Jeremy Ellwood rounds up the star performers when it comes to climbing the Top 100 rankings
Biggest Risers In Golf Monthly’s Top 100 Course Rankings
There’s no denying that Top 100 course rankings have become increasingly competitive arenas.
For clubs, they can be a real source of pride and recognition for the continuous hard work that goes into managing a golf course in sometimes unfavourable conditions.
To make significant gains in this field is extremely tough and requires effort and vision that could be considered to go well beyond the norm.
More and more clubs now have that vision and are making that effort, so there are more than a few movers in Golf Monthly’s latest Top 100 update – including a new No. 1.
Video: Digital Editor Neil Tappin along with Senior Panellists Rob Smith and Jezz Ellwood discuss the biggest risers in the new Top 100…
Let’s start with the remote links at The Machrie, which was a re-entry at 90 last time shortly after fully reopening.
More panellists made their way out to Islay this time, and their universally glowing praise, coupled with ongoing bunker improvements, see it leap a massive 38 places to 52nd as it finds its true level.
Liphook Golf Club in Hampshire is our other double-digit climber following completion of a project that has seen two new holes built and three others significantly remodelled by Tom Mackenzie.
The merging of the 10th and 11th into one glorious long par 4 was something that Tom Simpson apparently suggested as far back as the 1930s!
Jon Rahm putting on the third hole at Lahinch during the 2019 Irish Open
Related: Lahinch Golf Club Old Course Review
The classic links at Lahinch, where Jon Rahm won the 2019 Irish Open, and Royal Cinque Ports are up six and five places respectively after further improvements, while among those to climb three are Hillside and Nairn.
Both have enjoyed major upgrades, but when you’re already breathing the rarefied air of our top 40, the scope for bigger gains is more limited, even more so for the fabled Royal County Down, which has also climbed three to hit No. 1 for the first time.
On the rise
Two double-digit climbs and a number of smaller, but still significant, jumps form the headline acts in our latest rankings shake-up below:
- 52nd – The Machrie, up 38 places
- 55th – Liphook, up 11 places
- 28th – Lahinch (Old), up 6 places
- 53rd – Royal Cinque Ports, up 5 places
- 36th – St Enodoc (Church), up 4 places
- 31st – Hillside, up 3 places
- 35th – Nairn (Championship), up 3 places
- 1st – Royal County Down (Championship), up 3 places
- 56th – The Berkshire (Blue), up 3 places
- 72nd – The Island, up 3 places
The full 2020/21 Golf Monthly UK and Ireland Top 100 rankings can be viewed in the brand new May issue of Golf Monthly magazine, on sale 1st April 2021
- BUY NOW: Golf Monthly May Issue 2021
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