Much effort goes into ranking the Golf Monthly UK&I Top 100 golf courses every two years. But just below the rarefied atmosphere of what we consider the best of the best lie a further 100 courses nipping very closely at their heels in some cases.
None of our Next 100 courses will disappoint and, of course, some golfers will say a number of them very much deserve a place in our premier league.
We don’t actually rank our Next 100 courses numerically for the honest reason that we readily admit we just don’t have the resources to undertake a full assessment of any more than our current Top 100 plus the 30-40 courses from our Next 100 that we feel have the best chance of one day breaking through.
This leaves you free to come up with your own ranking order if you so desire, but in the meantime, I will attempt to apply some degree of differentiation by picking out my ten personal favourites from the current Golf Monthly Next 100 list.
By starting close to my West Sussex home just across the border into East Sussex, some might accuse me of whatever the geographic equivalent of nepotism is. My response would be that surely it’s only right that you love, at least in some way, any course at which you have been a member?
There’s no mileage in coming up short left on the long par-3 6th at Crowborough Beacon
(Image credit: Kevin Murray)
Crowborough Beacon and Royal Ashdown Forest’s Old course lie just eight miles apart and, historically, most would have rated the latter above the former. Having been a member of Crowborough for eight years a decade ago and now an artisan member at Ashdown, I’m not sure it’s as clear-cut as that.
Both rank among the UK&I’s finest heathland courses playing over rolling countryside with splendid views, right down to the South Downs in Crowborough’s case.
I never tired of playing Crowborough, other than perhaps having to face the toughest finishing hole in Sussex on a weekly basis, and only really left as my circumstances changed and I wasn’t 100% sure what my income would look like going forwards.
But the decision was made, and, in some ways, it was very sensible, for Crowborough is 25 minutes from home and Ashdown only five.
Always take the longer club on the 2nd at Royal Ashdown to clear the sleepered penalty area
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