Even those with a passing interest in Scottish golf have probably heard about the project to build a new golf course at Coul Links, close to Royal Dornoch. The project is a bold one, to take a piece of neglected land, rife with invasive vegetation, and restore the duneland at the same time as creating a golf course to match the very best in the world. While many in the golf world, and the local community, are keen to see the course built, the project has been dogged with controversy. In 2020 the local authorities approved the development of Coul Links, but the Scottish government blocked the ..read more

Welcome to another year of golf, and another year of astronomical green fee increases. Regular readers of this blog will know that I have been moaning for years about the increases in UK green fees. Well 2024 is going to a bonanza year for moaning! The average green fee at a top 100 golf course in the UK is £220 - up 9.6% on 2023 The average green fee at a top 25 course is £321 - up 12% on 2023 A couple of methodological points - I have used the peak summer green fee at every course - normally weekend fees. The data was collected over the last few weeks and one or two may yet change. Th ..read more

It’s a rare week now when a golf course Top 100 ranking doesn’t come out. They almost always provoke some debate on social media, but some are more useful than others. It’s rare, for example, in a UK & Ireland list to discover something new and interesting in the top echelons of the ranking. But I think that a good Continental Europe list stands out from the crowd and adds a lot. When it comes to Europe, many golfers are familiar with a few courses in the Algarve or the Costa del Sol but beyond that, are a bit hazy. Almost all of the best golf in Europe lies away from these hotspots, which ..read more

Every two years certain sections of the golf world hold their breath as they wait for the US-based GOLF Magazine World Top 100 list to appear. For some clubs, inclusion on the list will lead to a boost in business and reputation. For some, expulsion will lead to a drop in visitor numbers and hard questions being asked. But for others, normally those that have been around a while longer, it will mean nothing but bragging rights over their friends at the club next door. And of course, let’s not forget those brave souls trying to play the top 100 courses in the world. The exclusion of a hard-to-a ..read more

I arrived at Marco Simone yesterday, venue for September’s Ryder Cup, with some trepidation. I’d not heard too many good things about the course. When the pros played here first in 2021 they were unusually scathing about the course.  A recent No Laying Up podcast eviscerated it. Host Soly declared, on a visit to watch the Italian Open, that he would rather play The Belfry ten times than play here once he disliked it so much. As if that wasn’t enough, an Italian friend who knows a thing or two about golf courses (he’s building one in Scotland just now) played the course a few weeks ago an ..read more

The genesis for this piece came in a reply I received to a tweet I posted about the PGA Tour’s recent decision not to adopt the model local rule for a reduced distance golf ball. One of the responders opined, ‘Fans like to watch the pros bomb it, it’s that simple’. Bryson DeChambeau had a similar view of the proposal, saying, ‘I think it’s the most unimaginative, uninspiring, game-cutting thing you could do. Everybody wants to see people hit it farther.’ Fans of the excellent, if annoyingly sporadic, State of the Game podcast will long have heard Clayton, Shackelford and Morri question this as ..read more

I get a fair amount of offers for different golf experiences around the world, but when one dropped into my email earlier this year it didn’t take me long to decide to accept. Jet2.com have launched a new golf package service to the Algarve and asked me to try it out for them. It had been a fair few years since I’d visited this part of the world, and flights were direct from Edinburgh, so it was a pretty easy decision to say yes. Knowing what you are getting into on any golf trip is important, and the Algarve golf holidays formula is a fairly well tested one for many Brits. Wall to wall sunshi ..read more

Once again, I have looked at green fee inflation on the top 100 UK golf courses and, once again, the results are sobering. But first, a little bit on methodology. The rates compared are the rates for peak summer green fees at the top 100 golf courses in the UK who allow green fee play. The list is an amalgamation of the top 100 lists from Today’s Golfer, Golf Monthly, Top100golfcourses.com and National Club Golfer. Most of the green fees are weekend rates, but some courses don’t allow unaccompanied visitors at weekends so, in those cases, I’ve taken the highest available weekday rate. Of cours ..read more

I came across Ru several years ago when he launched the excellent Scottish Golf Podcast - back in the days when there weren’t as many golf podcasts as there are today! It proved an invaluable resource for planning a golf trip to Scotland and Ru’s expertise led to appearances on many other shows, including No Laying Up and State of the Game. Ru is a very busy man. He works at the European Tour in its brilliant social media team, and on top of that, has moved into hospitality with the launch of The Dunes at Cruden Bay. Look no further for perfect golf accommodation in the North East of Scotland ..read more

I’m delighted to be able to share Clyde Johnson’s favourite courses. Following a postgraduate degree in Landscape Architecture at the University of Georgia, Clyde secured an internship with Tom Doak and hasn’t looked back since. He has been heavily involved in some of the most exciting recent projects in golf - Tara It, Te Arai, The Gunnamatta and St Patrick’s Links to name a few. But Clyde doesn’t only work on new courses. He has also been responsible for some impressive restoration work. Whether he has been returning Titirangi’s green to MacKenzie’s vision, or turning his artist’s eye to Alw ..read more