Ep85: Ranking Australia's Top 50 Courses

An episode we’ve looked forward to recording for all of 2025. We unveil the back half of our inaugural Australian Golf Passport Top 50 Australian Golf Course Rankings. After having assembled a panel, and collating ballots we’ve had a genius crunch the numbers (s/o Dr Davis McCarthy!) in order to bring you what we feel is a statistically valid and reliable, objective snapshot of the nation’s best courses. We discuss the process, and run through the two groups ofcourses (presented alphabetically) in the 36-50 bracket and the 26-35 bracket. We talk about why things are structured the way they are and look forward to devoting the next discussion to the 25 courses which will be listed in numerical order at the pointy end of the list. This episode features a good chat about what goes through our minds when we critically assess a course and visit with the objective of placing a layout somewhere in the nation’s top 50. Thank you to all our panellists who devoted their time, effort and expertise into making the rankings what they are. We look forward to sharing them with you in their entirety soon enough, and getting your thoughts on what you agree and disagree with. Huge thanks again to Davis who guided usthrough the who process of collating the rankings. Couldn’t have done it without him! We put Australian Golf Passport podcast out with thanks toMatt Burns and his team at Angus And Grace Go Golfing. Check their insta page and website for some of the best golf apparel on the planet. The new Australian Golf Passport tee and hat have almost sold out - grab one while you can. And check out the latest summer range of AAGGG gear – you’ll love it. Thanks to Dean and everyone at Seed Golf – they provide 20% off for Australian Golf Passport listeners via the code AGP at checkout. Get your hands on some premium golf balls at a super low price. Check their website for Seed merch too – caps, gloves and other goodies available. Images related to this episode can be found on our Instagrampage (@AustralianGolfPassport) and on Twitter / X (@AusGolfPassport). Images accompanied by attribution to their owners / creators. Podcast intro music - Nbhd Nick / Stop Playing With Me-Instrumental / courtesy of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.epidemicsound.com

A wide-ranging discussion with one of the best guys and keenest minds in golf travel and architecture this episode – one of Edinburgh’s favourite sons, Simon Holt.Simon’s seen all there is to see in world golf. We discuss architecture, rankings, modern green fees, Australian golf and a ton more. This is one of those episodes that feels like you're sitting on the clubhouse verandah with your mates having post-round beers.Shoutout to Matty for keeping track of all the things we said we would put in the show notes!The link to the latest iteration of the Golf.com’s World Top 100 – https://golf.com/travel/courses/top-100-courses-world-2025-26/The No Laying Up podcast episode where Simon breaks down his whole World Top 100 experience – https://nolayingup.com/podcasts/no-laying-up-podcast/nlu-podcast-episode-264-playing-the-top-100-courses-in-the-world-w-simon-holtSome info on the ballot for The Old Course in reverse – https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/people/bookings-set-to-open-to-allow-golfers-to-play-the-old-course-in-reverse-5427387The link to follow once the Powerball drops and you decide to take seven mates to Ellerston – https://golf.com/travel/ellerston-top-100-opening-gates/We put Australian Golf Passport podcast out with thanks to Matt Burns and his team at Angus And Grace Go Golfing. Check their insta page and website for some of the best golf apparel on the planet. The new Australian Golf Passport tee and hat have almost sold out - grab one while you can.  And check out the latest summer range of AAGGG gear – you’ll love it.Thanks to Dean and everyone at Seed Golf – they provide 20% off for Australian Golf Passport listeners via the code AGP at checkout. Get your hands on some premium golf balls at a super low price. Check their website for Seed merch too – caps, gloves and other goodies available.Images related to this episode can be found on our Instagram page (@AustralianGolfPassport) and on Twitter / X (@AusGolfPassport). Images accompanied by attribution to their owners / creators.Podcast intro music - Nbhd Nick / Stop Playing With Me -Instrumental / courtesy of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.epidemicsound.com

A quick catch-up for Scott and Matt after a week that saw the men's Australian Open reborn at Royal Melbourne.Rory, the course, the set-up, a superb supporting cast of players & a remarkable 72nd hole all came together to breathe life back into the tournament and show it the way forward.Shoutout to Angus & Grace Go Golfing and Seed Golf for their continued support and thank you to BMW Australia for getting us both out to the tournament this week so we could experience it in the flesh.

A long time in the making – we’ve been busting to record this episode after visiting a week ago. Australian Golf Passport hit 7 Mile Beach last week – and the course did not disappoint. A glorious layout full of high calibre holes, fantastic green complexes and so much fun, engaging, thrilling golf. We break it all down and digest the experience. We look forwardto hearing all your stories after visiting the course. It is a brilliant creation, full of thoughtful design, skilled construction, and all wrapped up in a great routing on an incredible site. Surely destined for the World Top 100. The link to follow for those wanting to book tee times - https://www.7milegolf.com.au/ We put this podcast out with thanks to Matt Burns and histeam at Angus And Grace Go Golfing. Check their insta page and website for some of the best golf apparel on the planet. The new Australian Golf Passport tee and hat have almost sold out - grab one while you can.  And check out the latest summer range of AAGGG gear – you’ll love it. Thanks to Dean and everyone at Seed Golf – they provide 20% off for Australian Golf Passport listeners via the code AGP at checkout. Get your hands on some premium golf balls at a super low price. Check their website for Seed merch too – caps, gloves and other goodies available. Images related to this episode can be found on our Instagrampage (@AustralianGolfPassport) and on Twitter / X (@AusGolfPassport). Images accompanied by attribution to their owners / creators. Podcast intro music - Nbhd Nick / Stop Playing With Me -Instrumental / courtesy of ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.epidemicsound.com

A mixed bag of interesting topics this week:Footage of the fully-grassed course at The Cliffs at Kangaroo Island emerged recently and warranted discussion.New World Top 100 rankings from Golf Magazine are imminent and the Aussie candidates come in for attention.Some argy bargy surrounding Cheltenham Golf Club's new lease is in the news, so we briefly discuss that.The Aussie Summer of Golf is upon us and we take a look at some of the events on the calendar.Finally, Scott caught up for a chat with Dean from Seed. Listeners loved our initial chat with Dean at the start of the year and this is another fun one.For the Queenslanders – this link is the one to follow for tickets to the Aus PGA at RQ. Should make for a fantastic spectacle - https://golf.com.au/aus-pga The 2026 Victorian Open is to be staged at 13th Beach down on the Bellarine Peninsula. Held from Jan 15 – 18 it is a fantastic event and a buzz to attend. Entry is free and all details for spectators planning to head along are available through this link - https://golf.com.au/vic-open The Cathedral Invitational for 2025 is another red letter event on the domestic summer golf calendar. Those who want to get along and watch Adam Scott among a score of other notables (including Ian Baker-Finch!) can learn more here - https://cathedralinvitational.com.au/ As discussed in the episode – a GCA thread dating back nearly 25 years – devoted to changes made to the Road Hole Bunker on The Old Course at St Andrew's. Seems many posts within the thread have been deleted or tidied up but the thread is still well worth the read.https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,1922.0.html As is this one devoted to the recent Hanse work at Seminole (also discussed in the episode).https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,73492.0.html The YouTube video mentioned in the episode is here for those interested – https://youtu.be/aHPY786QP00?si=DKs6b_IGlhdFqwr4 We put this podcast together with thanks to Matt Burns and the staff at Angus And Grace Go Golfing. Check their insta page and website for some of the best golf apparel on the planet. The new Australian Golf Passport tee has almost sold out - grab one while you can.  And check out the latest refresh of the classic AAGGG shorts.Thanks to Dean and everyone at Seed Golf – they provide 20% off for Australian Golf Passport listeners via the code AGP at checkout. Get your hands on some premium golf balls at a super low price. Check their website for Seed merch too – caps, gloves and other goodies available. Images related to this episode can be found on our Instagram page (@AustralianGolfPassport) and on Twitter / X (@AusGolfPassport). Images accompanied by attribution to their owners / creators. Podcast intro music - Nbhd Nick / Stop Playing With Me - Instrumental / courtesy of ⁠⁠⁠www.epidemicsound.com

Motivated by Scott’s personal journey with his swing and fitness through 2025, we sit down for a great chat with Tom de Jersey. Tom is a Sydney based TPI certified physiotherapist. He talks with us about strength, range, training for golf, physical limitations to the golf swing, and how best to negotiate them. Apart from his clinical work, Tom co-hosts the Greens & Gains podcast with Lee Hunt. They focus on golf game improvement and personal improvement as well! Go give them a listen. As discussed in the pod Jon Rahm’s right foot and the influence on his swing.https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/31810755/jon-rahm-short-backswing-due-adjustments-being-born-club-foot And the latest Today’s Golfer robot testing of golf balls – Seed models performing well!https://www.todays-golfer.com/equipment/best/golf-balls-robot-tested/ We put this podcast out with thanks to Matt Burns and his staff at Angus And Grace Go Golfing. Check their insta page and website for some of the best golf apparel on the planet. The new Australian Golf Passport cap and tee have almost sold out - grab one while you can.  And check out the latest refresh of the classic AAGGG shorts.Thanks to Dean and everyone at Seed Golf – they provide 20% off for Australian Golf Passport listeners via the code AGP at checkout. Get your hands on some premium golf balls at a super low price. Check their website for Seed merch too –  caps, gloves and other goodies available. Images related to this episode can be found on our Instagram page (@AustralianGolfPassport) and on Twitter / X (@AusGolfPassport). Images accompanied by attribution to their owners / creators.Podcast intro music - Nbhd Nick / Stop Playing With Me - Instrumental / courtesy of ⁠⁠⁠www.epidemicsound.com

Listener questions episodes have always been among our most popular, and we're back with 30 questions from our audience: ranging from the green fees at new destination courses to protecting classic architecture, cheap ways to improve country courses, Mt Lawley's WA Open close-up all the way to some guilty pleasures, favourite holes and the greatest shots we've ever hit.There's been some mayo being spread by the PR spruikers for both the Country Club of Tasmania and The Cliffs on Kangaroo Island. The two articles we discuss are linked below:Country Club Tasmania Unveils $20 million Facility Transformation | Golf Industry CentralThe Cliffs: The edge of perfection - Australian Golf Digest Shoutout to "Staff Writers" for doing the heavy lifting at AGD!And the golfclubatlas thread on classic golf architecture preservation - https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,54125.msg1246286.html#msg1246286Thanks so much to everyone for the entertaining and thought provoking questions! :)As always – special thanks to Matt and his staff at Angus And Grace Go Golfing. Check their insta page and website for some of the best golf apparel on the planet. The new Australian Golf Passport cap is in stock now and smoking hot. A small run, so grab one while you can.  There’s a white tee with the AGP logo too. Thanks to Dean and his crew at Seed Golf – they provide 20% off for listeners to Australian Golf Passport via the code AGP at checkout. Get your hands on some premium golf balls at a super low price. Check their site for Seed merch – we will see some caps, gloves and other goodies hitting our shores. Keep your eyes and ears out for some upcoming content where we get into the weeds on all things golf balls with Dean too. Images related to this episode can be found on our Instagram page (@AustralianGolfPassport) and on Twitter / X (@AusGolfPassport). Images accompanied by attribution to their owners / creators. Podcast intro music - Nbhd Nick / Stop Playing With Me - Instrumental / courtesy of ⁠⁠⁠www.epidemicsound.com

A real treat to speak with one of the world’s greatest golf course architects – Tom Doak. After starting in the golf architecture world with Pete & Alice Dye, Tom founded Renaissance Golf Design decades ago and has travelled the world building some of the finest courses in the game. We speak with Tom about his experiences in Australia including Barnbougle, St Andrew’s Beach, consulting at Royal Melbourne, the people he’s met and more. He shares his architectural knowledge, views and insights with us, in a chat that could have extended for hours more if time were to permit. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed recording! Thanks so much to Tom for his time. 😊 For those less familiar with Tom’s works – click the link here for a look at his portfolio – https://www.renaissancegolf.com/ And while we didn’t really speak much about Tom’s writings, he’s published a ton through his career. For those interested links to purchase some of Tom’s books below, including Anatomy of a Golf Course, his biographical work on Alister MacKenzie and several volumes of The Confidential Guide. https://www.doakgolf.com/bookstore/ As always – special thanks to Matt and his staff at Angus And Grace Go Golfing. Check their insta page and website for some of the best golf apparel on the planet. The new Australian Golf Passport cap is in stock now and smoking hot. A small run, so grab one while you can.  There’s a white tee with the AGP logo too, which is also very sharp. And don't sleep on the AAGGG rain jacket - as modelled by Scott on his recent trip to Tara Iti. Thanks to Dean and his crew at Seed Golf – they provide 20% off for listeners to Australian Golf Passport via the code AGP at checkout. Get your hands on some premium golf balls at a super low price. Check their site for Seed merch – we will see some caps, gloves and other goodies hitting our shores. Keep your eyes and ears out for some upcoming content where we get into the weeds on all things golf balls with Dean too. Images related to this episode can be found on our Instagram page (@AustralianGolfPassport) and on Twitter / X (@AusGolfPassport). Images accompanied by attribution to their owners / creators. Podcast intro music - Nbhd Nick / Stop Playing With Me - Instrumental / courtesy of ⁠⁠⁠www.epidemicsound.com

After an eventful week of golf twitter exchanges about tea tree and the sandbelt we have a timely interview to lead off this episode. Kate Torgersen from Environmental Golf Solutions joins us to talk about her career in golf. Starting with her time in turf management, then the switch to flora. We talk about her experiences, the people and courses she’s worked with, as well as the under-appreciated & important role she plays within the broader golf industry. She shares her knowledge of indigenous plants, and her views on lots of different points of interest to our audience. Learn more about Kate and Environmental Golf Solutions here - https://www.envirogolf.com.au/the-team We then move to a discussion between Scott and Matt that focuses on vegetation, with a particular focus on the Sandbelt. We hope this chat builds an understanding among the listenership of the basis for so much important work that is getting done on-course. And that some widely accepted and long-held misconceptions are addressed. As mentioned in the episode – a great article by Will Watt of Contours on the use of fire to manage indigenous vegetation - The Royal Back Burn - https://contours.golf/journal/the-royal-burn-back/The reference texts cited within this episode were - Flora of Melbourne - https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/8155/ Indigenous Plants of the Sandbelt - https://openlibrary.org/books/OL28493513M/Indigenous_Plants_of_the_Sandbelt C.S. Sutton report within The Naturalist, 1912 - https://archive.org/details/biostor-120900 Claude Crockford’s The Complete Golf Course - Turf and Design - https://www.finegolfbooks.com/pages/books/13684/claude-crockford/the-complete-golf-course-turf-and-design As always – special thanks to Matt and his staff at Angus And Grace Go Golfing. Check their insta page and website for some of the best golf apparel on the planet. The new Australian Golf Passport cap is in stock now and smoking hot. A small run, so grab one while you can.  There’s a white tee with the AGP logo too, which is also very sharp. And don't sleep on the AAGGG rain jacket - as modelled by Scott at Tara Iti last month.Thanks to Dean and his crew at Seed Golf – they provide 20% off for listeners to Australian Golf Passport via the code AGP at checkout. Get your hands on some premium golf balls at a super low price. Check their site for Seed merch – we will see some caps, gloves and other goodies hitting our shores. Keep your eyes and ears out for some upcoming content where we get into the weeds on all things golf balls with Dean too.Images related to this episode can be found on our Instagram page (@AustralianGolfPassport) and on Twitter / X (@AusGolfPassport). Images accompanied by attribution to their owners / creators.Podcast intro music - Nbhd Nick / Stop Playing With Me - Instrumental / courtesy of ⁠⁠⁠www.epidemicsound.com

Two of the heavyweights of world golf are the stars for this episode – Royal Melbourne West and Tara Iti. Scott recently returned from a quick hit and run trip to Tara Iti and played both courses at Te Arai as well. The rounds at Tara Iti had him thinking it might even surpass the famed West course at RM as the Southern Hemisphere’s best. We discuss the genesis of the course at Mangawhai – including the seminal GolfClubAtlas thread in which Tom Doak put out a call for people to nominate sites on which his client could develop one of the best courses in the world – turns out it was even earlier than we though it was. 2005, and long time GCA contributor Ash Towe was the one who steered the ship towards the East coast of New Zealand, north of Auckland. https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,19775.msg351600.html#msg351600 The site, the routing, and so much more of Tara Iti is discussed. Strong holes on both layouts, contrasted with the weaker links in the chains. The assortment of holes on both courses is a focus – short and long threes, driveable fours, more testing long two shot holes as well as reachable fives. Big greens and small, aggressive greens and artistic hazards. We chat about it all. The amazing landscape on which Tara Iti is built, and more. As mentioned, this excellent hole by hole look at Tara Iti courtesy of Golf Digest is a great entrée into a chat about the course. https://youtu.be/U6_5cGQhnDA?si=t3I69xGH5tXKiwty We also make mention throughout the episode of the NoLayingUp piece that Soly recorded at Tara Iti back at the end of the debut season of Tourist Sauce – the link for that is here - https://youtu.be/VV40tk_5fis?si=I7YoALIqEEIv1Jwb There’s no longer the option for unaccompanied visitors to play Tara Iti unfortunately. But both courses next door at Te Arai are well worth the travel. For those who have an appetite for more Tara Iti content – Charlie Mercer has dedicated several episodes of his excellent NZ based golf podcast, The Yardage Book podcast, to Tara Iti and Te Arai. His episodes with Jim Rohrstaff, Tron Carter and Michael Wolff are well worth going back to for a listen. Link to Tron’s episode here - https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/tron-carter-unpacks-his-recent-trip-to-tara-iti-and/id1714222287?i=1000708867879 Those who wish to visit Royal Melbourne to play West can enquire through this link. https://www.royalmelbourne.com.au/visitors/ We round out this episode with a hole by hole match play of TI v RMW comparing like for like holes, and where would we be without a four word course review to conclude? This was a fun one to record, given the quality of both courses under consideration – we hope you enjoy listening as much as we did recording! As always – special thanks to Matt and his crew at Angus And Grace Go Golfing. Check their insta page and website for some of the best golf apparel on the planet. The new Australian Golf Passport cap is in stock now and smoking hot. A small run, so grab one while you can.  There’s a crispwhite tee with the AGP logo too, which is also very sharp. And don't sleep on the AAGGG rain jacket - as modelled by Scott at Tara Iti earlier in the month. Thanks also to Dean and all at Seed Golf – they continue to provide 20% off for listeners to Australian Golf Passport. Head to seedgolf.com.au⁠ and enter AGP at checkout to get your hands on some premium golf balls at a super low price. Check their site for Seed merch – we might be getting some caps, gloves and other goodies hitting our shores. Keep your eyes and ears out for some upcoming content where we get into the weeds on all things golf balls with Dean too. Images related to this episode can be found on our Instagram page (@AustralianGolfPassport) and on Twitter / X (@AusGolfPassport). Images accompanied by attribution to their owners / creators. Podcast intro music - Nbhd Nick / Stop Playing With Me-Instrumental / courtesy of ⁠⁠⁠www.epidemicsound.com