13 Courses The Golf Monthly Team Are Hoping To Play In 2022

New year, new goals. The Golf Monthly team are all golfers ourselves and we all have plenty of destinations we'd love to tick off of our lists throughout 2022. Our staff and contributors have played many of the world's best (a lucky few have even played Augusta National) with our courses gurus Rob Smith and Jezz Ellwood boasting an impressive 2,000+ courses played between them. 

So, whether it's a bucket list golf course, one of the best heathland courses or an amazing links, here the GM team share where we want to play this year...

Mike Harris - Editor: North Foreland

Having been lucky enough to play a lot of the UK and Ireland's famous courses including over 80 all of the current Golf Monthly Top 100 courses rankings, my goal is to play more hidden gems in 2022. One that has really caught my eye is North Foreland in Kent. I played the stunning par 3 Northcliffe course during Open week last year and got to look out over the Main course from the clubhouse balcony after the round. What I saw, along with the fantastic inspiring images on the club's website has really piqued my interest!

Neil Tappin - Digital Editor: Trump Turnberry

I played Turnberry 20 years ago and was blown away by the rugged beauty and exacting challenge of the layout. I also attended the Open there in 2009 (the one that Tom Watson didn't quite win). This was all before the extensive redesign work by Martin Ebert under the new Trump ownership. I've seen the photos and heard the testimonies (the majority of my golfing friends and colleagues seem to have played it!) but am yet to see it for myself. I'm intrigued to see how it has changed and whether it lives up to the hype. Even though I have played it before (sort of), Turnberry would be at the top of my list for 2022.

Tom Clarke - Senor Content Editor: The Old Course

I have never played the Old Course at St Andrews, so was very excited to be invited there back in 2020... but Covid hit and the trip was cancelled. Well with the 150th Open at the Old Course in July this year, and hopefully pandemic restrictions starting to lift, it is certainly the course I would most like to finally tick off my bucket list in 2022.

Joel Tadman - Technical Editor: St George's Hill

Surrey is blessed with over a dozen world-class Heathland courses, many of which I’ve been lucky enough to play, but St George’s Hill Golf Club is perhaps the one that visually stands out from the rest and continues to elude me. The photos I’ve seen of the holes meandering naturally through the rolling terrain of woodland and heather look almost like oil paintings they are so pure and the enormous clubhouse stands so majestically at the top of the hill. I could see myself sipping a pint of the gold stuff after hopefully doing the course justice with a half-decent knock.

Jezz Ellwood - Contributing Editor - St Patrick's Links, Rosapenna

There are many places on my radar but the firmest entry on my 'must play' list has to be St Patrick's Links at Rosapenna, way up in the north-west of Ireland in County Donegal. Unbelievably I was last there in 2006 and on that visit, owner, Frank Casey, had shown me the two links courses next door that were lying fallow at the time. Fast forward 15 years and, now under the ownership of Rosapenna, those two courses have been transformed into one epic links thanks to Tom Doak. I need to get there if at all possible in 2022.

Rob Smith - Contributing Editor - Wallasey

The north-west coastline is packed with superb golf and some of the best links golf courses in England, and despite it being on my hitlist for the last 15 years, I have still not managed to make it to the ever-improving Wallasey. I was booked in last October until the blink-and-you-miss-it fuel shortages meant I simply couldn’t get there! I am itching to get up and see what John McLaughlin and his team have been doing.

David Taylor - Content Editor: Hindhead

When I moved to Farnham I was aware I would be surrounded by some tremendous courses but I didn’t realise just how rich a golfing area it was. Since then I’ve managed to tick off Farnham itself, Blackmoor, Hankley Common and Liphook, along with a number of other lesser lights. Hindhead has so far passed me by, but having heard the late, great Peter Alliss sing its praises on a number of occasions over the years, I’m keen to put that right in the coming months.

Nick Bonfield - Content Editor: The Old Course

It has to be The Old Course, doesn't it? I've worked in golf since 2013, watched the sport religiously on television since 2003 and even covered the Open Championship from the Home of Golf, but I've yet to set foot on the hallowed turn with my clubs in tow. To be totally honest – even thinking this feels like a crime in the golfing sphere – I don't fully get the obsession with the Old Course and I feel like an outsider when I'm included in conversations about its magic and nuance. I need to play the golf course as soon possible to experience what others seem to value so highly.

Sam Tremlett - Senior Staff Writer: Worplesdon & Woking

Having played West Hill many times, in 2022 I want to get out and play Worplesdon Golf Club and Woking Golf Club to complete the 3 W’s. Both of them are heathland courses which is a style of golf I really enjoy and given I live in London they are very easy to get to. I am excited to see which of the three courses is my favourite.

Alex Narey - Content Editor: Muirfield

The course has been on my bucket-list since attending the 2013 Open Championship - won by Phil Mickelson - but there has always been a fascination after watching my golfing hero Nick Faldo win his first Claret Jug here in 1987 (and then again in 1992). Muirfield just seems to carry an aura, with so many holes standing out. It doesn't possess the wow-factor, say of Royal County Down or Turnberry, but it remains the purest test of links golf with great variety and conditioning.

Dominic Smith - Videographer: Woking

For me, a course I’d really like to play in 2022 is Woking. There are a number of courses on my list I would like to also play this year, but Woking stands out as one of my top choices. It is the only course out of the Three W’s I am yet to play, which almost feels criminal considering I live so close to it - a 1 mile walk - but hopefully, I get the opportunity to enjoy the Tom Dunn designed course this year

Elliott Heath - Senior Staff Writer: Walton Heath

Having grown up in Surrey, I've been lucky enough to play nearly all of the big name courses with the exception of Walton Heath. The former Ryder Cup venue is home to two stunning heathland layouts that I know I'd have an incredible time navigating. We've got two incredible 36-hole heathland clubs nearby in Sunningdale and The Berkshire that I've had amazing days playing and Walton Heath is yet another.

Andy Wright - Staff Writer: Sunningdale

A course I hope to play this year is Sunningdale - either old or new. Although I’m fortunate enough to play most of my golf on linksland, I’m a huge fan of the heathland style. Even the best courses in the world have some critics but I’ve genuinely never heard a single bad word said about either of Sunningdale’s layouts. Should the chance arise in 2022, I would very much like to see if one or both live up to the hype.

Dan Parker - Staff Writer: Old Head

I’ve not yet had the privilege of playing golf on the island of Ireland so I’ve picked Old Head Golf Links as a course I’d love to play in 2022. I’m a sucker for a view and I don’t think views get much better than at Old Head with the Atlantic Ocean hugging you from all sides. It’s without a doubt one of the most dramatic courses in world golf that mixes cliff-top and link style golf. One look at the course from a bird's eye view on Google Maps and you can see just how far out the peninsula sits, with holes 12 and 13 sitting on the outer reaches of the links. It looks like you’d have a perpetual sense of being on the edge of the world when playing Old Head, and that’s a feeling I’d love to experience on a golf course in 2022. 

Where are you hoping to play in 2022? Let us know on social media