The Open is back on home turf at Royal Birkdale, and we've brought in a mate who actually backs golf for a living to tell us where the smart money's going this week.

This episode is powered by Fourball Draws - where you can win a fourball on some elite courses for just a fiver - visit fourballs.co.uk and use code TOP100 to buy 2 or more tickets and get one absolutely free!

Our good friend Harbs (Harbs7Golf) returns with his three picks for the Claret Jug — including a 16/1 "massive value" favourite, a forgotten major winner nobody's talking about, and a 275/1 outsider with a genuine cash-out strategy behind it. We also dig into what it actually takes to qualify for the Open (the Bryan Brothers, Peter Finch, and a wild story from Burnham & Berrow final qualifying), catch up on the Nish Invitational (£750 raised for the British Liver Trust), and open a space at our Top 100 in 10 Society event at Lindrick.

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We're doing something we've never done before — playing two golf courses back to back at the same club, and pitting the "old money vs new money" of Surrey heathland against each other.

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This episode we're previewing both the Old Course (ranked 39, an ever-present in the world's top 100 since rankings began in 1938) and the New Course (ranked 88) at Walton Heath — a Ryder Cup venue where GB&I once got hammered 18½–9½ back in 1981.

We dig into the club's remarkable design history: amateur architect Herbert Fowler's very first course (he went on to design Pebble Beach), and James Braid's 46 years as club professional — during which he redesigned 400 courses worldwide and never touched a single hole of Fowler's original layout, out of pure respect.

Expect brutal bunkers, the most heather of any course in the UK (allegedly), a royal club captain who briefly became a king, four British Prime Ministers on the members list, and a genuine handicap-shredding difficulty rating. Plus: side bets, signature holes, and why "the Walton Way" might be the friendliest welcome we've had yet.

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Formby Golf Club is disappearing — and that's not even the strangest thing about it.

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We're heading to this Lancashire (or is it Merseyside?) links ahead of our round, and there's a lot more going on here than the rankings suggest. Four legendary architects have shaped this course — Willie Park Jr., James Braid, Harry Colt, and a coastal erosion crisis that's already swallowed the original 9th green. By 2085, the sea could be lapping at the 10th tee.

There's also a clubhouse clock tower with a surprising Titanic connection, an Amateur Championship final between two future Ryder Cup captains, and a fully independent ladies' golf club operating entirely inside Formby's own boundary — one of only a handful of setups like it in the country.

In this episode:
- The four architects who built Formby — and the one who's conspicuously missing
- Why the Irish Sea is taking 2.5 metres of this coastline every year
- The clock tower donor with a direct link to the Titanic disaster
- Formby Ladies Golf Club — a complete second course hidden inside the main layout
- Our excitement levels, side bets, and a signature hole challenge before we tee off

If you're new here: we're two mates trying to play all 100 of the UK and Ireland's top-ranked golf courses in 10 years. This is the preview — the full review drops in a few weeks once we've actually played it.

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Lanark Golf Club doesn't try to impress you. No grand entrance, no resort gloss — just a golf course that's been played on the same patch of common land since October 1851, making it the oldest inland golf course in the world.

This episode is powered by Fourball Draws - where you can win a fourball on some elite courses for just a fiver - visit fourballs.co.uk and use code TOP100 to buy 2 or more tickets and get one absolutely free!

We sit down with general manager Andy Romer to dig into 175 years of history: Old Tom Morris's £3.10 shilling redesign, James Braid's 1927 refinements (100 years old next year), lost holes buried under the car park, army connections to the Cameronians, and a quietly incredible piece of trivia — Lanark lost the vote to become Gleneagles by a single ballot.

• Why the 7th tee is the moment Lanark finally reveals itself
• The "Cabbages" — a nickname with a 175-year-old explanation
• How Lanark rebuilt its own history from minute books found in a cupboard
• Why this is a "stopover," not a "stay-and-play" course — and why that's exactly the point

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Top 100 in 10 is the podcast documenting our 10-year challenge to play every course in the Top 100 of the UK and Ireland. Hosted by Nish, Chris and Jim.

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We took a ferry. We crossed the Irish Sea. We played Castletown Golf Links on the Isle of Man, ranked 93 in the Top 100 GB & Ireland, with the club's general manager Andi as our playing partner and tour guide. It turned out to be one of the most spectacular days we've had on this entire mission.

This episode is powered by Fourball Draws - where you can win a fourball on some elite courses for just a fiver - visit fourballs.co.uk and use code TOP100 to buy 2 or more tickets and get one absolutely free!

Castletown sits on a peninsula surrounded by sea on three sides. The course is dramatic, rugged, and handsome — comparisons to Turnberry aren't just flattery. Old Tom Morris designed the original layout in 1891; Dr. Alister MacKenzie later made his mark; Philip Mackenzie Ross shaped the course into what it is today. And for a peak season green fee of £180, it might be the best value round in the entire Top 100.

In this episode, Nish and Chris review the full round — hole by hole highlights, the top three holes (including the legendary road hole 5th and the clifftop drama of the 17th), what to expect from the clubhouse and facilities, whether the trip itself is worth making, and whether Castletown sneaks into their all-time Top 5. Plus: the signature hole challenge resumes, and the results go exactly as badly as you'd expect.

🏌️ What we cover:
– First impressions arriving on the Isle of Man (Manx TT weekend chaos included)
– The ferry crossing, the weather triangulation method, and the Hotel of Doom
– Castletown's history: Old Tom Morris, Dr. Alister MacKenzie & Mackenzie Ross
– Course conditions — honest assessment of where it stands vs the Top 100
– Top three holes: Hole 4, the Road Hole (5), and the clifftop 17th
– Playing the black tees — and why you should too
– Why this course could become an elite destination golf resort
– Three reasons every Top 100 hunter should make the trip
– Signature hole challenge update: all square after 23 courses

📍 Castletown Golf Links, Isle of Man | Ranked #93 Top 100 GB & Ireland
💷 Green fee: ~£180 peak season

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#CastletownGolfLinks #IsleOfManGolf #LinksGolf #Top100Golf #GolfPodcastUK

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Swinley Forest Golf Club sits in the mid-20s of the UK rankings — and almost nobody outside of golf's inner circles has heard of it. No website worth mentioning. No honours boards. No annual membership fee. A halfway hut staffed by someone who's served maybe a hundred members in 25 years. And according to Harry Colt, his "least bad" course.

This episode is powered by Fourball Draws - where you can win a fourball on some elite courses for just a fiver - visit fourballs.co.uk and use code TOP100 to buy 2 or more tickets and get one absolutely free!

Nish is joined by returning guest Alex Katter (@kattergolf) to preview what might be the most distinctive club in English golf — and the conversation goes much further than one course. They cover why top 100 rankings are starting to feel like the old NME, why match play is the purest form of golf, the courses that don't need a list to matter, and how to actually enjoy a round without letting your phone ruin it.

Check out Alex's playlists we mentioned in the episode - https://open.spotify.com/user/1164289082?si=1faeb1ac185a4302

Courses discussed: Swinley Forest, Hankley Common, Delamere Forest, Hollinwell, Hindhead, Liphook, Burnham & Berrow, St Enodoc, Gleneagles, Rye, Brancaster, West Sussex, Lanark

#Top100Golf #SwinleyForest #GolfPodcast #UKGolf #HarryColt

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A course designed by a man who'd never designed one before, where your tee time might be decided by a ball dropping down a chute, and where one approach shot lands in a completely different county. Welcome to Liphook Golf Club.

This episode is powered by Fourball Draws - where you can win a fourball on some elite courses for just a fiver - visit fourballs.co.uk and use code TOP100 to buy 2 or more tickets and get one absolutely free!

Ranked 75th in the UK & Ireland, Liphook sits in the heart of Hampshire's heathland belt — between Hankley Common and Hindhead, in one of the finest concentrations of golf on the planet. At just 6,200 yards off the yellows, it looks like an easy day. The reviews suggest otherwise.

Nish, Chris, and Jim preview what to expect: blind tee shots, lightning-fast greens, a par-three opener, five par threes in total, the famous seventh green straddling two counties, and the fifth hole — Black Fox — which designer Tom Simpson rated one of the finest he ever created (remarkable given Liphook was his only course).

They also cover how the whole thing was founded in a pub, why the front and back nine were swapped around to accommodate the clubhouse, the Creator Cup victory that nobody told Jim about, and a very good argument about pace of play, pre-shot routines, and why maybe golf should just be 12 holes.

🏌️ Side bet: fewest shots to hit and stay on the 18th green
🏆 Signature hole: #14 — Simpson's Folly, par four, 434 yards

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Old Tom Morris got on a boat at 70, arrived on a windswept rock in the Irish Sea, and built a golf course. 130 years later, we're following him over to the Isle of Man — and it's our first trip off the British mainland.

This episode is powered by Fourball Draws - where you can win a fourball on some elite courses for just a fiver - visit fourballs.co.uk and use code TOP100 to buy 2 or more tickets and get one absolutely free!

In this preview, Nish, Chris and Jim unpack what to expect at Castletown Golf Links: the course ranked 96th in the UK and Ireland, eighth most spectacular on the islands, with nowhere to hide from the wind and a 17th hole that asks you to drive over a crashing ravine.

They also get into the 2026 top 100 rankings reshuffle — why it's genuinely strange, why Old Head of Kinsale has dropped out at €450 a round, and what the lads are going to do about two courses they've already played that are no longer on the list.

If you've been listening for a while and haven't followed yet, it takes one tap on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and genuinely helps an independent show stay in that top 20 chart. We'd love you to join us properly.

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Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

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