Biggest Risers In Golf Monthly's Top 100 Course Rankings

Golf Monthly Top 100 course rankings — (Image credit: Kevin Murray)

Jeremy Ellwood rounds up the star performers when it comes to climbing the Top 100 rankings

Biggest Risers In Golf Monthly's Top 100 Course Rankings

There's no denying that Top 100 course rankings have become increasingly competitive arenas.

For clubs, they can be a real source of pride and recognition for the continuous hard work that goes into managing a golf course in sometimes unfavourable conditions.

To make significant gains in this field is extremely tough and requires effort and vision that could be considered to go well beyond the norm.

More and more clubs now have that vision and are making that effort, so there are more than a few movers in Golf Monthly's latest Top 100 update - including a new No. 1.

Video: Digital Editor Neil Tappin along with Senior Panellists Rob Smith and Jezz Ellwood discuss the biggest risers in the new Top 100...

Let's start with the remote links at The Machrie, which was a re-entry at 90 last time shortly after fully reopening.

More panellists made their way out to Islay this time, and their universally glowing praise, coupled with ongoing bunker improvements, see it leap a massive 38 places to 52nd as it finds its true level.

Liphook Golf Club in Hampshire is our other double-digit climber following completion of a project that has seen two new holes built and three others significantly remodelled by Tom Mackenzie.

The merging of the 10th and 11th into one glorious long par 4 was something that Tom Simpson apparently suggested as far back as the 1930s!

Jon Rahm putting on the third hole at Lahinch during the 2019 Irish Open

The classic links at Lahinch, where Jon Rahm won the 2019 Irish Open, and Royal Cinque Ports are up six and five places respectively after further improvements, while among those to climb three are Hillside and Nairn.

Both have enjoyed major upgrades, but when you're already breathing the rarefied air of our top 40, the scope for bigger gains is more limited, even more so for the fabled Royal County Down, which has also climbed three to hit No. 1 for the first time.

On the rise

Two double-digit climbs and a number of smaller, but still significant, jumps form the headline acts in our latest rankings shake-up below:

52nd - The Machrie, up 38 places
55th - Liphook, up 11 places
28th - Lahinch (Old), up 6 places
53rd - Royal Cinque Ports, up 5 places
36th - St Enodoc (Church), up 4 places
31st - Hillside, up 3 places
35th - Nairn (Championship), up 3 places
1st - Royal County Down (Championship), up 3 places
56th - The Berkshire (Blue), up 3 places
72nd - The Island, up 3 places

The full 2020/21 Golf Monthly UK and Ireland Top 100 rankings can be viewed in the brand new May issue of Golf Monthly magazine, on sale 1st April 2021

BUY NOW: Golf Monthly May Issue 2021

TOPICS

Jeremy Ellwood (Jezz) has worked in golf since 1993 and for Golf Monthly since 2002 when he started out as equipment editor. He is a senior panelist for Golf Monthly's Top 100 UK & Ireland Course Rankings and has played all the Top 100 plus 94 of the Next 100, making him well-qualified to compare our premier tracks. He has played over 1,100 courses in 35 countries, from remote nine-holers in the Scottish Highlands to grand international resorts, hitting the 1,000 mark on his 60th birthday in October 2023 on Vale do Lobo's Ocean course. Put him on a links course anywhere and he'll be blissfully content.

Contact Jezz on X - @JezzEllwoodGolf

Jeremy is playing...

Driver: Ping G425 LST

3 wood: Srixon ZX

Hybrid: Ping G425

Irons 4- to 11-iron: Honma TWorld TW747Vx

Wedge: Ping Glide 54˚

Putter: Ping Fetch