Top ranking courses.

I just stumbled upon the link below, made me realise how lucky we are here in the UK to be able to play all the top courses. There are only probably 3 or 4 courses in the GB&I top 100 that are not open to Joe Public.

Compare this with the US list where only 16 of their top 100 IS accessible to the man in the street!

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-courses/2011-05/100-greatest-golf-courses

This is very true d4s, I really like the way clubs open their doors to visitors in this country.

From the top 100 list on http://www.top100golfcourses.co.uk/index.asp the only courses I think you would have an issue getting on are.

Rye
Berkshire (although I am not sure)
Loch Lomond

Of course some courses such as muirfield have very limited and very expensive slots available but if you book well in advance you can get a tee time.

But for me the joy is all the courses, even in the top 100, where a phone call on the day or even just turning up is all that is needed to get a tee time. The wealth of great courses you can play in the UK should really be something we all take advantage of.


Contrast that to the US list where the vast majority are very private members clubs. Even those you can get on are very expensive compared to the UK. Although, and this of course is near impossible for most, once you join one of the top 100 private clubs in the US you can usually get on the other ones through contacts or reciprocal arrangements.

I believe Bearwood Lakes (No.47) has a no visitors policy - guests of members only (though I'm sure if you turned up with a suitablbe wad they'd let you play. Not sure it deserves top 100 status though (even if it is quite nice)

Good to see Blackmoor in there - a little gem. Can't understand the inclusion of Forest of Arden though

Mac, Loch Lomond were offering 4 balls for £600 or £800 not that long ago.
Given their perilous financial predicament I foresee them bringing down this price fairly soon making it a bit more accessible to your average golfer.

Super

I am not sure Loch Lomond is worth it at £200 per players or even £150 a player. I can play many similar standard of inland course for much less.


When you consider the price of the top courses in Scotland loch lomond is priced rather strangely at that level.

Of that list of US courses, I'd say there are 40 on the list where play is not possible for 3 or 4 months of the year, because they'll be under yards of snow.

Courses in upstate NY, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Washington, Idaho, Michigan, Kansas, Colorado and a few other states are generally snowbound for 4 months.

And Augusta is closed in the summer anyway!

We are lucky in Britain for sure.

"I am not sure Loch Lomond is worth it at £200 per players or even £150 a player. I can play many similar standard of inland course for much less." Mac.

No you can't

raycastleunited wrote:

McLaren wrote:I am not sure Loch Lomond is worth it at £200 per players or even £150 a player. I can play many similar standard of inland course for much less.

No you can't

Sweeping statement Ray.


As for that list, would be nice to play some and I'd (almost) give a testicle to play Cypress Point if it were possible. We are indeed lucky in these Sceptered Isles.

There are a number of courses on the top100 list which are members and guests only, more than just those mentioned above.

HOWEVER, I completely agree with the sentiment that we are lucky to be able to play most of the great British courses. For approx £150 you can tee it up and stride down the same fairways as the pro's, and face the same challenges you have seen on the telly. you can't turn up and play at Wimbledon, Lords, Wembley but I love the fact you can at St Andrews, Birkdale etc.

Gleneagles £98 - £155 or £320 for four ball

Blaigowrie Rosemount £70 landsdown £50

Scotscraig £75 (day)

Boat of Garten £40

Lanark £50 (day)

To name a few.

Yes a sweeping statement I know!

Is that list supposed to be examples? I had not heard of any of them apart from Gleneagles. They all look nice from their websites, but come on... Lanark, Scotscraig... not in the same league as Loch Lomond

Honestly, I have no desire to play loch lomond. If I want to enjoy the views I will find a nice restaurant and enjoy some good seafood and beer. If I want good golf loch lomond is not the place.

Those courses on the list I gave you would provide a far superior golfing experience to loch lomond.

Further can you please point out the other courses from the uk top 100 you can not get a tee time on.

I'd be amazed if you could get a time at Swinley Forest and absolutely blown away if you could at Queenwood without being a guest, celebrity or royalty.

I hear Swinley Forest is a very hot property right now. Flaming hot in fact

I'm not convinced arson is something worth joking about.

There are some courses that would benefit from a fire. For a start anywhere with excess rough, bushes and trees. Lets name some courses we think fit this bill.

I firstly propose ANGC.

There are very few courses in the GB&I top 100 that you can't get on. Loch Lomond, the Wisley and Queenwood are just about it. There are ways of getting on to places like Swinley and Rye, a formal letter from your Secretary will usually do the trick.

Providing you have loads of disposable income nearly all the courses are playable

Hibbz wrote:I'm not convinced arson is something worth joking about.

I'm not joking. I'm currently say about two miles away from Swinley Forest and the smell of burning peat is very strong. Believe me it's not nice for anyone around here right now especially people whose houses have had to be evacuated

I was going to say The Wisley as one you couldn't get on but it doesn't seem to be in the GB & I's top 100 and I didn't want some pedant being smug and saying so. Well not until I'd had the chance to anyway!!!

And Davie you were making a joke or at least a light hearted remark so at least be honest and apologise if you feel you've over stepped the mark.

If I felt it was overstepping the mark I wouldn't have posted it in the first place

Q. Did you hear the one about the redneck who couldn't tell the
difference between arson and incest?

A. He set fire to his sister.

Mac - stop arson around

davie

That was classic.

Oh I get ya the older boys bullying the new kid.

Mac, I've played Gleneagles, Boat of Garten, Scotscraig and Blairgowrie and can assure you that as good as they are they aren't remotely in the same golfing experience class as Loch Lomond.
Simply because Loch Lomond doesn't fit in to your Doak defined golfing Utopia is no reason for you to mention good but clearly incomparible and inferior courses as providing a better golfing experience.

If money is no option what would I do? mmmm, Boat of Garten or Loch Lomond?

What a tough choice

Hibbz wrote:Oh I get ya the older boys bullying the new kid.

Just banter, makes the world go round :chewie:

Not at all Hibbz. We are glad to have you along.

I should point out that one difference between us and old 606 is that us admins and moderators are also regular members. As a regular member I contribute as much as I can to the forum, trying to helpful, yet also light hearted.

As an admin and moderator I have a responsibility to NOT do things like allow bullying (let alone participate in it myself).

Speaking as a member, you may have had a problem with my initial remark about Swinley Forest, but for a self confessed new kid you could possibly have refrained from jumping in as you did. I meant no malice by the comment and as I've already stated I am close enough to the action that I am seeing the effects of it daily. Yet still you seemed to think it deserved an apology?

Speaking as an admin, I'd say that if you thought you had a valid complaint, then rather than address me on the thread, you could have used the "report post" button and one of the other admins would have dealt with it so keeping it impartial.

In this particular case there is no evidence yet that it was arson anyway. Some kids were arrested on the 3rd or 4th day for allegedly trying to continue the fire after it was partly under control, but as far as I'm aware there are no arson accusations yet for the original fire.

Anyway, as I said, no malice was intended and though I won't apologize for the comment I will apologize if you misunderstood me in any way.

Now, shall we start again? Welcome to the forum

Davie

you smooth talking barsteward....should have been in the diplomatic corp

Oh man look at that animation that's fantastic. Punctuates everything you say better than say punctuation.

Now if only the disable smilies button worked on this forum.

Oh jeez I didn't notice that green prefects badge by your name Davie. I'm really, really sorry for all I have done.

Didn't realise you needed to have posted a certain number of times before you were allowed to give your opinion.

Hibbz

Looks to me like Davie is holding out an olive branch. We don't really do petty squabbles on this forum, my advice is accept the olive branch and we can all move along and enjoy the chat/debate/banter/pisstaking

Hibbz

Sorry, i did not even know you had only posted a few times. Anyway I would much rather hear your opinions on the golfing matters at hand as opposed to these squabbles.

Super

Nothing to do with doak, I just prefer those courses. Although I have not played Locj Lomond. Still it is hard to believe playing that course would be the best use of your time is such a wonderful a beautiful location.

What on earth would you rather be doing there? Bird watching, Sailing?

Scotland is always portrayed as some sort of wonderfully scenic place that shouldn't be tampered with, truth is it's nothing that special or unique.
It's spectacularly dreary when compared with countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland, Slovenia or Austria.
I can't think of doing anything better than building golf places in places such as Loch Lomond, at least they are doing something decent with the place.

SR

Do you have some sort of personality disorder whereby you are so dull in reality that you need to make all your opinions contrary to popularly held conventions?

I assure you that in Austria you will not find a similarly great combination of food, drink and scenery.

Mac, I used to live in the Austrian Tyrol and I can assure you that every aspect of the place knocks the , bitter, narrow minded, small country syndrome of Scotland into a cocked hat.

SR

I think we are all, well at least about 55% of us, a little down about todays result but there is no need to trash the country. If you find Scotland narrow minded then you are hanging out with the wrong people. I find the people of Scotland to be very fair handed and open minded on a number of issues.

I have lived in both the deep countryside/wilderness and the cities and have found both narrow mindedness and more importantly a lot of very forward thinking and kind people. I have also been to Austria and in all honestly it was not the most exciting place in the world.

Hibbz wrote:Oh man look at that animation that's fantastic. Punctuates everything you say better than say punctuation.

Now if only the disable smilies button worked on this forum.

Oh jeez I didn't notice that green prefects badge by your name Davie. I'm really, really sorry for all I have done.

Didn't realise you needed to have posted a certain number of times before you were allowed to give your opinion.

Hibbz

You seem to be looking to take offense where there is none. Time to move on?

Mac, there is plenty reason to be down about Scotland right now especially the fact that the moronic SNP appear to be hoodwinking brainless uneducated Scots into a certain referendum in regards to independence. Let's just hope that there are enough sane people who'll turn out and vote in the negative. We'd be in real trouble if those lunatics get what they wish for.

Even the abhorrent Labour party would be preferable to these backward looking idiots.

But S_R, just think of all that oil!

You mean the oil fields that were sold off years ago?

A worthless SNP argument that is so full of holes it might as well be called Swiss Cheese. We are a million miles from being as well off as Iceland or Norway.

Scotland cannot afford to be independent and for all the English who don't want a one party system for all eternity they can't afford to let Scotland be independent.

I didn't think I liked fishing, but that bite was quite satisfying

Hibbz wrote:Oh man look at that animation that's fantastic. Punctuates everything you say better than say punctuation.

Now if only the disable smilies button worked on this forum.

Oh jeez I didn't notice that green prefects badge by your name Davie. I'm really, really sorry for all I have done.

Didn't realise you needed to have posted a certain number of times before you were allowed to give your opinion.

hibbz, get a life/ remove the plank-like chip from your shoulder/ lighten up... your post is one of the first i've read on 606_v2 that reminds me of the sort of stupidity that could be so prevalent on the old 606. everyone's welcome and we enjoy nothing more than a good argument but you are being provocative and chippy. don't.

s_r, you're in a foul mood! having travelled extensively throughout europe, scotland is not spectacularly dreary. my wife (swedish), who lived in southern bavaria for 15 years (we met in the tyrol) thinks it is wonderful. you're just being bitter and twisted because of the snp victory. now, you can continue to be bitter and twisted or you can suck it up and accept that the majority of scots chose this result and learn to work with it.

hahahaha, you mentioned iceland and well off in the same sentence!!!

Graeme, your wife must be easily pleased if she sees Cupar as "wonderful"
As for Iceland being well off, despite it's well publicised banking issues it still has a far higher GDP per capita than the vast majority of countries in Europe.

It doesn't say much for the intelligence of the Scottish public if the "majority" vote for a loathsome party led by crackpots like Salmond and and quarter-witted Sturgeon which relies on a bigotted population who looks 400 years back in history, is xenophobic towards their neighbours, is naive enough to think they could survive on their own and who thinks breaking up a successful union when the rest of the world is trying to pull together would be a good idea. Madness.

Goodness I am now labled brainless and uneducated now.

Mind you I am in good company as the results show.

For the record I voted SNP for the first time in my life but my wife and all the English people I know who live in Scotland have ben voting SNP for ages. Why is that I wonder.

Ps Smithers
Renewables is the new oil, something that Scotland is well ahead of the ROTW.

Well ,25% is generated by renewables, and there is a very small renewable energy industry, but it's hardly enough to sail a country on.

More straw clutching propaganda from the SNP.

SR
When Edinburgh and Aberdeen see fit to let the SNP lead them, it is a pretty good indicator that change is afoot.
I felt like you did up to about 3 years ago, but I think over the last 5 years the SNP have proved to be decent administrators

Sorry, can't trust a party who play on people's bigotry for a sizeable portion of their votes, nor any party who would be stupid enough to put someone with no brains like Nicola Sturgeon as a deputy. She'd be better suited to being a dinner lady. In fact the whole Scottish parliament is made up of moronic people completely incapable of structured debate.
I'd prefer the whole tinpot establishment to be torn down. We're incapable of governing ourselves effectively so rather than make a mess of it, just get rid of the whole laughable pretend parliament gravy train.

Well, you certainly can't have a reasonable debate with someone of those views. Bye

Back to thread

I do not like 'lists' of best Golf Courses as they are generally compiled by folk who have never played and never likely to play them.

I thought The Belfry was an awful course having seen it in its infancy but 25 years later when I played it I thought it a good test and would certainly be in my top 20 courses played.

Doon the Water wrote:Goodness I am now labled brainless and uneducated now.

Mind you I am in good company as the results show.

For the record I voted SNP for the first time in my life but my wife and all the English people I know who live in Scotland have ben voting SNP for ages. Why is that I wonder.

I suspect all the English south of the border would be voting SNP as well if it guarantees your independence. I'm a Unionist but I'm fed up to the back teeth with all of this. If the Scots want out, naff off I say and have done with it.