BUBBLING UNDER

Rob Smith reveals his must-play selections from the treasure chest of courses that rank among the Next 100 just outside our UK&I Top 100 list...

- Rob Smith

ast month, my fellow rankings collaborator Jeremy Ellwood revealed his selection of courses in our Next 100 that most significantly float his golfing boat. Now it’s my turn, and I will start by saying that while he and I tend to agree on most things regarding the various attributes of different courses, we each came up with an entirely different list with no overlap. This, I think, shows perfectly how much we all have our own preferences and tastes.

My personal preferences, as you will soon probably deduce from my choices, are very much about visuals and variety. I tend to go for courses where the holes themselves look lovely - as does their setting in the wider, external context - and where each hole is different from the others, a new and unknown adventure.

Like Jeremy, I'll start close to home with Knole Park, one of four English courses on my list. I first played its unique, expansive and endlessly varied JF Abercromby design long before I joined a club. It runs through a lovely, pastoral and gently undulating deer park on the outskirts of Sevenoaks in Kent.

It celebrated its centenary last year, but grabbed me from day one with its intoxicating mix of four par 5s and six varied short holes. Two of the prettiest among the latter are the 5th, which plays over a valley and up to a perfectly sited green, and the lovely, downhill 8th, flanked by ponds and bracken. I will happily keep going back for as long as they will have me!

My second pick is the greatly improved Cowdray in West Sussex. Set on the scenic South Downs, it was substantially upgraded by Tom Simpson more than a century ago, and then again just a couple of winters ago when William Swan completed a comprehensive and visually appealing bunker upgrade.