I live in Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire and have done so for the majority of my life, I have been happily married for 4 years and now have a newborn daughter who I adore. My work in the construction industry takes me to a number of different locations around the country and is very demanding on time so weekends involve careful planning to ensure I fit in family, friends and golf!
For a number of years I have had a fight with my weight and health due to a simple love of food and a stressful working life leading to doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. After ballooning to an eye watering weight on the scales, I made the decision a couple of years ago that enough was enough and I needed to change my life. I took up running for weight loss and established a love for it so much so that as well as my golf I have run a half marathon, marathon and completed a full Tough Mudder course. This certainly improved my golf and further rekindled my passion for the beauty of the golf course.
The idea to play the top 100 courses came back in June 2012. I was taking part in the Macmillan Longest Golf Day challenge to raise money for the charity where you have to play 72 holes in a day. I was playing with 3 other friends and we had done a number of warm up 36 hole games back to back to ensure we had the right pace to make it round in time. This was a turning point in my golfing career because I was able to truly appreciate the love of a golf course in the freshness and stillness of 0530 in the morning. A time when no one is out other than the green staff and leaves you with your thoughts and you are able to properly take in your surroundings and appreciate the finer details of a course. It also gives you the opportunity to concentrate on your game and while slow play has never been an issue for me, speed play takes away all your negative swing thoughts and gets your head into thinking from one shot to the next.
Nick, Wade, Myself and Rob at the halfway stage of the Macmillan Longest Golf Day - 21st June 2012. Note: the buggies were for the bags, not the players!
After raising nearly £1700 for Macmillan Cancer support and completing the challenge on one of the wettest days of the year, my game was in good shape and so was I...kind of! My wife, mother-in-law and I had a week away down in Wadebridge in Cornwall and we get the chance to take in the sights. Being cheeky I managed to stash the clubs in the car and had scoped out some courses nearby that looked like a good track. I picked up the latest edition of Golf World and found within it an article about the 'Top 100 Courses In the World that you can play'. In there featured the course at no.49 called St. Enodoc. I was fortunate enough to be able to play that course which cemented my wish to do something, initially I wanted to play the top 100 in the world, but realism kicked in and I knew that was very unlikely to happen so I settled on the top 100 in GB&I.
And so I did some research and came up with my top 100 list. I looked at the course rankings from both Golf World, Golf Monthly and top100golfcourses.co.uk to compile my list.
There are a number of courses that are difficult and some impossible which I have omitted from my list, however they remain on the bottom which will be added at a later date should I be able to gain access to them. Additionally I added a few favourites.
Here is my list;
1.
Royal
County Down – Championship
2.
Old
Course, St Andrews Links
3.
Muirfield
4.
Royal
Dornoch – Championship
5.
Royal
Portrush – Dunluce
6.
Turnberry
– Ailsa - PLAYED
7.
Ballybunion
– Old
8.
Royal
St George's
9.
Royal
Birkdale
10. Sunningdale – Old - PLAYED
11. Carnoustie – Championship - PLAYED
12. Kingsbarns
14. Lahinch – Old
15. Royal Lytham & St Annes
16. Portmarnock – Red & Blue
18. Sunningdale – New - PLAYED
19. Waterville
20. Royal Troon – Old
21. The European Club
22. North Berwick
23. Royal Porthcawl
24. Royal Aberdeen – Balgownie
25. Walton Heath – Old
26. Royal Liverpool
27. Cruden Bay
28. Castle Stuart
29. Saunton – East - PLAYED
30. Wentworth – West
31. Royal West Norfolk
32. Nairn – Championship
33. St Georges Hill – Red & Blue
34. Gleneagles – King's
35. Western Gailes
36. Notts - PLAYED
37. Machrihanish
38. Prestwick
39. St Enodoc – Church - PLAYED
40. County Sligo
41. Burnham & Berrow – Championship
42. Royal Cinque Ports
43. Tralee
44. Royal St David's
45. Formby
46. County Loth
47. Hillside
48. Ballyliffin – Glashedy
49. The Alwoodley
50. Rosapenna – Sandy Hill
51. Silloth On Solway
52. West Sussex
53. The Berkshire – Red
54. The Castle Course, St Andrews Links
55. Hunstanton
56. Enniscrone
57. Doonbeg
58. Gullane – No.1
59. Walton Heath – New
60. The Island
61. Carne
62. Blairgowrie – Rosemount
63. Aberdovey
64. Dondonald
65. The Berkshire – Blue
66. Pennard
67. Addington
68. New Course, St Andrews Links - PLAYED
69. Trevose – Championship
70. The Belfry – Brabazon - PLAYED
71. Adare Manor
72. Worplesdon
73. Portstewart (Strand)
74. Hankley Common
76. Chart Hills
77. Machrihanish Dunes
78. West Hill
79. Woking
80. Gleneagles – Queen's
81. Little Aston
82. Celtic Manor - twenty ten
83. Lindrick - PLAYED
84. Panmure
85. Wentworth – East
86. Woburn – Duke's - PLAYED
87. Bearwood Lakes
88. St Andrews (Dukes)
89. Trump International
90. Royal North Devon
91. St Mellion (Nicklaus)
93. Southport & Ainsdale
94. Sherwood Forest - PLAYED
95. The Grove
96. Turnberry (Kintyre)
97. Gleneagles (PGA Centenary)
98. Gullane - No.2 - PLAYED
99. Saunton - West
100.
Woburn
Duchess'
The next few courses on the list to
additionally target;
101.
West
Lancashire
102.
Remedy
Oak
103.
Aldeburgh
104.
Liphook
105.
Royal
Ashdown Forest
106.
Delamere
Forest
107.
Parkstone
108.
Seacroft
109.
Goodwood
Downs
110.
East
Devon
111.
Southerness
112.
Ladybank
113.
Brora
114.
Nefyn
& District – Old
115.
Ballyliffin
– Old
116.
K
Club - Palmer Ryder Cup
117.
Killarney
– Killeen
118.
Portmarnock
Links
119.
The
Belfry - PGA National - PLAYED
Courses with limited / no access;
1.
Loch
Lomond
2.
Swinley
Forrest
3.
Rye
- Old
4.
Queenwood
5.
Machrie
6.
Mount
Juliet
7.
Druids
Glen
8.
Old
Head
9.
New
Zealand
10. Lough Erne
11. Donegal
12. Broadstone
13. Renaissance
14. Centurion Club
That is enough for now. I will blog further to set out my scoring and how I intend to chronicle my quest.
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