The Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast

I (Nish) went back to Carnoustie with something to prove, and this time the wind never turned up.

Last time we played Carnoustie Golf Links, it was in the famous brutal winds of “Carnasty”, and I barely got to see the course. This time, at exactly the same time of year, the flags hung dead straight and the sun shone all day. For the first time I could take in the Championship Course the way it was designed, from a high-handicapper’s eye view. I’ve come down from an 18 handicap to 15.8 since my last visit, and it shows.

In this episode:

• Why zero wind changes everything at an Open Championship links, and what I missed first time
• Immaculate fairways, carpet greens and the green-to-tee transitions I never noticed before
• Why Carnoustie’s bunkering is a mental test, not a punishment
• Hogan’s Alley (the 6th), Ben Hogan’s only Open win, and the Barry Burn finish on the 18th
• A 90 that beat my handicap, with no lost balls
• Post-round in the hotel bar with our host Paul from Golfing Around Scotland, plus Andrew and Tony
• The crazy realisation about the Top 100 list: do we have to play every course twice?

Top 100 in 10 is nominated for Best Sports Podcast at the Independent Podcast of the Year Awards. If you enjoy the show, hitting follow is the single biggest thing you can do to help us reach more golfers.

Send us a message

Support the show

Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

You can even sign up to our podcast mailing list on the website and get a limited edition Top 100 in 10 ball marker when you complete your profile

Or follow our live journey on Instagram @top100in10 or Tiktok

A world record holder, a motorhome he calls a Sherman tank, and a shower-rating system that took on a life of its own.

Josh Simpson, the Ginger Golfer, played 652 golf courses in a single calendar year. In this bonus episode, I skip the usual questions and ask about the stuff that makes you wince: the key that snapped in the lock (twice), the scrambled eggs he deeply regretted ordering, the hungover round after a night backstage with the Wombats, and the day his team made him play one more course, soaked through, two days before the finish.

We also get into the golf community that carried him round the country, the best advice he has for anyone chasing a bucket-list course (“don’t be a dick” is the short version), handicap gaming, whether he’d do it again (he reckons 750 was possible), his favourite hidden gems outside the top 100, and four questions from you.

If you enjoy the show, the one thing that really helps us reach more golfers is hitting follow.

Follow Josh: https://www.instagram.com/ginger.golf/
Josh’s part in the story from Andy’s side: Episode 89 https://pod.fo/e/68c209

Send us a message

Support the show

Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

You can even sign up to our podcast mailing list on the website and get a limited edition Top 100 in 10 ball marker when you complete your profile

Or follow our live journey on Instagram @top100in10 or Tiktok

Ryder Cup history, three tour stars as members, and a reputation for being a bit exclusive. So why did a society of ten amateurs get treated like old friends at Lindrick Golf Club?

We took our Top 100 Society to South Yorkshire for our third society day, to a course that sits outside our UK & Ireland list but ranked 82 in the English Top 100. This is the visitor's-eye view: the welcome, the course, and whether it deserves a place on your list.

In this episode:

• The 1957 Ryder Cup, the last GB&I win, and the farmer who nearly derailed it over a £150 fee for the 5th tee
• Head professional Andy on what visitors get wrong about Lindrick, and why John Jacobs matters here
• Why three Lindrick members (Westwood, Fitzpatrick and Willett) played together in the 2016 Ryder Cup
• A club with no tee sheet for members, where clubs are waiting out for them when they turn up
• The back-nine run from 12 to 18, with par threes that wouldn't look out of place at Formby
• The small touches (the range-ball bag, the scorecards) and the pro-shop moment that says it all

Our verdict: at roughly £85–£150 a round, it's a serious golf course with a genuine welcome, and it's one to add to your list.

Want to play with us? Join our golf society (free, WhatsApp announcements only)

If you enjoyed it, the best thing you can do is hit follow. It's free, and it helps other golfers find the show.

Send us a message

Support the show

Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

You can even sign up to our podcast mailing list on the website and get a limited edition Top 100 in 10 ball marker when you complete your profile

Or follow our live journey on Instagram @top100in10 or Tiktok

Rory McIlroy just named Royal Birkdale, Sunningdale Old and Hankley Common as his three favourite courses in England, and all three are in Andy's top ten. 

Andy (@28to8golf) counts down his top ten courses, from Hillside and St George's Hill to Turnberry and Sunningdale Old, and tells us why St Andrews Old Course only makes number six. Along the way he names the hidden gems beyond the Top 100: Pleasington near Blackburn, The Players Club in Bristol, Mold in Wales, plus short-course favourites like the Queen's at Gleneagles and Balcomie at Crail. 

He also takes us behind the scenes of Josh Simpson's world record 652 courses in a year: cold-calling Scottish clubs, the 6,000-yard rule, and the putter that nearly had the wrong number on it. Find Andy on Instagram: @28to8golf 

Send us a message

Support the show

Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

You can even sign up to our podcast mailing list on the website and get a limited edition Top 100 in 10 ball marker when you complete your profile

Or follow our live journey on Instagram @top100in10 or Tiktok

I called Swinley Forest my number one course in the UK the first time I played it. Then I got the chance to play it twice in one day — and I wanted to know if it would still hold up.

Listen to our Swinley Forest Review

When a society day at Swinley Forest had a last-minute dropout, I jumped at the chance to go back — 36 holes, shotgun start, and a four-course carvery lunch in the middle, the kind of tradition you find at clubs like Sunningdale, Royal St George's and Walton Heath. It was my first time playing 36 holes in a day, my first shotgun start, and my first time revisiting any of the 29 courses we've played so far.

In this episode: how the society day came about, what 36 holes and a shotgun start actually feels like, the four-course carvery experience, how the club handled my gluten-free/coeliac needs, whether the course conditioning held up after a summer of heatwaves, a costly mishap on the 18th green (and the tip I learned from it), and my final verdict — does Swinley Forest still deserve the number one spot?

Find out more about our award nomination

Send us a message

Support the show

Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

You can even sign up to our podcast mailing list on the website and get a limited edition Top 100 in 10 ball marker when you complete your profile

Or follow our live journey on Instagram @top100in10 or Tiktok

We turned up to Walton Heath Golf Club in the middle of the UK's third heatwave of the summer, found out our booking had been binned, and ended up playing two intertwined, Ryder Cup-pedigree golf courses as just the two of us — in golden hour, on fairways baked so dry the ball was rolling 200+ yards.

This episode is powered by Fourball Draws - where you can win a fourball on some elite courses for just a fiver - visit fourballs.co.uk and use code TOP100 to buy 2 or more tickets and get one absolutely free!

This episode covers the golf at Walton Heath — both the Old Course (ranked 39 in the world top 100) and the New Course (ranked 88), reviewed together because the two courses share the same land and are played as a composite layout for events like the Ryder Cup and the AIG Women's Open. We talk brutal heather, ridiculous bunkering, our top holes on both courses, a 36-hole match play battle, and a signature hole challenge on each.

If you're new here: this is the Top 100 in 10 podcast, where we're trying to play every course in the UK and Ireland's top 100 in 10 years. Hit follow if you want more of this — it's the single biggest thing that helps the show grow.

Catch part one of this Walton Heath review (the welcome and clubhouse) if you haven't already.

Send us a message

Support the show

Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

You can even sign up to our podcast mailing list on the website and get a limited edition Top 100 in 10 ball marker when you complete your profile

Or follow our live journey on Instagram @top100in10 or Tiktok

Every golfer in Britain has seen Wentworth's first tee on TV. Almost nobody gets to stand on it. We did — and by the end of the round, we disagreed with each other about where it actually ranks.

This episode is powered by Fourball Draws - where you can win a fourball on some elite courses for just a fiver - visit fourballs.co.uk and use code TOP100 to buy 2 or more tickets and get one absolutely free!

Check out our pics and scorecard from Wentworth

This episode covers our round on the West Course at Wentworth Golf Club, home of the BMW PGA Championship: the sub-air greens system, the "another planet" clubhouse, standing on the actual championship tee with the grandstands up, and the honest debate about whether Wentworth's reputation is built on fame or genuinely deserved.

Inside this episode:

• Standing on the championship first tee with the grandstands already up
• The sub-air system greens — the best putting surfaces either of us has ever played
• Why Wentworth doesn't fit neatly into "heathland" or "parkland," and whether that's cost it in the rankings
• Steven Spielberg's house on the 3rd hole
• The genuine disagreement: Chris ranks it his new number two all-time. Nish says it sits just outside his top five — even after calling it his favourite day on the challenge so far

The one thing that actually helps us reach more golfers is you hitting follow right now.

Send us a message

Support the show

Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

You can even sign up to our podcast mailing list on the website and get a limited edition Top 100 in 10 ball marker when you complete your profile

Or follow our live journey on Instagram @top100in10 or Tiktok

Nelly Korda is the best player in the world — and she's lost her last two Solheim Cup singles matches. Sky Sports Golf's Sophie Walker joins us to explain why, and to put her name to a score.

This episode is powered by Fourball Draws - where you can win a fourball on some elite courses for just a fiver - visit fourballs.co.uk and use code TOP100 to buy 2 or more tickets and get one absolutely free!

Sophie Walker is back on the show ahead of the twentieth Solheim Cup, live on Sky Sports Golf from Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands, 11–13 September. We get into the stories nobody else is covering properly: Anna Nordqvist's decision to captain rather than play after nine straight Solheim Cup appearances, the real story behind Gimmegate, two very different pregnancy narratives either side of the Atlantic, and whether Nelly Korda's aura has actually cracked. Then Sophie calls the score.

If you're new here — this is Top 100 in 10, where we're trying to play every course in the UK and Ireland's Top 100 in ten years. Hit follow if you want to come along for the ride. It's the one thing that actually helps us reach more golfers.

Send us a message

Support the show

Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

You can even sign up to our podcast mailing list on the website and get a limited edition Top 100 in 10 ball marker when you complete your profile

Or follow our live journey on Instagram @top100in10 or Tiktok

This is our review of our Annual Charity Golf Day - the NISH Invitational, where this year we raised nearly £800 for the British Liver Trust

This episode is powered by Fourball Draws - where you can win a fourball on some elite courses for just a fiver - visit fourballs.co.uk and use code TOP100 to buy 2 or more tickets and get one absolutely free!

Email us: [email protected] to register for info about next year

Episode Links;

Torque Golf

Torque Golf Instagram

Jordan - Puting Coach

Neil - Biomechanics Expert

Northern Ball Markers

@northernballmarkers 

Send us a message

Support the show

Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

You can even sign up to our podcast mailing list on the website and get a limited edition Top 100 in 10 ball marker when you complete your profile

Or follow our live journey on Instagram @top100in10 or Tiktok

WeI've never dedicated a whole episode to a clubhouse before. Walton Heath Golf Club changed that.

This episode is powered by Fourball Draws - where you can win a fourball on some elite courses for just a fiver - visit fourballs.co.uk and use code TOP100 to buy 2 or more tickets and get one absolutely free!

We played this Surrey Heathland course in a back-to-back pairs event — old course one day, new course the next — but by the time I'd walked its corridors, I knew the clubhouse itself needed its own feature. This episode isn't about the golf (that's part two). It's about everything that happens before you even put a tee in the ground: a king who served as club captain, four former Prime Ministers on the wall, a hidden museum dedicated to James Braid tucked behind the pro shop, and a hospitality standard — the "Walton Way" — that actually lives up to the name.

Inside this episode:

• Why Walton Heath's reputation is more intimidating than the reality
• James Braid: five Open wins, 46 years as the club's professional, and why he refused to change a single thing about the course design
• The museum most visitors walk straight past
• Prince Edward, four Prime Ministers, and the 1981 Ryder Cup
• The terrace, the giant putting green, and one genuinely odd walk to the driving range

Part two — the actual golf — is coming in a couple of weeks.

Send us a message

Support the show

Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

You can even sign up to our podcast mailing list on the website and get a limited edition Top 100 in 10 ball marker when you complete your profile

Or follow our live journey on Instagram @top100in10 or Tiktok