Revealed: Great Britain & Ireland’s 100 best links golf courses for 2025

The definitive list of the best links golf courses in Great Britain & Ireland has been revealed for 2025, with legendary Open venues joined by some big movers and hidden gems.

Links golf is where the sport began, and where many believe it’s still at its very best.

Carved through coastal dunes and battered by sea winds, links courses offer a raw, elemental test that rewards imagination, creativity, and patience. No two rounds are ever the same. Firm turf, unpredictable bounces, deep revetted bunkers, and shifting weather make links golf as exhilarating as it is humbling.

It’s also the game’s most visually dramatic form – where craggy cliffs, sweeping bays, and ancient landforms do as much work as any course architect.

Ranking links golf courses isn’t easy, as they tend to be as idiosyncratic as they are infatuating. But our Top 100 panel has an unrivalled wealth of experience and insight. Made up of leading industry voices, course designers, architects, and highly-travelled amateurs, if a gathering of folk with greater course knowledge exists, I’m yet to find it.

They’ve spent the last two years playing, reviewing, rating, and ranking the very best links golf courses in Great Britain & Ireland to produce our definitive 2025 list.

Steady legends and fresh movers

Links courses are famed for their timelessness. The land doesn’t lend itself to radical redesigns or flashy upgrades, and many of these layouts have remained largely unchanged for decades, if not centuries. But that doesn’t mean the rankings are static.

Some courses have climbed the list thanks to subtle but significant improvements – refined routing, elevated greenkeeping standards, or enhanced presentation – while others have slipped slightly, resting on their reputations as others evolve around them.

The top 10 remains a who’s who of global golf, with Royal St George’s, Royal Portrush, Royal County Down, Royal Dornoch, and Turnberry among the headline names. But there’s plenty of intrigue, movement, and debate further down the list, too.

Editor’s take

Chris Bertram, Golf World Top 100 Editor, said:

“Links courses offer the truest form of the game. They’re unpredictable, thrilling, and completely at the mercy of nature. This ranking is about celebrating the classics, but also recognising the courses that are still evolving and improving.”

Your ultimate links bucket list

Whether you’re dreaming of Open Championship venues or unearthing hidden gems on rugged coastlines, this is where you’ll find your essential guide to Great Britain and Ireland’s greatest links courses:

• Explore the full Top 100 Links Courses 2025 list here