Top 100 Golf Courses UK & Ireland 2025/26

A very warm welcome to the 2025/26 Golf Monthly UK&I Top 100 and Next 100 course rankings in association with Peter Millar.

This is now the 11th of our biennial lists, which we strongly believe have evolved to be an honest, representative and trustworthy ranking of the best 200 courses that are open to all. Initially featuring 120 courses, we made the decision in 2009/10 to switch to a more logical Top 100 at the same time as adding a second tier, the Next 100.

At Golf Monthly, we take great pride in the fact that our Top 100 is compiled by regular, knowledgeable, enthusiastic club golfers. Our reader panel includes one or two who have been with us since the start as well as a couple who made their debuts this time round. They, along with the staff panel, have between them visited every course in the new Top 100 in the two years since the last list was compiled.

Senior panellists Rob Smith and Jeremy Ellwood have been involved in the rankings since 2009, and this has enabled consistency while so much around has changed.

As ever, standards have continued to rise. You rarely see a course in the Top 100 or Next 100 in anything but fine condition, which is perhaps why there has been less change this time round than ever before.

There are few big jumps or falls and just two re-entries, with a couple of other candidates very narrowly missing out. For any course to maintain position within the Top 100 calls for improvement.

With few exceptions, those that have dropped a few places have not declined, they have simply been overtaken by others. Each and every one of our Top 100 courses is still exceptional and comes thoroughly recommended.

No golfer will agree with all of the positions in our new Top 100, but we have always acknowledged that subjectivity is at work, while striving to make it as objective as possible. What we ultimately love about it is that it serves as a source of endless debate and enjoyable discovery.

We are delighted to be continuing our partnership with Peter Millar, one of the world’s leading and most dynamic premium apparel brands. Its products are stocked at almost every course in the Top 100, which makes them a perfect fit with our rankings.

Top 100 Courses UK&I: The Top 10

1. ROYAL COUNTY DOWN GOLF CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP COURSE

• Location: Newcastle, County Down, Northern Ireland
• Founded: 1889
• Designed by: Old Tom Morris, George Combe, Harry Vardon and Harry Colt
• 25/26 ranking: No change

A combination of the towering Mountains of Mourne in the backdrop on many holes and the Irish sea flanking the opening three makes for visual appeal that arguably puts Royal County Down as the most spectacular setting of any of the UK and Ireland's traditional links

Now over a century and a quarter old, this fabled links in Newcastle on the County Down coast is not only one of the best links courses in the UK but also one of the best on the planet.

- Royal County Down review and key info

2. ST ANDREWS LINKS OLD COURSE

• Location: St Andrews, Fife, Scotland
• Opened: 1552
• Designed by: Old Tom Morris and Daw Anderson (1850s)
• 25/26 ranking: No change

Playing The Old Course is an experience completely different from any other in golf. It is one where atmosphere and ambience is paramount as just about every legendary golfer has competed over this historic, iconic stretch of links.

With its double greens and crossovers, challenging slopes and world-famous bunkers, there is nothing quite like it.

- St Andrews Old review and key info

3. TRUMP TURNBERRY RESORT AILSA COURSE

• Location: Turnberry, Ayrshire, Scotland
• Founded: 1902
• Designed by: Archibald Kennedy and William Fernie (Martin Ebert redesign 2016)
• 25/26 ranking: Up 1

The beautiful but testing Ailsa first hosted The Open almost half a century ago in what turned into one of the all-time classics, the Duel in the Sun. In the end, Tom Watson just edged it by a single stroke from the great Jack Nicklaus.

Since then, The Open has been here on three further occasions, so it was a bold move to subsequently make substantial changes in a quest to improve it further. Martin Ebert had made some changes prior to the 2009 Open, and he was called back in but with a far wider remit and greater resources. It has now moved on very dramatically since the original post-war restoration by Philip Mackenzie Ross and is one of the very best golf courses in Scotland.

- Trump Turnberry Ailsa review and key info

4. MUIRFIELD

• Location: Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland
• Founded: 1744 (course opened: 1922)
• Designed by: Old Tom Morris, Harry Colt and Tom Simpson
• 25/26 ranking: Down 1

Muirfield is a near-perfect links, delivering superb variety and a firm but fair test. The unusual two-loops routing means the golfer will never face a succession of holes with a consistent wind direction.

It’s simply a fabulous design providing a stringent examination of every aspect of the game, both physical and mental. We believe the course is the fairest Open test of all, with everything laid out in front of you.

- Muirfield review and key info

5. ROYAL DORNOCH GOLF CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP COURSE

• Location: Dornoch, Sutherland, Scotland
• Founded: 1877
• Designed by: John Sutherland/Old Tom Morris/George Duncan
• 25/26 ranking: Up 1

The earliest confirmed evidence of golf in Dornoch dates from 1616 meaning over 400 years of the sport in the town.

The Golf Club was founded more recently, in 1877, and in 1886 the members invited Old Tom Morris to lay out a more formal course over the links. He was responsible for creating Dornoch’s famous plateau greens with their perplexing upturned saucer shaping. Royal Dornoch is a captivating place that will leave an indelible imprint on the memory.

- Royal Dornoch review and key info

6. ROYAL BIRKDALE GOLF CLUB

• Location: Southport, Merseyside, England
• Founded: 1889
• Designed by: Fred Hawtree and JH Taylor
• 25/26 ranking: Down 1

Royal Birkdale is a sublime and endlessly varied links that is simply the best course in England. It somehow manages to excel not only as a test of golf, but as a treat to the eye, as a lesson in course architecture and as an experience to savour and remember.

It hosted its first Open in 1954 and has now staged the championship ten times, most recently in 2017 when Jordan Spieth won in a thrilling climax. Although the individual holes play along generally level ground, the course is blessed with some of the most impressive dunes in the country that frame and separate the holes beautifully for the golfer.

- Royal Birkdale review and key info

7. ROYAL PORTRUSH GOLF CLUB DUNLUCE COURSE

• Location: Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
• Founded: 1888
• Designed by: Harry Colt
• 25/26 ranking: Up 1

Royal Portrush's Dunluce Links was designed by the godfather of golf course design, Harry Colt, and even before the changes that were applied in preparation for hosting the 2019 Open, there were plenty who felt it was a contender for the best course in the whole of Ireland.

It's a wonderfully natural and extremely good-looking links that is completely at one with its environment. Much is done at Royal Portrush to encourage a diverse ecosystem where flora and fauna flourish, all of which adds to the enjoyment of an already wonderful round of golf.

- Royal Portrush Dunluce review and key info

8. CARNOUSTIE GOLF LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP COURSE

• Location: Carnoustie, Angus, Scotland
• Founded: 1842
• Designed by: Allan Robertson, Old Tom Morris and James Braid
• 25/26 ranking: Down 1

There’s a strong case for saying that Carnoustie’s Championship Course may be the most challenging in our entire top 100 list.

There may be no views of the sea around the course but the terrain is pure links with firm and sandy turf over natural bumps and hollows. The narrow fairways are protected by gorse, streams and magnetic bunkering as they pick their way carefully towards the vast, supremely maintained, greens.

- Carnoustie review and key info

9. SUNNINGDALE GOLF CLUB NEW COURSE

• Location: Sunningdale, Berkshire, England
• Opened: 1923
• Designed by: Harry Colt
• 25/26 ranking: Up 1

Opened for play in 1923, Sunningdale’s New Course has stood the test of time to deliver an exacting examination of the total game. It is the highest-ranked inland course in our top 100 list.

The fairways are fairly generous but offline drives will probably require a hack out either from heavy rough or Sunningdale’s notoriously punishing heather. The greens are fast but receptive, though anything struck poorly or slightly off line will run off. If the test had to be summarised in a sentence, we'd say: Good shots will be rewarded and poor shots punished: The sign of an excellent layout.

- Sunningdale New Course review and key info

10. SUNNINGDALE GOLF CLUB OLD COURSE

• Location: Sunningdale, Berkshire, England
• Opened: 1901
• Designed by: Willie Park Jr
• 25/26 ranking: Down 1

Sunningdale's Old Course is a classic heathland layout that stands as one of the world's best inland courses. Playing up the 18^th towards the clubhouse and the famous oak tree will cause the hairs to stand proud on the necks of all golf lovers.

The course dates from 1901 and is a Willie Park Jnr design. Set across undulating heathland, its fairways are lined by pines and heather with a slightly more rugged feel than its younger brother. The greens are famously fast and true with some perplexing borrows to negotiate. A day at this stunning venue is about as good as it gets as a golfer.

- Sunningdale Old Course review and key info

• Full List: Golf Monthly UK&I Top 100 Courses 2025/26