Golf World Top 100: Best Golf Courses and Resorts

Welcome to Golf World’s revered Top 100 rankings where you'll find our ratings of the best golf courses, resorts and holes on the planet.

Top 100 Golf Courses Rankings

World | Europe | England | Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Spain | Portugal | Europe's New Courses | GB&I Links

GB&I Fun Golf Courses | GB&I £60 and Under | GB&I Best Holes

Top 100 Golf Resorts Rankings

World | Continental Europe | Britain and Ireland | Spain | Portugal

Best Value | Best for Couples | Best for City Breaks | Best for Beach Breaks

Now housed within Today’s Golfer, the famed Golf World Top 100 franchise has been taken to a new level. Why? Well, we are producing a new ranking in every four weeks, working on a two-year cycle.

Some are existing rankings – Golf World Top 100 Great Britain & Ireland Courses, Continental Europe Resorts and so on – but they are going to be joined by a host of intriguing, insightful and frankly exciting lists, month in, month out, including the Golf World Top 100 Courses in the World (That You Can Play).

If you’re thinking ‘you must scraping the barrel to come up with 26 different lists’, be assured that nothing could be further from the truth. We are fighting among ourselves about which ones to host in the magazine – because even more, totally different Top 100 Golf Courses rankings, will be hosted here, online.

Why are we doing it? We want to build on the stellar reputation Golf World’s rankings have, of course, but more than anything we want to provide an even better service for our readers.

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Royal Portrush Golf Club's Dunluce Course is one of the best in the world.

We want to become the essential reference for golfers all over Europe who are looking for the best places to play (and stay) in our continent and beyond. With the help of the best panels bar none, we are quietly confident we can do that.

So no matter if you are planning a golf break in the Algarve or the Highlands, in west Wales or the south of France, our knowledge and research will enable you to make the best possible choices about where to play.

There is an element of escapism to the Golf World Top 100s, because who doesn’t enjoy looking at amazing courses and who doesn’t relish debating a ranking, but I can’t emphasise enough that our motivation is founded in a desire to help you make smart selections for your golf trips. These trips are just too valuable - in terms of time, money and expectation - to waste on courses and resorts that disappoint.

Royal County Down is home to one of the world's best golf courses.

The schedule itself of Top 100s we have planned encapsulates the mix of escapism and information I am referring to; we have a few rankings planned from which you might end up playing two or three out of the 100 in your life, but in others they are the ultimate no-nonsense guides to the most popular areas (which despite their popularity, have never been ranked properly before).

RELATED: Best Golf Holes in Scotland

We know you won’t all agree about inclusions, exclusions, and positions, but it should be fun along the way - and trust us, we are trying really hard to make these the most authoritative, best researched and most credible rankings in Europe.

The world-famous Old Course at St Andrews is among the best golf courses in the world.

I’m sure there will be plenty of you who don't agree with every list but I genuinely look forward to hearing where we have gone wrong – and, if we’ve made some good calls along the way, do let us know what they are too.

You can get in touch via email, Facebook and Twitter, or write to us at Golf World Top 100, Media House, Lynchwood, Peterborough, PE2 6EA.

Chris Bertram

Golf World Top 100 editor