Firstly, I have to say that I love top 100 lists!  I love being able to dream of playing courses like Pebble Beach, Augusta, Cape Kidnappers or Casa De Campo's Teeth of the Dog.  I fully understand that I very much doubt that I will ever get to play some of these courses.  For me, it is like the Lottery win, something to dream about whilst in the shower!  However, this week an interesting comment was made on the ST100 facebook page (now accessible through http://www.facebook.com/scottishtop100) as follows: 

A couple of pointers.  Firstly, as I have stated on the blog I don't select the Top 100.  For two very good reasons, (a) I haven't played them all and (b) whilst I love playing golf I'm not very good!  Therefore, I use the very fine list created by the hard working folks at Top100GolfCourses and use their Scottish list as the basis of my "challenge".   Secondly, there are to my knowledge 3 private members clubs on the list (Renaissance Club, Loch Lomond & Skibo) all of the other clubs do provide a way for visitors to play.(yes, even Archerfield).  Usually the prices quoted for a round are astronomical but they are available so that "everyone" can play.  Finally, just because a club wishes to remain private surely doesn't diminish the quality of the club's golf course? I mean it is practically impossible to get onto Augusta (although read the very fine blog by The London Golfer to see what your missing!) but if it was missing from a list of the World's greatest golf courses people would, rightly in my opinion, complain.  

At roughly the same time as I was gathering my thoughts about the Top 100; I received a message from the National Club Golfer magazine with their Top 100 affordable golf courses in the UK.  This is an interesting, and I think unique list, in that to qualify you have to a high season weekday tee time of under £80 before you can be considered.  Given the context of the facebook debate this list seems to be the answer to those that wish to have courses that can be "played".  I was very interested to see how the list stacked up to the Top100GolfCourses list.  I have taken the liberty of removing the non-Scottish courses from the list so that I can compare like with like.

The first thing I noticed, with much delight, is that out of the 100 courses 28 where Scottish.  That's a fairly healthy number. I also noted that I had played 7 of them too!  In terms of the how the lists compare obviously some of the big names are out including Turnberry (Ailsa), Muirfield, St Andrews (Old), Kingsbarns & Carnoustie (Championship).  In fact only 1 of the top 10 from the full list had managed to make it onto the NCG list and this is the wonderful Royal Dornoch which is ranked 5th in the full list and an enviable number 1 in the NCG list.  The NCG list contains courses from rankings 5th to 69th in the full list and it must be said that not all of the courses in between missed out purely on price.  I know that another big issue with top 100 lists is the fact that it is such a subjective decision and the lack of a scientific and objective rating system does seem to get to people.  My own thoughts are that I really enjoyed reading the affordable list and it certainly helped me to locate some courses that I would like to strike off the list during the summer.  I was slighty disappointed by the positions of Panmure & Monifieth, but that is just personal preference.  I was also surprised to see no entry for Carnoustie (Burnside) or Blairgowrie (Lansdowne).

However, what I do think is that Scotland should not have a top 100.  Once you get to around 60 in the list it becomes a matter of personal preference.  Therefore, once I complete my task I am going to develop my own lists.  A top 50 and a top 50 for under £50.  This should give you the best courses in Scotland followed by some genuine hidden gems.