Top 100 Golf Courses, we recognise that it is important to constantly reassess all our best golf courses. Each year we re-sequence our ranking database to take all the latest information into account. Courses will go up and down, but they will never be penalised by dropping off our ranking table.
Regardless of whether you are a professional or amateur golfer, we would like to know what you think of the Top 100 golf courses that you have played. Please take the time to write your own review and give the course a rating. Hopefully you will find our unique golf ball rating system fun and relevant. Visit our current World Top 100 or use our comprehensive search facility to find the course(s) that you'd like to review. But please, only write a review if you have played the course yourself.
If you have photographs of any of the listed golf courses, we would love to display them on this website. There is an online facility to "submit an image".
In return for your time, we have developed a personal facility whereby you can keep track of all the Top 100 courses that you have played, coupled with a tailor-made print facility. Go to score card for more information.
www.top100golfcourses.co.uk is a totally independent website. We are not associated with any of the golf publications that rank golf courses (other than our own), but we are passionate about golf and addicted to playing great golf courses.
Update - Summer 2006:
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 We’ve changed the look of our web pages and for some courses we may now show up to three ranking positions for any one course. In the example shown, 6th represents the course in-country position, 20th is the course position in the Britain & Ireland and 62nd is where the course is placed on our world ranking table.
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