Month: April 2026

Wallasey Golf Club has quietly turned itself into one of the most talked-about links golf venues in England, and our Wallasey Golf Club review explains why it has re-entered the UK Top 100 golf courses list at 99 and looks ready to climb. The course delivers a rare blend: a true English links experience with an Irish style links feel, thanks to big dunes, dramatic land movement, and holes that run beside and over a dune ridge. Add in firm, fast turf and a steady coastal wind, and you get the kind of golf that rewards imagination, flight control, and smart misses rather than brute force. For golfers planning a UK and Ireland golf trip, it’s a serious alternative when tee times across Ireland feel oversubscribed.

One of the biggest surprises is how complete the experience feels from the moment you arrive. The Merseyside welcome is real: friendly staff, members who set the tone, and a clubhouse that feels like a proper members’ club without a hint of snootiness. Inside, Wallasey’s history is everywhere, including a huge portrait of Dr Frank Stableford, the man behind Stableford scoring, plus the famed Bobby Jones portrait signed by Jones himself. That heritage matters, but it never overshadows comfort: a traditional building with a modern, relaxed feel where you can sit, refuel, and soak up the view over the 18th. If you care about golf travel details, the “first tee journey” and clubhouse atmosphere are part of the value.

The heart of the story comes from our chat with course manager John McLaughlin, whose role blends greenkeeping leadership, agronomy, ecology, architecture, machinery investment, and people management. He describes a “perfect storm” of post-COVID golf growth, Liverpool’s international tourism pull, and a club willing to invest in staffing and infrastructure. The practical outcomes are clear: expanded green complexes, more short-grass run-offs, less penal rough, and a deliberate push towards playability for the average golfer while keeping scratch golfers honest. He also highlights the craft behind what many golfers photograph most now: immaculate grass transitions and flow between greens and tees, maintained with obsessive attention to detail.

On the course, that strategy creates momentum and joy. We pick favourite holes, talk through what makes short par fours so compelling, and why the par threes feel challenging without feeling cruel. The wind forces creativity, from keeping long irons down to choosing safer targets, and it turns scoring into a mental game as much as a technical one. We also share our Stableford match play side bet, how the “signature hole” shifted to the famous 12th, and why Wallasey feels like it offers top-tier conditioning for a green fee that still compares well against modern premium links prices. If you’re building a UK top 100 golf itinerary, Wallasey belongs on the shortlist now, not later.

Burnham and Berrow Golf Club sits firmly in the conversation around UK top 100 golf courses, but our golf course review comes with a rare caveat: we played it in proper links golf misery. We arrive as a 20-person golf society for a Ryder Cup weekend and immediately feel the place’s old-school warmth, from the compact clubhouse to the practice setup where putting green, chipping area and range sit right by the pro shop. That tight footprint makes organising a big group easier and adds a buzz, especially when you can look out and see the first tee and the 18th green from the terrace. Even before a ball is struck, it feels like a “proper” traditional club rather than a glossy resort.

Then the weather forecast proves painfully accurate. The rain starts as drizzle and becomes relentless, with wind and cold layered on top, which changes not just scoring but perception. It is hard to lift your head and take in architecture when you are focused on staying dry, keeping grips usable and simply finding your ball. That raises a bigger point about golf course rankings and ratings: how can any reviewer fairly judge a layout when conditions remove visibility, comfort and even the ability to think clearly? We end up admitting that the back nine dominates our memory, not because the front nine is weak, but because the worst rain smothered those early holes.

Despite that, the core of Burnham and Berrow shows through. The course is a stern test with constant uneven stances, variable lies and the classic humps, hollows and mounds that force shot-making rather than stock swings. The greens are full of slope and subtlety, so even a “safe” approach can leave a testing putt. Condition-wise, we note it is early season, and while it is clearly well kept, it does not quite match the absolute peak surfaces we have seen elsewhere. Still, as a links golf challenge it holds its own, which explains why it hosts serious amateur events and Open qualifying style golf.

The par threes become the headline, with the ninth and the fourteenth standing out as holes that demand commitment and a clear plan. One unexpected takeaway is the value of a pin position sheet, especially on long greens where club selection can swing by two clubs once you know exactly where the flag sits. We also trade favourite holes, from a brutally strong opener, to a blind short par four that tempts indecision, to back-nine tee shots framed by rolling dunes with no obvious landing area. Add in match play pressure, a cameo from Wales number one Toby Hunt, and our own Ryder Cup side bets, and you get a review shaped by competition as much as by design.

In the end, Burnham and Berrow does not land in either of our top fives, and we question whether its published ranking number truly reflects our day. But the most telling verdict is simple: we want to go back. Wanting a second look, in better weather, says more than any scorecard. If you love authentic English links golf, strategic par threes, natural undulation and a club that feels rooted in its community, Burnham and Berrow Golf Club belongs on your list, ideally when the top 100 gods decide to smile on you.

Every great golf story has a journey behind it, and ours is a decade-long mission to play the Top 100 golf courses in the UK and Ireland. Episode 67 of the Top 110 Golf Podcast lands at Delamere Forest Golf Club, the closest Top 100 track to us geographically and a course that surprises from the moment you arrive. We also look ahead to a huge Irish golf trip featuring headline names like Portmarnock and County Louth at Baltray, because planning is half the fun and the after-golf matters almost as much as the golf itself. If you love UK golf course reviews, heathland golf, and honest rankings debates, Delamere turns out to be a perfect case study.

The round itself becomes the “Duel At Delamere”, a scratch-style match play battle that quickly gets spicy as Chris and Hookie push each other into a rare scoring zone. The big takeaway is mindset: when the goal shifts from “a nice day out” to “I want birdie here”, focus sharpens, putting tightens, and suddenly every hole feels like a problem worth solving. We talk about how great competitive golf does not need money on the line, just a proper opponent and a course that rewards commitment. The greens feel true and makeable once the pace clicks, and the par threes stand out as some of the hardest we have faced, long enough to demand a real strike and punishing enough that a safe miss still leaves work.

Delamere Forest Golf Club also delivers a vibe we have not had at the big resort venues: it is a members’ club, quiet in the car park, relaxed on the first tee, and genuinely welcoming. The no tee sheet culture is a novelty, with simple windows for two-balls, three-balls, and four-balls, plus the kind of place where members bring the dog and wander out for nine. We meet head professional Martin Brown and discover, by pure chance, that he is a Top 100 panelist. That leads into one of our favourite conversations about golf course rankings, why huge jumps are rare, and how “options” around the greens can separate elite layouts from very good ones, especially when comparing links golf with inland courses.

On the course, Delamere feels like a Surrey heathland design dropped into Cheshire, built into rolling land with constant movement but no exhausting climbs. The round builds in quality, stacking strong holes into a crescendo rather than front-loading the fireworks. We pick out standout holes including the eighth, the wild ninth with its tiny landing area, the signature 14th with a brilliant reveal and second-shot vista, and a glorious 18th that deserves more attention among great finishing holes. Add in good practice facilities, a clubhouse terrace with views over multiple holes, and a summer weekend rate around £165, and Delamere becomes one of the best-value Top 100 golf experiences in the North of England. Whether you are new to playing Top 100 courses or chasing your own rankings list, this is a must-play test of strategy, nerve, and touch.