11 – 20
Welcome to the most prestigious and most definitive ranking of the best golf courses in Great Britain and Ireland.
11 Royal DornochPlaying Dornoch is usually described as a pilgrimage; it is five hours’ drive from Glasgow. But once there, the experience is spiritual. It has an isolated, timeless, utterly beautiful setting and Ross’s course blends seamlessly into the landscape.
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12 WatervilleClub comment: We have used the time to allow all the Fazio improvements to season and mature while shifting focus to reducing ryegrass from our fine turf surfaces. |
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13 Royal Lytham and St Anne’sA significant rise at this lofty end of the Top 100, after a major project to prepare the course for the 2012 Open. When it’s windy, even the strongest players will struggle to play anywhere near their handicap, not least because it is almost impossible to avoid sand all the way round. |
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14 Ballybunion (Old)Tom Watson loves links and his favourite is Ballybunion, where he warmed up for each of his five Open triumphs. After a relatively uninspiring start, the back nine is certainly spellbinding |
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15 KingsbarnsHundreds of thousands of tonnes of earth were moved by bulldozers to create the “wow” factor Kingsbarns undoubtedly boasts. |
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16 Portmanock (Old)This grand old club eight miles north of Dublin lies in its own sandy peninsula. The piece of land is two miles long and amounts to 500 acres, which gave Pickerman plenty of space to design. |
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17 The European ClubCLUB COMMENT: We’ve put a grass bunker in the centre of the 16th fairway at 265 yards from the tee, and 140 yards from the green. We have also added a new back right corner on the 3rd green and a new back left corner on the 13th green. |
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18 Royal LiverpoolIt doesn’t have the dunes of a Sandwich or a Hillside and is located on a fairly flat piece of land, but Hoylake remains a fine championship course with the holes alongside the shore with views across the Dee Estuary particularly memorable. |
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19 Royal St George’sSandwich was the first English course to host The Open (in 1894) and it’s back next year. Possibly the quirkiest course on the rota, humps and hollows can throw a ball destined for the middle of the fairway into a bunker or the first cut of rough –so it isn’t as revered as some by the pros. |
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20 Walton Heath (Old)The host of the 1981 Ryder Cup – when America fielded arguably the greatest side in its history – it has maintained a link with the professional game through hosting of US Open qualifying. |