How To Rate A Golf Course | Golf Monthly
How to judge the quality of a Golf course your are playing on?
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00:00 Hello everyone and welcome to Wapleston Golf Club and this video in association with Peter
00:04 Millar in which we're going to take a look at how you judge the quality of golf course
00:09 that you are playing.
00:10 So I'm going to be joined by Rob Smith and Jeremy Elwood who run our Top 100 Courses
00:15 panel and the editor of Golf Monthly Mike Harris as well to look at the Golf Monthly
00:19 list of Top 100 Courses and in particular how we rank those golf courses.
00:25 Now there are five different criteria that we use to help us judge where each of the
00:30 golf courses sit.
00:31 So we're going to talk through each of those with some key discussion points along the
00:34 way that are well worth bearing in mind whenever you're out playing a golf course for the first
00:38 time.
00:39 Right, let's get started.
00:48 Okay so it's important to say right at the beginning of this part that the way in which
00:51 Golf Monthly rank its Top 100 Courses is slightly different to the way some other people do
00:56 it in that we have five different categories and we're going to look at those in order
01:00 starting with the one that's weighted the most, so the most important.
01:05 So 35% of the score of a golf course will be on, Rob, the quality of the test and design.
01:11 Now obviously the Top 100 Courses have all got great test and design.
01:15 What makes those so good in terms of the way in which they're laid out?
01:18 What you're looking at for this category, and as you say it's the most important of
01:21 the categories, is that you want a golf course that has got every kind of variety of hole
01:27 on it and will therefore keep you interested all the way around but also test you all the
01:31 way around.
01:32 So you want to come off the course having probably used every club in your bag.
01:36 You want bunkers in different places, you want strategic thoughts, you want some risk
01:40 and reward holes, you want holes that turn to the right, holes that turn to the left.
01:44 This is very much about how you would look at a hole if it was drawn for you on a piece
01:49 of paper.
01:50 That's what you're evaluating that hole on, where the hazards are, where the landing areas
01:53 are, how you approach into the green and so on.
01:57 So you want something that's fair, that all golfers can play, but it's still testing so
02:02 that you've really got to think about what you're doing.
02:04 So that's what we mean by the design and test.
02:07 It's really what the golfer has to do to get from the tee into the hole.
02:12 Yeah and I guess it's a really good point that, Robin, that balance that you want from
02:16 a golf course in terms of testing you, being challenging, but also being rewarding as well
02:21 if you play well.
02:22 Now Mike and Jess, give us some examples of golf courses on the list that performed well
02:27 in terms of the quality of the test and design.
02:30 Well I would pick out somewhere like Royal Lytton maybe, where it's maybe not the most
02:36 visually attractive surroundings, enclosed by houses, but each individual hole will make
02:41 you think all the way from tee to green because of its bunkering, because of its topography,
02:47 because of its shape.
02:48 And you're at the far end near the turn, there's changes in elevation where you play up towards
02:54 a couple of greens up there.
02:55 So it's got everything, even though externally it's not got ocean views and glorious sights
03:02 to behold, but it is still very, very well designed golf course.
03:06 Fantastic test of golf, no matter how...
03:07 And a tough closing stretch.
03:08 What handicap you are.
03:09 Mike?
03:10 Well, where we are today, Waffleston is fantastic for its variety of shots.
03:15 There's some nice elevation changes, you play up some holes, you play down to some other
03:20 holes.
03:21 Again, as Rob said, you've got that variety of dogleg left, dogleg right.
03:25 You've got some shorter par fives you can get at, and then you've got a couple of really
03:30 long par fours that are really going to test you.
03:33 The par threes are not all the same length.
03:34 You've got the lovely par three across the water, which you feel like that's a really
03:38 great chance to have a birdie, some of the other par threes here, longer, more testing.
03:43 But I think it's that variety across the ATV.
03:46 I'm going to play devil's advocate here.
03:48 I'm not asking you to name any courses that are on the top 100, because there probably
03:51 aren't any, but what are the things that golf courses do that bug you in terms of the quality
03:56 of the test?
03:57 I'm going to start one, because one that you always say to me, Mike, which is growing up
04:01 long rough beneath the trees.
04:02 So you hit it in the trees and then you can't actually get it out because you're in the
04:05 thick rough.
04:06 Is there anything else that you can think of that is a bit frustrating when you find
04:10 that at a golf course?
04:11 I think if you've got relentlessly long carries, I think is something which is fine for tall
04:19 players and for low single figure golfers.
04:23 But for the ordinary golfer, too many forced carries, I think is, I wouldn't, I'd probably
04:32 mark a course down for that.
04:34 I think for me it would be that demand, as I mentioned earlier, for variety.
04:39 I don't want 18 holes that are the same regimented through the trees.
04:45 The four par threes are pretty much the same length and you've got the same shot coming.
04:49 I want that variety and therefore to have to think about different things on each hole.
04:54 Yeah.
04:55 Jez?
04:56 I would go for already long par four, testing long par fours, 450 yards, and then they throw
05:00 a really tricky green and a very narrow entrance at you as well.
05:04 And you're thinking, I've done the hard par here, I've got the green, now I don't want
05:07 to take three or four more shots to get down.
05:10 I think if you've got a long par four, don't make the green amongst the most tricky on
05:15 the golf course.
05:16 Yeah, I would agree with that.
05:18 I think there's always a really good principle of hard par, easy bogey.
05:24 Again, I think it's something which, yes, there should be a test and you should feel
05:28 like it's an achievement if you've made par.
05:31 But making a bogey, that gives you that option to have a bailout shot.
05:36 A way out.
05:37 Yeah.
05:38 To not cross 18 holes, not keep on forcing carries whether it's over bunkers or over
05:44 all.
05:45 Yeah, I believe that is what Bobby Jones wanted all the holes at Augusta to be.
05:48 He used that very phrase effectively, hard par, easy bogey.
05:52 Yeah, and I think we can all agree that's a fairly good golf course.
05:56 So 35% of a course's mark goes on quality of test and design.
06:01 30% goes on the conditioning and the presentation of the golf course.
06:05 Rob?
06:06 Well, that's obviously vital because there's no point in having a lovely golf course in
06:10 front of you, but you can't play it because the surfaces aren't correct.
06:14 What you want is true greens, are of a consistent pace all the way through all 18.
06:17 You don't want them to be really fast.
06:19 Absolutely not.
06:20 But it's the consistency.
06:21 It's the only important thing really.
06:22 Obviously, you don't want them to be stale pace, but you want them to be the same pace
06:27 all the way through so that you don't suddenly get caught out because that's so different
06:31 from what you've just played.
06:32 And it's the same with the way all the way.
06:34 You want the bunkers to be well presented.
06:35 You want any hazards, if you can use that word anymore, such as water hazards and so
06:39 on, to be nicely lined and to look good.
06:42 So the whole presentation, first cut of rough, if there is one second cut of rough and so
06:45 on, you want it to look and feel and then most importantly, play consistently all the
06:50 way through.
06:51 Yeah, and actually it's quite an interesting point here because I feel as if there are
06:54 some golf courses that can look and feel rugged, but they're also well maintained.
06:59 I think sometimes when you talk about condition, people get caught up in that sort of Augusta
07:03 mindset of having it absolutely pristine, but actually it can be rugged, but it could
07:08 also be in fantastic condition as well.
07:10 Oh, 100%.
07:11 I think if you talked about Royal West Norfolk, Brancaster or something like Royal North Devon,
07:17 they are meant to be natural golf courses.
07:20 Some of the links in Ireland and Scotland, they're not meant to be pristine.
07:24 It wouldn't be appropriate.
07:25 I think appropriate conditioning is.
07:28 So on an inland course, particularly on a parkland course, I think you do expect courses
07:33 to be, of course, immaculate.
07:35 I know a Dare Manor perhaps is the ultimate inland, conditioning wise, ultimate inland.
07:43 It's incredible.
07:44 You sort of, the tees, you could almost be greens at some golf courses.
07:48 The approaches are incredible.
07:51 That comes at a cost too.
07:53 Absolutely.
07:54 I think we have a lot of maintenance teams, big green grouping teams.
07:58 I think almost they'd have as many for 18 holes as 36 hole course would have.
08:04 But that's appropriate for that type of golf course.
08:07 It wouldn't be appropriate for links to be absolutely pristine.
08:11 It needs to have that element of ruggedness.
08:14 And feeling natural, totally natural to its environment.
08:17 Yeah.
08:18 Jezza, give us another course that you'd like to give a shout out to in terms of conditioning.
08:22 Well, Rob's home club, it's probably better that I speak.
08:25 Tannridge is not very far from us.
08:27 Probably the closest top 100 course to my home, Tannridge in Surrey.
08:32 And I've played it a few times and thought it's kind of on the cusp of top 100.
08:36 I played it last summer with these two gentlemen and it was just absolutely immaculate, the
08:42 best condition I've ever seen it.
08:44 And when you're on the cusp, just that little extra percentage in that category can't be
08:49 enough to be over the edge.
08:51 Because there's so many great golf courses.
08:52 So many great golf courses.
08:53 Because it's important to say there is a lot of fantastic golf courses in the UK that are
08:56 not in the top 100 that are well worth, obviously, considering.
08:59 And we do consider them very dearly.
09:01 You know, our next 100, you wouldn't be disappointed if you played any of them.
09:04 And probably the next 300 beyond that.
09:06 But somehow we've got to differentiate between them.
09:09 Which is one of the challenges that you chaps face.
09:12 Now, the next one is, for me, is really important because I always want to play a golf course
09:19 that is fun and has an element of excitement about it.
09:23 And I think that probably manifests itself in the visual appeal, which we give 15% of
09:28 the weighting to.
09:29 Rob, tell us a bit about that side of things.
09:33 Well, it covers two aspects, really.
09:35 One is, as you're standing on the tee or on the fairway, what do you see in front of you?
09:39 What's the test in front of you?
09:40 How good does that look?
09:41 How much does it get your juices going?
09:43 How much does it excite you?
09:44 But also you're really talking about the backdrop.
09:46 So behind the hole, what's going on over there?
09:49 But outside the course, and obviously you've got so many links courses, there's views over
09:52 the sea, if you're lucky enough to have those, really count for a fair bit too.
09:56 So we've got 15% of visual appeal.
09:58 And I think that's really important.
09:59 So it's what takes the original architect's design off the page and brings it into life.
10:04 The visual appeal is really important.
10:06 Yeah.
10:07 Yeah.
10:08 It's interesting.
10:09 I see Rob's got three courses down there that he sort of picked out.
10:11 So I'm going to sort of steal Rob's homework there.
10:13 I talk about Old Head over in Ireland.
10:16 You'll see many, many, many famous photographs of Old Head.
10:20 It is a spectacular place.
10:21 It's incredible.
10:22 You know, it's almost, you know, these high cliffs, you know, you've got dramatic drops,
10:28 you've got amazing, you know, the lighthouse.
10:29 It's almost like one of those fancy golf holes.
10:31 Yeah, absolutely.
10:32 But in real life.
10:33 Yeah.
10:34 And then you've got Hollingwell, Knox Golf Club.
10:37 Which is interesting because it's so different to Old Head.
10:39 It's like a totally different thing, isn't it?
10:41 And I think that sort of, you know, that's about inner beauty that you actually hold
10:45 lovely.
10:46 Yeah.
10:47 Really, really fantastic, peaceful place to play golf.
10:50 And then the other one you put there is Gleneagles.
10:52 Naturally, interestingly, for this ranking, we have four in the Centenary course.
10:56 It's been sat outside of the Top 100.
10:59 I think we just feel like the presentation of the golf courses, all three of the Gleneagles
11:03 have been moved to another level.
11:05 And then, of course, you've got the beauty of the, you know, Perthshire Hills, you know,
11:11 sort of the backdrop for all three of the courses that we've moved the Centenary course
11:17 in alongside the Kings and the Queens.
11:18 I think it was a three.
11:20 I think to carry the Gleneagles thing a little bit further, the first time I played there,
11:25 it didn't stop raining the whole day.
11:27 I played 36 holes and I loved every minute of it because the setting just blew me away.
11:31 I couldn't hold a club by the end, but it was just such a beautiful place to play.
11:36 It is.
11:37 It's spectacular.
11:38 Now, so you go from 15% for visual appeal to 10% for the facilities, which is, again,
11:44 a really important part of the mix because you want to play a golf course, great golf
11:49 course, but you also, there's other stuff that goes on around that that elevates the
11:52 experience even further.
11:53 Well, it's a big day out for all of us to play a Top 100 course is a real treat.
11:58 For many people, it's a treat.
11:59 They can't do that often.
12:00 So it's absolutely the whole day out that we're looking at here.
12:04 So you want to be in a clubhouse that's comfortable, is welcoming, is friendly.
12:08 You want, if you're the kind of person who warms up beforehand, you want a practice ground
12:14 where you can get your swing going.
12:16 Which you're all welcome.
12:17 A halfway hut that's nice is good.
12:19 And sometimes it's at the clubhouse.
12:21 Sometimes we've got some real crackers.
12:22 We mentioned something earlier.
12:24 Out on the course as well.
12:26 You want the whole thing.
12:27 You want the whole package for your day out, I think.
12:30 Without a doubt.
12:31 So give us something that you think.
12:33 Well, let me say Dun Donald is another course that's come in this time and it's always been
12:37 a strong golf course.
12:38 It's hosted the Scottish Open and it's on that glorious stretch of coast in Ayrshire,
12:44 but it never had a clubhouse.
12:47 Now it's got a fantastic clubhouse as well as the accommodation, which is a separate
12:50 thing.
12:51 But just getting that proper clubhouse rather than, all right, it's a nice cabin, nice temporary
12:57 clubhouse.
12:58 But now it's got the proper facility to match the experience you're getting out on the golf
13:02 course.
13:03 And when you're right on the cusp again, it's just enough to take you from outside to inside.
13:08 I think it's really important.
13:10 I mean, as Rob said, to play a top 100 golf course is a significant investment on the
13:14 green fees.
13:15 The green fees are really high.
13:17 So we are ordinary golfers.
13:20 We're not professionals.
13:21 That's the whole thing about the golf club.
13:24 It's sort of for golfers by golfers.
13:26 And if you don't play brilliantly, and if that perhaps the quality of testing design
13:31 is, you know, sort of beats you up, you still want to see a beautiful golf course that's
13:35 well presented.
13:36 And from when you arrive to when you leave, the facility that is for us, part of our rankings.
13:42 I know for some other rankings, they're literally first tee to 18th green.
13:48 And that was just really looked at the golf course.
13:51 We don't take into account accommodation, but it's pretty much everything else that
13:55 as a regular visiting golfer, you will experience.
13:58 So the locker room, the shower is good.
14:00 You know, the quality of food is really good as well.
14:03 Yeah.
14:04 You know, and again, appropriately priced.
14:05 We've got a good section of beer behind us.
14:08 But anyway, for us three, all four of us, you know, a really nice pint of beer at the
14:13 end of the round or a good glass of wine is, you know, that's what is encapsulated in that
14:19 facility.
14:20 10% of them are.
14:21 I think I just mentioned, you know, the facilities don't have to be grand.
14:24 You have to match the, you know, I've just been to Porthcawl and the clubhouse there
14:28 is not grand in any way.
14:30 But if you sit in that wood panelled room looking out to sea with a little tipple of
14:35 something up around, however badly or well you've played, all is kind of well with the
14:40 world.
14:41 That's a place I love going to.
14:43 OK, so 10% of the weighting goes to the facilities, but 10% also goes to something that we're
14:49 calling experience, which is a bit more subjective, isn't it?
14:52 It's hard to kind of put an exact mark against it, but it's a really important part of the
14:57 mix when it comes to judging these golf courses.
15:00 It's very important, but it recognises the fact that we're all different and we all like
15:03 different things and get pleased by different things.
15:05 But ultimately, we kind of end up marking these in the same way.
15:09 It's the most subjective of the five criteria because it's about how did you feel?
15:14 How great was the occasion?
15:16 How warm was the welcome?
15:18 So it's about the touchy-feely stuff that you really can't write down and define very
15:22 clearly, but it's still important to the overall experience of your day out at a lovely top
15:26 100 course.
15:27 Yeah, because I guess a lot of people watching this may have been to a fantastic golf course
15:31 where perhaps the welcome hasn't been perhaps as good as they were looking for, because
15:35 you really want to be treated like and feel like you're remembered for the day when you
15:38 go to these golf courses, don't you?
15:40 Yeah, I think it's interesting.
15:41 North Berwick actually have it as a sign.
15:44 There is a sign, "Juicy coming in."
15:46 "Hey, Avista Greenfield, you are a member for the day."
15:49 Again, I'm cribbing off Rob's notes again here.
15:53 It's the welcome from both staff and from members as well.
15:57 I think that can be, "You guys were all Neil and Jez.
16:01 You'll remember the time that we went and played at a course that shall remain nameless
16:04 where we were running late.
16:06 We were on the way back from the Turnberry Open and we'd stopped in.
16:09 We'd been held up by traffic.
16:11 We had to get out the car onto the tee to make our tee time and quickly change shoes
16:17 in the car park so we could get out quickly.
16:19 A member came over and said, "You can't change your shoes in the car park."
16:22 It could have said, "Do you need to know where the locker room is?"
16:28 It makes a difference.
16:30 People who are investing their hard-earned money and going to the Top 100 golf course
16:36 really want to make it feel like it's a special day.
16:39 Jez, tell us somewhere that you feel comes out really well when it comes to the experience.
16:45 I think a lot of them do because, as Mike says, they're charging a lot of money.
16:51 It is the ones that maybe in the last 10 to 15 years, a lot of them have really come on
16:56 in that regard.
16:57 A lot of the top clubs, the traditional members clubs, maybe 15 years ago did think, "It's
17:04 a privilege for you to come here so you'll do it how we want to do it."
17:07 There's definitely been a real change in focus that these people are paying two, three hundred
17:12 pounds.
17:13 They need to be treated like customers.
17:16 I think it's interesting because the number of club managers, secretaries as you would
17:23 have called them, have experience in the hospitality sector.
17:27 They go and do a lot of research in the hospitality sector to see how great hotels, great restaurants,
17:34 what do they do to make their customers feel really welcome, a really special experience.
17:40 Again, you want to come back regardless of how well you play.
17:44 "I had such a great day there.
17:45 What did you shoot?
17:46 I don't know.
17:47 Probably millions, but I want to go back."
17:48 I think that for me is always the mark of a really great experience.
17:52 It doesn't matter how you play, I want to go back because I had such a great day.
17:56 If you can add that to that sense of occasion that you get from turning up to play somewhere
17:59 that has that spectacular look and feel to it, then you're on to a real winner.
18:03 There you have it.
18:04 That's our look at how we rank golf courses at Golf Monthly.
18:08 Now, it's important to say here that we haven't actually changed the criteria for
18:13 Jens.
18:14 I think we had a minor recalibration maybe 10 years ago where we weighted something slightly
18:19 differently in essence.
18:21 Very little has changed since day one.
18:22 Yes.
18:23 It shows you that hopefully the consistency that we brought to the rankings provides a
18:27 bit of confidence that hopefully what you're getting with our top 100 are just fantastic
18:31 golf courses that are going to, in different ways, tick every single box that you've
18:36 got.
18:37 That's it for now from Wapleston.
18:38 Thanks very much for watching.
18:39 We'll see you next time.
18:40 [music]