I Played 78 Golf Courses In 8 Countries In 2024 - Here Are My Highlights

My Golfing Year

Writing as I do about courses for Golf Monthly in print and on the website, many assume that I am out playing Top 100 courses all day every day. They're wrong, of course... there are some days when I don’t play any golf at all! Also, I do need to sit down from time to time in order to write. And far from playing only the finest courses, I delight in visiting and experiencing designs of every style, shape and magnitude. An odd confession, but sometimes I think I love golf courses - their design and setting - more than the game itself. And whereas my wife will tell you I am a grumpy old man with a glass-half-empty attitude to life, when it comes to courses, I see only the best in them and enjoy each for its own unique characteristics. This, then, is how my 2024 golfing year unfolded.

Top 100 & Next 100 Visits

The 2025/26 Golf Monthly rankings will be revealed in the May issue, and one of my roles is to oversee the Top 100 assessment process. Contender course reviews are conducted by our panellists and staff, and I like to visit a good number myself in order to see the changes and developments. This gives me as much experience and insight as possible to help prepare a balanced and fair ranking. Last year, I played 22 of the Top 200, with one particular highlight being my round at Murcar Links.

Finally ticking off this testing but extremely enjoyable links meant that I have now played the entire Top 100. Finishing just as the expected heavy rain arrived, I celebrated with a sausage bap and a coffee, privileged and lucky to have reached this goal again. To do so, I had earlier in the year also played the hugely impressive St Patrick’s Links at Rosapenna as well as the newest of the three nines at Carne. Back home, I live within easy striking distance of many Top 200 courses, so it was good to get back to the likes of Walton Heath, always a real challenge, and see the continuing fine work at The Addington, Chart Hills and elsewhere.

Trips Away With Friends

If this sounds excessive, then that is really only because it is! Each year I enjoy at least three or four golfing trips with various groups of friends. Last year began at Lake Como in Italy with the Beavers; a dozen dullards from my home club, Tandridge, the course where I played roughly half of my 150 or so rounds during the year.

We were keen to revisit Villa d’Este - which was great - as well as play a couple we hadn’t before. Sadly, Monticello was waterlogged, but we greatly enjoyed Menaggio & Cadenabbia.

In June, I spent a few cool but extremely enjoyable off-duty golfing days on Arran with three close friends, the Frogs.

The provenance of this name is not for publication in a respectable magazine, or on its website, but we have now enjoyed an annual trip for two decades. This one spawned (bad pun intended) last November's On Tour feature. We all enjoyed Lamlash, Whiting Bay and everywhere we played with their elevation changes, quirks and endless charm, and who wouldn’t love Shiskine?

Another annual trip, this one with three different friends, took me to wonderful Conwy, to the two adjacent and very interesting courses at North Wales and Maesdu, and home via the James Braid design at Wrexham. Six of us from Tandridge also enjoy an annual pilgrimage to the dormy house at Formby.

Here we play matches against the men, usually a close contest, and against the women where we regularly receive a complete pasting. Formby is a brilliant and varied test of golf, while Formby Ladies is actually tighter, just as scenic, and proof that yardage really has little bearing on golfing adventure and fun.

Off Duty - Days Out And Mixed Opens

While it’s a joy to play so many courses on behalf of Golf Monthly, it’s something of a relief to make under-the-radar visits where there is no need for anything but to enjoy the game. Ticking new ones off the list involves ever-longer journeys, and while Surrey, Kent and Sussex are no problem for me, even then it can sometimes involve as much time in the car as it does on the course. As a huge fan of Harry Colt, I started 2024 keen to play one missing from my CV, Belfairs in Essex. This is not to be confused with Belhus Park, also in Essex. Unfortunately I did, and so played the wrong one in January before finally making it to the Colt design near Southend in September.

Another excellent and very social way to play at different clubs is to compete in their open events. My sister Debbi and I enter a few Mixed Opens each year, either playing with couples we know or enjoying the luck of the draw. Debbi is a member at Purley Downs, and while we’ve never actually won any, we came our closest yet in September at the Tyrrells Wood Centenary Mixed when we dovetailed perfectly to finish second on countback in a field of more than 50 couples. We played seven or eight such events last year including at the beautifully revamped Cowdray and at Crowborough Beacon, and plan to do the same this year.

Golf Monthly Trips and Days

To help research new and different courses for coverage, I now create my own golfing itineraries; days out, overnighters, and trips further afield. Some are with my colleague and good friend Jeremy Ellwood, and last May we put together one of our most ambitious and rewarding trips yet. Keen to play St Patrick’s Links at Rosapenna, the new holes at Carne and the revamped Narin & Portnoo where the loop at the far end blew me away, we were extremely grateful to be offered a few nights at Rosapenna’s lovely hotel bookended by stays at two other golf hotels, Roe Park in Northern Ireland and Castle Dargan in County Sligo.

We managed to play ten extremely varied courses in the week, including the superb Next 100 links at Portsalon with its sensational par-4 2nd alongside the beach. I was also invited to not one but two brand new and very playable courses not far from home, The Inspiration Club near Northolt in London, and Basingstoke who have recently migrated over the M3 and completely redesigned the course at Dummer. I also enjoyed overnighters to Bournemouth, revisiting two of its finest courses at Broadstone and Parkstone, the latter on a glorious Summer’s afternoon where it looked more lovely than ever.

Despite rain of disaster movie proportions, it was an honour to represent Golf Monthly and write about the annual Help For Heroes Forum Fundraiser at West Surrey, a course which has improved substantially since I was last there.

Overseas Press Trips

Pre-Covid, and I used to love heading off on press trips to Europe and further afield. This ground to a halt for obvious reasons, and my subsequent appetite for short trips to destinations I had been to before declined while my frustration with flying grew. 2024 saw a renewal in my enthusiasm fuelled by unusual trips in the Spring and Autumn. The first was a week in the Dominican Republic playing some sensational courses and watching Billy Horschel win the Corales Puntacana Classic before playing the same course a couple of days later. This really was a case of how the other half live, staying in paradise and playing gorgeous but decidedly pricey courses such as Casa de Campo and Punta Espada, a Jack Nicklaus design packed with wow-factor and sensational seaside holes.

Quiz! How Well Do You Know Jack Nicklaus?

In early October, I flew to Prague for a few days of golf and wellbeing in Bohemia. I was a little underwhelmed with the first course - decent enough but it made the Duchess’ at Woburn look wide-open and forgiving off the tee - but happily each one was better than the day before. I stayed in three very classy pre-revolution spa hotels as well as a couple of very good golf clubs, the story of which will be in April’s travel supplement and on this website soon after.

Looking Back

So there you have it, a year in the life of a golf course junkie. I don’t expect any sympathy when I say that there is actually a lot of work in making all this happen, and that there are often logistical and occasionally political considerations in putting it all together. As a mid-teen handicapper, I often find writing about courses easier than playing them, but no matter how much they beat me up, I will willingly keep going back for more as long as I can.

Rob's 2024 Hitlist

• Czechia
• Cihelny, Greensgate, Karlovy Vary, Royal Marianske Lazne, Sokolov
• England
• The Addington, Ashley Wood, The Astbury, Basingstoke, Belfairs, Belhus Park, Bridgnorth, Broadstone, Castle Royle, Chart Hills, Coulsdon Manor, Cranham, Crowborough Beacon, Dumbarnie Links, Dunstable Downs, The Dyke, Effingham, Ferndown, Formby, Formby Ladies, Guildford, Harborne, Hayling, Hill Barn, Heythrop Park, The Inspiration, Isle of Purbeck, Knole Park, Ludlow, Parkstone, Piltdown, Rowlands Castle, Royal Household, Stoke Park, Surrey National, Tandridge, Tyrrells Wood, Walmer & Kingsdown, Walton Heath (Old), West Herts, West Surrey, Wildernesse
• Ireland
• Carne (Wild Atlantic Dunes), Castle Dargan, Cruit Island, Narin & Portnoo, North West, Portsalon, Rosapenna (Old Tom Morris Links, Sandy Hills Links and St Patrick’s Links)
• Italy
• Menaggio & Cadenabbia, Villa d’Este
• Northern Ireland
• Roe Park
• Scotland
• Brodick, Corrie, Dumbarnie Links, Lamlash, Machrie Bay, Murcar Links, Shiskine, Trump Links, Scotland, Whiting Bay
• Wales
• Conwy, Maesdu, North Wales, Wrexham