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

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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.

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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.

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One hundred episodes in, and Chris drops the bombshell we've been sitting on: he played Loch Lomond — Scotland's most exclusive golf club — and he did it without us.

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Two years. 100 weekly episodes. 28 courses ticked off the Top 100 (29 if you're Chris). To mark the milestone, Jim takes the hosting chair and puts us under the microscope: the episode-one memories, the courses we'd play again because we got them wrong first time (Cruden Bay, S&A, West Lancs), whether Silloth has finally been knocked off Chris's No.1 spot, the courses that blew us away when we least expected it (Delamere, Gullane, Ganton), and inside Loch Lomond's locker room — the plushest place in golf.

Plus what's coming: Wentworth with the BMW PGA stands up, Royal Birkdale after The Open, the Old Course, and a date with the Postage Stamp at Troon.

Thank you for every listen, message and follow over 100 episodes. The one thing that actually helps us reach more golfers is you hitting follow right now — here's to the next hundred.

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Nish has got a new #1. After 26 courses on this journey, Swinley Forest just did something nothing else has managed — it knocked our long-standing favourite off top spot, and we're still buzzing about it.

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!

Jim hosts solo this week to talk through a round soaked in mystique: a members-only Berkshire heathland club near Ascot, ranked 17th in the UK & Ireland and 52nd in the world, that plays winter rules all year round and didn't have a scorecard until the 1990s. We cover the signature hole challenge on the par-3 4th, Chris's putting collapse, the best collection of par 3s either of us has played, and the moment the scores came in — before the reveal that Swinley Forest is now Nish's new #1, ahead of Trump International.

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The Open is back on home turf at Royal Birkdale, and we've brought in a mate who actually backs golf for a living to tell us where the smart money's going this week.

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!

Our good friend Harbs (Harbs7Golf) returns with his three picks for the Claret Jug — including a 16/1 "massive value" favourite, a forgotten major winner nobody's talking about, and a 275/1 outsider with a genuine cash-out strategy behind it. We also dig into what it actually takes to qualify for the Open (the Bryan Brothers, Peter Finch, and a wild story from Burnham & Berrow final qualifying), catch up on the Nish Invitational (£750 raised for the British Liver Trust), and open a space at our Top 100 in 10 Society event at Lindrick.

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We're doing something we've never done before — playing two golf courses back to back at the same club, and pitting the "old money vs new money" of Surrey heathland against each other.

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This episode we're previewing both the Old Course (ranked 39, an ever-present in the world's top 100 since rankings began in 1938) and the New Course (ranked 88) at Walton Heath — a Ryder Cup venue where GB&I once got hammered 18½–9½ back in 1981.

We dig into the club's remarkable design history: amateur architect Herbert Fowler's very first course (he went on to design Pebble Beach), and James Braid's 46 years as club professional — during which he redesigned 400 courses worldwide and never touched a single hole of Fowler's original layout, out of pure respect.

Expect brutal bunkers, the most heather of any course in the UK (allegedly), a royal club captain who briefly became a king, four British Prime Ministers on the members list, and a genuine handicap-shredding difficulty rating. Plus: side bets, signature holes, and why "the Walton Way" might be the friendliest welcome we've had yet.

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Formby Golf Club is disappearing — and that's not even the strangest thing about it.

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We're heading to this Lancashire (or is it Merseyside?) links ahead of our round, and there's a lot more going on here than the rankings suggest. Four legendary architects have shaped this course — Willie Park Jr., James Braid, Harry Colt, and a coastal erosion crisis that's already swallowed the original 9th green. By 2085, the sea could be lapping at the 10th tee.

There's also a clubhouse clock tower with a surprising Titanic connection, an Amateur Championship final between two future Ryder Cup captains, and a fully independent ladies' golf club operating entirely inside Formby's own boundary — one of only a handful of setups like it in the country.

In this episode:
- The four architects who built Formby — and the one who's conspicuously missing
- Why the Irish Sea is taking 2.5 metres of this coastline every year
- The clock tower donor with a direct link to the Titanic disaster
- Formby Ladies Golf Club — a complete second course hidden inside the main layout
- Our excitement levels, side bets, and a signature hole challenge before we tee off

If you're new here: we're two mates trying to play all 100 of the UK and Ireland's top-ranked golf courses in 10 years. This is the preview — the full review drops in a few weeks once we've actually played it.

If you enjoy this, the single best way to support the show is to hit FOLLOW (not subscribe, not like — follow) on Spotify or Apple. It's free, it takes two seconds, and it's the biggest lever we have for reaching more golfers.

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Lanark Golf Club doesn't try to impress you. No grand entrance, no resort gloss — just a golf course that's been played on the same patch of common land since October 1851, making it the oldest inland golf course in the world.

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 sit down with general manager Andy Romer to dig into 175 years of history: Old Tom Morris's £3.10 shilling redesign, James Braid's 1927 refinements (100 years old next year), lost holes buried under the car park, army connections to the Cameronians, and a quietly incredible piece of trivia — Lanark lost the vote to become Gleneagles by a single ballot.

• Why the 7th tee is the moment Lanark finally reveals itself
• The "Cabbages" — a nickname with a 175-year-old explanation
• How Lanark rebuilt its own history from minute books found in a cupboard
• Why this is a "stopover," not a "stay-and-play" course — and why that's exactly the point

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Top 100 in 10 is the podcast documenting our 10-year challenge to play every course in the Top 100 of the UK and Ireland. Hosted by Nish, Chris and Jim.

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We took a ferry. We crossed the Irish Sea. We played Castletown Golf Links on the Isle of Man, ranked 93 in the Top 100 GB & Ireland, with the club's general manager Andi as our playing partner and tour guide. It turned out to be one of the most spectacular days we've had on this entire mission.

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!

Castletown sits on a peninsula surrounded by sea on three sides. The course is dramatic, rugged, and handsome — comparisons to Turnberry aren't just flattery. Old Tom Morris designed the original layout in 1891; Dr. Alister MacKenzie later made his mark; Philip Mackenzie Ross shaped the course into what it is today. And for a peak season green fee of £180, it might be the best value round in the entire Top 100.

In this episode, Nish and Chris review the full round — hole by hole highlights, the top three holes (including the legendary road hole 5th and the clifftop drama of the 17th), what to expect from the clubhouse and facilities, whether the trip itself is worth making, and whether Castletown sneaks into their all-time Top 5. Plus: the signature hole challenge resumes, and the results go exactly as badly as you'd expect.

🏌️ What we cover:
– First impressions arriving on the Isle of Man (Manx TT weekend chaos included)
– The ferry crossing, the weather triangulation method, and the Hotel of Doom
– Castletown's history: Old Tom Morris, Dr. Alister MacKenzie & Mackenzie Ross
– Course conditions — honest assessment of where it stands vs the Top 100
– Top three holes: Hole 4, the Road Hole (5), and the clifftop 17th
– Playing the black tees — and why you should too
– Why this course could become an elite destination golf resort
– Three reasons every Top 100 hunter should make the trip
– Signature hole challenge update: all square after 23 courses

📍 Castletown Golf Links, Isle of Man | Ranked #93 Top 100 GB & Ireland
💷 Green fee: ~£180 peak season

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#CastletownGolfLinks #IsleOfManGolf #LinksGolf #Top100Golf #GolfPodcastUK

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