Most recent plays

There’s no doubting that the Castle course doesn’t fit easily into the collection of courses that are administered by the St. Andrews Links Trust.

After nine holes I was wondering if the Eden links would be my favourite of all the courses at St. Andrews and, despite a run of blander holes on the back-nine, it is still more than worth seeing.

The New course, albeit built back in 1895 by Old Tom Morris, is a championship links in its own right; par is 71 and the maximum yardage is 6,625.

I had wanted to play Lundin Golf Club for a number of years, ever since I glimpsed across from neighbouring Leven Links in the summer of 2001.

Muirfield is one of the most historically important golfing venues in the world.

The Links at Rush Golf Club is a wonderful little golf course played over some terrific terrain and is somewhere I'd strongly advise any links-lover to seek out if in the vicinity.

After reading Pat Ruddy's brilliant welcome, titled "A Primeval Golf Challenge" at the front of the course guide of The European Club I so desperately wanted to fall in love with this golf course and consider it (as touted by the owner and creator) one of the "great golf links of the world".

Arriving in the car park at Arklow Golf Club on a beautifully warm and sunny Spring afternoon with the sun low in the sky my mouth dropped at the view down below in front of me.

The Burrow Links is not a patch on the Old course but caters for a different type of golfer.

There is so much good things happening at Rosslare it is a mystery why it doesn't get talked about amongst more esteemed company.

I arrived at Laytown & Bettystown Golf Club on the back of a morning round at Seapoint and a lap of St. Anne's the day before.

I'd previously spied Seapoint Golf Links on a visit to Ireland a couple of years ago when I had teed it up at the excellent and neighbouring Baltray.

I arrived at St. Anne's Golf Club, less than five minutes before my tee-time, in a state of high stress.

Seacroft is a golf course for those who like their links golf pure and undiluted.

Finding good quality heathland golf north of the Surrey sand-belt is no easy task.

It's a long time since I've walked off a golf course and been as impressed and surprised, compared to what I was expecting, than at Newbiggin.

A family holiday brought me to Whitby Golf Club. After stuffing myself with fish & chips, losing most of my money on the penny slots and catching umpteen crabs in the harbour it was time for a round of golf!

Planning a round of golf in late October can be a dicey affair, especially in my home county of Yorkshire where the vast majority of courses are built on heavy soil or clay, so it was very refreshing to discover when venturing down south how well East Berkshire played at this time of year.

Located close to Darlington in County Durham Rockliffe Hall has all the assets you would expect of a modern, luxury golf resort with first-class facilities.

Copt Heath is a very fine parkland golf course that requires precision, plotting and a deft touch around the slick greens.

The Blue is a mix of American-style design and traditional English parkland. It's an unusual combination which makes the most of the terrain available. It was designed by Simon Gidman and opened in 1994.

Beaconsfield is an enamouring wooded, parkland course situated in Buckinghamshire with a largely intact Harry Colt routing from 1913.

Following a 4:00am alarm call we’d already driven for more than six hours and covered over 350 road miles before boarding a ferry at Oban sailing to Lochboisdale.

The Dunskey course at Portpatrick is one of the most fun and enjoyable I have played in Scotland.

Not many people know but there is also a third course at Turnberry and this is the nine hole Arran course.

Since my last visit in 2017 when the second course here was called the Kintyre much has changed.

Girvan is very much a tale of two halves although mathematically speaking it is actually a story of 8/18's (or should that be four-ninths?) and 10/18's.

The Fullarton links is one of three courses emanating from the starters office at the Troon Municipal golf complex which is owned, managed and run by South Ayrshire Council.

The Hillhouse loop, formerly part of the main course but now a standalone nine hole layout, is an absolute treat.

Stranraer is not a great course but it is certainly a very good one with no two holes the same and boasts lots of varied and interesting shots.

East Sussex National is a big hotel, spa and golf complex near Uckfield in, er... well as you might be able to guess.... East Sussex.

East Sussex National is a big hotel, spa and golf complex near Uckfield in, er... well as you might be able to guess.... East Sussex.

Located just outside leafy Ottershaw in Surrey the Foxhills resort is a high class venue with three golf courses. The Club has staged a number of prestigious tournaments since it opened in 1975, including the European Tour’s Tournament Players Championship and the Qualifying School.

Located just outside leafy Ottershaw in Surrey the Foxhills resort is a high class venue with three golf courses. The Club has staged a number of prestigious tournaments since it opened in 1975, including the European Tour’s Tournament Players Championship and the Qualifying School.

Flempton is a lovely, tucked away, nine-holer close to the market town of Bury St. Edmunds in the sleepy Suffolk countryside.

There's a wonderful sense of scale and grandeur to the 18 holes at North Foreland Golf Club that adorn the clifftops at Kingsgate in the North-East corner of Kent.

Prince's is a truly superb 27-hole links complex that makes for a great play & stay venue but the emphasis is certainly more on the play side of things, it's all about the golf here.

Prince's is a truly superb 27-hole links complex that makes for a great play & stay venue but the emphasis is certainly more on the play side of things, it's all about the golf here.

Wildernesse is a real Kentish treat located just outside the M25 near Sevenoaks.

A bit like a coin there are two sides to Thurlestone.

An unusual creature called Mullion Golf Club lies on the southern Cornish coast.

Looking out from the clubhouse at Berwick upon Tweed Golf Club you would be forgiven for thinking that the course wasn’t really up to a great deal. You would be wrong. Very wrong.

I’ve been keen to play both courses at the Fairmont Resort on the outskirts of St. Andrews for some time and finally made that a reality in October 2020 just a matter of days after the Torrance course had played host to a European Tour event.

Every now and again you stumble across a golf course that takes your breath away.

The Craighead course at Crail is a very different challenge to the links of Balcomie, but no less memorable.

I’ve been keen to play both courses at the Fairmont Resort on the outskirts of St. Andrews for some time and finally made that a reality in October 2020 just a matter of days after the Torrance course had played host to a European Tour event.

The Silverburn course, home of Aberdeen Ladies Golf Club, and offers a great deal but sadly doesn’t quite live up to its excellent early billing.

The Strabathie course at Murcar is a little nine-hole relief course that has two sets of tees and plays to 5,364 yards if you are to go round twice, par is 70.

Strathlene was the final Scottish golf course I played that features in the True Links book by George Peper and Malcolm Campbell – a publication that details all the genuine links golf courses in the world.

It’s a long time since I have walked off a golf course with as big of a smile on my face as I did at Rosehearty!

Portmahomack Golf Club, sometimes known as Tarbat, is situated above the quaint seaside village of the same name on the Southern shores of the Dornoch Firth.

Established in 1890 Grantown-on-Spey Golf Club is a picturesque and varied course situated in the heart of the beautiful Cairngorm National Park.

Delamere Forest must go down as the biggest surprise of the year for me, and a very pleasant one at that.

As you would expect from a club that has seen the Claret Jug contested over its links on no less than eleven occasions Royal Lytham & St. Annes didn't disappoint.

During a recent family holiday to Edinburgh an afternoon pass from the wife gave my son and I the opportunity to drive 90 minutes north to Tayport for a round of golf.

Located in the very heart of the Lake District, Windermere Golf Club must be one of the most adventurous golf courses I know and I make no apology for loving bamboozling layouts like this.

It’s not until you are willing to venture a little bit off the beaten path that you are able to discover such golfing gems as Dunnerholme.

Powfoot is a no-nonsense golf course close to the Solway Firth just over the English-Scottish Border in Dumfries & Galloway.

Silecroft is a springy, nine-hole clifftop links occupying a compact strip of coastal land high above the Irish Sea in the Western Lake District.

Seascale is a 125-year old links oozing charm, character and class.

Furness could well be deemed the forgotten links of Cumbria.

I've been raving about the golf course at Hollinwell to anybody who would listen for the last 20 years since I first played here.

The drive into Royal Dublin Golf Club, over a splendid wooden bridge, sets a fabulous scene for golfing at one of Ireland’s most revered yet underrated golf courses.

The Island, which is not on an island, is a golf course that has an enormous amount of cohesive variety.

Founded in 1892 County Louth Golf Club, home of the East of Ireland Amateur Championship, is a pure links golf experience played over a wonderful and sprawling dunescape.

The nine hole ‘links’ at Sutton Golf Club, just to the north of Dublin, makes a promising start, dips alarmingly in the middle but then finishes extremely strongly.

Corballis Links is a real head-spinner of a golf course around a 30 minute drive north of Dublin.

Portmarnock Hotel & Links, not to be confused with the neighbouring 125-year-old Portmarnock Golf Club, is a modern course designed by Bernhard Langer in 1996.

Located on the edge of the picturesque Sheephaven Bay in County Donegal the Rosapenna Resort is a fascinating golf facility tucked away in a corner on the North-West coast of Ireland.

If there are golf courses in heaven I suspect they will be very much in the spirit of Cruit Island.

The Old Tom Morris course, with origins going back to 1893, is a mixed bag with two disjointed nines where you must walk through the car park at the halfway stage (pet hate alert). It is very much is a case of where modern and tradition meet.

The terrain for golf at Ballyliffin – located at the remote tip of the Inishowen Peninsula where mountains, dunes and sea merge together – is the stuff of dreams. Expansive linksland stretches for an eternity on what is a lunar landscape ideal for exceptional golf.

Portsalon provides a wonderful mix of high quality links golf in a beautiful part of Ireland.

North West Golf Club, a founder member of the Golf Union of Ireland located on the Inishowen Peninsula at Buncrana, is a hugely underrated links course laid out on a narrow and compact tract of land.

The terrain for golf at Ballyliffin – located at the remote tip of the Inishowen Peninsula where mountains, dunes and sea merge together – is the stuff of dreams. Expansive linksland stretches for an eternity on what is a lunar landscape ideal for exceptional golf.

On the mile-long drive along a tree-lined, single-lane track towards Donegal Golf Club one would be forgiven for wondering if there was a links course within 100 miles of the dense woodland you are travelling through.

Of all the links golf courses around the Fife Coast the Balcomie Links at Crail must be the most picturesque of them all.

No less than three courses, ranked by number reflecting their age, constitute Gullane Golf Club.

Hankley Common is a heathland paradise played over a sprawling tract of land on the North Surrey Downs where the texture of the property is utterly divine. Pastel colours, sprinkled with tints of purple, give the course a wonderful character which perpetually changes on a seasonal basis.

Wentworth is an exclusive private club in the heart of the Surrey heathbelt where a members invitation is required to play any of the 54 holes comprising the East, West and Edinburgh courses.

Hillside is one of several first-class championship links in prime golfing territory on the West Coast of England. Located tight between Birkdale to the North and Southport & Ainsdale to the South it makes a tasty filling for what is a delicious sandwich of links golf.

I heard the squelch first. The gentle sinking sensation soon followed. However, it was a few seconds before I felt the warm, moist trickling sensation around my ankle. The smell arrived shortly afterwards.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend you visit Colonsay specifically for the golf, however, that's not to suggest you shouldn't visit this beyond beautiful island, inhabited by less than 150 people, in the Hebrides and play their truly unique golf course.

Playing at The Machrihanish Golf Club is perhaps not as romantic a prospect as it was several years ago. None-the-less it’s a fabulous golfing experience.

In the summer of 2019 I returned to Woking after a 20 year absence. Much has changed over the last two decades but the atmosphere of the club and the strategy of the course have not budged an inch.

The inclusion of Effingham in Golf World Magazine’s recent “Top 100 golf courses of England” peaked my interest in this Surrey downland course located just outside the London Orbital.

Enniscrone manages to tread the tricky line between quirk and championship golf perfectly. The blend it creates produces a catalogue of unique, enthralling and funky holes.

County Sligo Golf Club at Rosses Point held the Irish Amateur Open the week prior to my visit and it is understandable why a prestigious venue such as this is deemed worthy of holding a tournament of this ilk.

Carne is a free spirit of the golfing world which has 27 holes of adventurous big dune golf. It is vast and mind-blowing with each hole providing the golfer with a puzzle that must be solved. It’s immense fun trying to do so.

Strandhill Golf Club is a links course that often lives in the shadow of its GB&I Top 100 near neighbour, County Sligo, and that is doing it a real disservice because this befuddling good golf course delivers with a bang and offers great value at the same time.