500+ courses in GB&I rated - one man's opinion!

[David_Tepper]

Inspired by Mark Rowlinson's evolving series of GB&I golf course photos, I thought I would share with you one man's opinion of the more than 500 golf courses he has played in GB&I over the years. The gentlemen in question is now in his 80's and the father of a friend of mine.  He made trips to GB&I each summer for many, many years. My guess is that most of these courses were played in the 1950's-60's-70's.  Several years ago he gave me a list of all the courses he had played and his grading of each course. I do not know the criteria he used.  I imagine it was his experience and enjoyment of each course.  This gentleman was a member at Royal Montreal and Royal Blackheath (near London) for many years.    

Rather than list 500 courses in one post, I will try to spread them out over the next week or so.

Courses in England A-B-C:

The Addington  B+
Aldeburgh  B+
Aldenham  B
Alnmouth  B
Alnmouth Village  C
Alwoodley  A-
Appleby  B-
Ashford  B
Ashford Manor  C
Ashridge  B+
Aspley Guise  B
Astbury  B+

Banstead Downs  B
Bath  B
Batchwood Hall  C
Beaconsfield  B
Beau Desert  B
Bedford County  B
Belfry Brabazon  B+
Bentley  C
Berkhamsted  B
Berkshire Blue  A
Berkshire Red  A
Betchworth Park
Bishops Stortford  B
Blackmoor  B
Blackwell  A-
Bloxwitch  C
Bognor Regis  C
Brampton  B+
Brickendon Grange  B
Brighton Hove
Broadstone  A
Broadway  C
Brookman's Park
Burford  B
Burghley Park  B-
Burhill  B+
Burham Beeches  B
Burham & Berrow  A
Burton-on-Trent  B+
Bush Hill Park   C+
Bushley Hall  B

Camberly Heath  B+
Canon's Brook  C
Canterbury  B
Carlisle  B+
Catterick Garrison  B
Chestnut  C
Chesterfield  B
Chesterton  B-
Chigwell  B
Cirencester  B+
Cooden Beach  B
Coombe Hill  B+
Copt Heath  A-
Copthorne  B
Cotswold Hills  B+
Cottesmore  B
Coventry  B+
Cowdray Park  B
Coxmoor  B+
Crews Hill  C+
Crowborough Beacon  B
Cuddington  B
 
   

[Bill_McBride]

This list reminds me of college these days - nobody gets less than a C!

[Jonathan Cummings]

College is about right Bill.

Apparently no grade was received for Brookman's Park and Brighton Hove.

JC

[David_Tepper]

Bill-

As I tried to imply in my introduction, these ratings were not done based on an clinical evaluation of the GCA of each course, but rather on the rater's enjoyment of his round of golf at each course, which might include the clubhouse, the members he met, etc.  My guess is the rater subscribes to the maxim that "a day on a bad golf course is still better than a day at the office" and his ratings are a bit generous because of that.  On the other hand, there are many, many enjoyable golf courses in GB&I.

Jonathan-

Brighton Hove is not graded on the list I have.  Brookmans Park is a 'B.'

DT
   

[Bill_McBride]

Good point, David, golf cannot be graded on a bell curve, there is no failing golf course --- except maybe Sandpines, at least according to Tommy!

Don't see Brancaster on there either.  Either Paul Turner or Mark Rowlinson posted some great photos of that gem recently.  Of course it's hard to keep track, a lot of British courses have two names!

[David_Tepper]

Bill-

Brancaster's official name is Royal West Norfolk, so I won't get to it until the R's.

I also think there may have been some pre-selection exercised
as this gentleman picked courses to play.  My guess is he was often given recommendations of the better courses to play by people he met in his travels around GB&I. I doubt many of the courses were selected totally at random. This way some of the 'D' and 'E' courses were probably never brought to his atttention.

DT

[Mike Nuzzo]

'D' and 'E' courses

Where did you go to college?
 

[ForkaB]

David

It is very thoughful of you to share this labour of love with us.  One suggestion:

Given the short attention span of this group, how about just posting the complete list of A- and above tracks.  Then we can really nitpick, in terms of errors of both commission and omission!

I hope your friend's father has a constitution as strong as his devotion to golf.

[David_Tepper]

Richard-

At the risk of boring everyone to death, I would prefer to post the entire list of 500+ courses. There are already enough top 25, 50, 100 lists available to discuss and debate.

It is my way of paying tribute to his constitution and I know that he got as much enjoyment out of discovering a quality unknown course that he could rate B or B+ as he did playing the best known courses.

DT    

[johnk]

This is good. I think an individual's rankings are the only valid form of rankings in any case, and if somebody has played 500 UK courses, they have a right to their opinion.

Give us more.  Faster, please.  Thank you.

[ForkaB]

Yes, David, give us more!

Sorry for being so impatient.