The Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast

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 

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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

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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.

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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.

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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 

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Support the show

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

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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.

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We didn't expect Formby Golf Club to feel like this. After playing our way through England's Golf Coast, we assumed we knew what to expect — heather, gorse, that classic Southport links look. Formby threw that out the window.

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!

In this episode we review Formby Golf Club, ranked among the Top 100 Golf Courses in the UK and Ireland, and now sitting at 39 in our list (up from 52). We talk through the tree-lined, almost heathland-meets-links character that makes it stand apart from its Golf Coast neighbours, the story behind the club's famous hippo head trophy (stolen luck, a warship, and a letter to the Admiralty), our Signature Hole Challenge on the par-five 8th, and why a £320 green fee might just be worth it.

We also cover:

• The Donald Steel-redesigned 7th and why it's one of the best strategic holes on the course
• Hole 3's reputation as one of the best tee shots in the Northwest of England
• The stretch from 12 to 14, including why you should always play 14 from the championship tees
• Our verdict on whether Formby cracks the top five golf courses we've played so far

Formby Golf Club joins our ongoing challenge to play every course in the Top 100 Golf Courses UK and Ireland ranking in 10 years, alongside nearby links and heathland courses like Hillside, Wallasey, and Royal Birkdale.

Follow the show if you want more honest, unranked reviews of the UK and Ireland's best golf courses — it's the one thing that actually helps us reach more golfers.

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Support the show

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

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Nish manifested a round at Wentworth on one of our earliest episodes — and this week, it actually happened.

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're in the car on the way to Virginia Water to play the West Course — Burma Road — as a member's guest, the only way on at one of Britain's most gated golf clubs. 

Before we plug the car in, we cover: the 1926 match at Wentworth that gave birth to the Ryder Cup; why the fairways went wild in WWII and the extraordinary story of who cleared them; the property developer who hired Harry Colt to build two golf courses just to sell houses; the Ernie Els redesign that had Ian Poulter fuming ("I don't like this golf course. Period."); the only sub-air greens in England; and the big one-round dilemma — with only one crack at Wentworth, do you go for everything or protect the scorecard?

Plus: our Ryder Cup venue match play returns, a bunkerless 600-yard Signature Hole Challenge, silver-engraved honours boards, and an "elite" breakfast.

This is our preview from the road — the full review episode follows once we've played it.

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It chucked it down for all 18 holes — and we still walked off calling these the best greens we've played on any of our 28 Top 100 courses.

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!

Liphook Golf Club sits quietly in the Surrey/Hampshire sand belt at #79 in the Top 100 — and almost nobody outside it seems to know. This week we review it with a member, Oscar, who talks us through his top three holes (including the two new ones from the redesign), the greens running 12.6 on the stimp, and the digital twin technology he's building to let you play a course before you've set foot on it.

Also in this episode: Andrew's cricket-glove rain hack, a par three that cost Chris and Nish 11 shots between them, the seventh hole that straddles two counties, and why a summer twilight round here might be the best £135 in Top 100 golf.

The one thing that actually helps us reach more golfers is you hitting follow right now — it takes two seconds and it genuinely makes the difference.

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