Every North East course reviewed on this site, ranked by its overall score. The table updates itself whenever a review is published.
| No. | Course | County | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seaton Carew, MicklemAlister MacKenzie, 1925 | County Durham | 9.0 |
| 2 | Brancepeth CastleHarry Colt, 1924, Reviewer is a member | County Durham | 8.6 |
| 3 | Slaley Hall, HuntingDave Thomas, 1989 | Northumberland | 8.0 |
| 4 | Wynyard, Wellington CourseMartin Hawtree, 1996 | County Durham | 7.9 |
| 5 | BellinghamFounded 1893, eighteen holes 1996 | Northumberland | 7.7 |
| 6 | Slaley Hall, PriestmanNeil Coles, 1999 | Northumberland | 7.3 |
How the rankings work
Every course is scored out of ten in six categories. The overall is calculated from those six scores using fixed weights, and never adjusted by hand.
- Design and layout, 40%
- Conditioning, 15%
- Green complexes, 15%
- Welcome and service, 10%
- Clubhouse and food, 10%
- Value for money, 10%
Design carries the most weight because it is the one thing a course cannot change quickly. Conditioning improves with a dry summer and a good greenkeeping team. A routing is there for a hundred years.
A course enters the table once its review is published and it has been played in full, with the date, tees, score and all six category scores recorded. Where a review covers two courses, as at Slaley Hall, each course is ranked on its own. Courses with the same overall share a position, listed by their design score.
Memberships and hosted rounds
Where I am a member of a club, or where a round was hosted by the club, the table says so under the course name and the review declares it at the top. Otherwise every green fee is paid in full.
What the numbers mean
The scores compare golf in the North East with golf in the North East, rather than with the best courses in the world. As a rough guide:
- 9 and above: exceptional, worth travelling a long way for
- 8: very good, worth building a trip around
- 7: a good course with real strengths
- 6: sound, but short of something important
