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Favourite Open Championship Courses
Top 100 Editor finally gets round to playing all nine current Open Championship courses
5th October 2010
 I recently played Royal Liverpool at Hoylake for the first time. Many people reading this will wonder why the Editor of Top 100 Golf Courses has taken until now to play one of – if not THE – most important and historical English golfing venue. The short answer is time, or rather lack of it. It takes a great deal of time – and money – to play different golf courses but I’m pleased to have played Hoylake even though it is my least favourite Open Championship course. I’ve now played all the current Open courses but my personal quest continues as I have yet to experience Musselburgh Old and Prince’s.
The Open Championship was first played in 1860 at Prestwick and since then only fourteen venues have been used to host this reverent Major. Unlike many US Open venues, each and every one of these fourteen Open courses live up to their open reputation and can be played simply by booking a tee time in advance. The only exception to the rule is St Andrews, which will require a little luck in the daily ballot.
Nine venues remain on the current Open rotation and they are all household names. I do not normally publish my personal thoughts about my favourite courses, but I thought there might be some interest and healthy debate from those who, like me, have played the full set of all nine current Open courses.
 If you have played them all, I’d be grateful if you would respond to this article by clicking on the “respond to this article” link at either the top or bottom of this feature. Please detail your favourite Open venues in your own personal ranking order. If you haven’t played them all, please keep your opinion under wraps until you have.
Here’s my ranking for the current Open venues:
1. Turnberry (Ailsa)
2. Royal Birkdale
3. Royal Lytham & St Annes
4. Muirfield
5. Carnoustie (Championship)
6. Royal St George’s
7. St Andrews (Old)
8. Royal Troon (Old)
9. Royal Liverpool
These are the other five venues that have hosted the Open: Royal Portrush (Dunluce), Prestwick, Royal Cinque Ports, Prince’s, Musselburgh Old. I'm aiming to play Prince's and Musselburgh Old as soon as I can.
Keith Baxter – Editor |
| Response: |  | | Hugh | 06 October 2010 | | I agree with your top two and bottom two but St Andrews is higher up for me but personally think Royal Portrush is better than all of them but is never likely to host another Open. 1) Turnberry, 2) Birkdale, 3) Muirfield, 4) St Andrews, 5) St Georges, 6) Lytham, 7) Carnoustie, 8) Liverpool, 9) Troon | | | Shaun | 07 October 2010 | | Here you go; 1.Turnberry 2.Old Course 3.Muirfield 4.Birkdale 5.Carnoustie 6.RSG 7.Lytham 8.Troon 9.Hoylake Lytham and Carnoustie would be higher if the views were better. | | | Jim McCann | 07 October 2010 | | Keith, I´ve still got the three courses in the south east of England to play in order to complete my 14 Open venues played and plan to do this in June 2011. So far, my pecking order for the 8 out of 9 current Open courses visited matches yours very closely... | | | Ian B | 12 October 2010 | | I have a very different perspective: 1.St Andrews 2.Muirfield 3.St Georges 4.Birkdale 5.Turnberry 6.Royal Lytham 7.Carnoustie 8.Liverpool 9.Troon | | | Gustav Ohman | 23 October 2010 | | 1.Turnberry, 2.Birkdale, 3.Muirfield, 4. St. Georges, 5. Portrush, 6. Carnoustie, 7.St Andrews, 8. Prestwick, 9. Lytham, 10.Hoylake, 11. Troon, 12. Deal, 13. Prince´s, 14. Old Musselburgh. It is a bit unfair to rate Old Musselburgh with the others. My playing partner rented hickory clubs instead - better strategy! | | | ogi | 07 November 2010 | | 1. Muirfield,2.Turnberry, 3.St.Andrews,4.Carnoustie, 5.Portrush,6.St.Georges, 7.Hoylake,8.Lytham,9.Troon, 10.Prestwick,11.Deal, 12.Princes,13.Musselburgh Old | | | Richard Smith | 07 October 2011 | | This is a great topic for discussion. Of the 9 current venues I would have to go with: 1. Muirfield. I think it's the best pure strategic course I've ever played. 2. Royal Birkdale. A fantatsic collection of holes with no weak one in the bunch. 3. Turnberry. Beautiful setting, and I rank it lower than the other two because the first two holes are pretty average. 4. Carnoustie. A hard fair test of golf that really only lacks a dramatic setting. 5. Royal St. George's. I love this course and think it gets overlooked despite all of the wonderful twists and turns. 6. St. Andrews Old Course. Still wonderful to play. The holes at the loop are weak which keep it from the top ranks. 7. Royal Lytham and St. Annes. Another great links with the best green complexes of all the championship courses. 8. Royal Troon. Great course that I put lower in the rankings because of the average holes at the start. 9. Royal Liverpool. Very good course, but it lacks the wow factor that the other venues have. Still a great challenge and championship test. I feel like ranking these courses is like trying to rank beautiful women. They are all wonderful in their own ways. I agree with Hugh that Portrush is on par with all of the current venues, and I think Deal is capable of hosting a modern championship as well. |
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