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The post Sinkhole opens at historic golf course, revealing a stunning find appeared first on Golf.

Golf courses are burial grounds for many things: lost balls, drainage pipes, unrealistic expectations.

At a club in England this week, the ground opened up to reveal something else: a long-sealed wine cellar.

The discovery came at Davyhulme Park Golf Club, outside Manchester, where a sinkhole formed on the 13th hole and exposed a brick-lined chamber beneath. Inside were wine bottles of assorted shapes and sizes, all of them empty but brimming with history.

In a report first published by the BBC, deputy head greenskeeper Steve Hopkins said he encountered the sinkhole during his morning rounds. Assuming a collapsed drainpipe, he fetched a digger to investigate. Instead of infrastructure trouble, he unearthed a relic.

The cellar is believed to have served Davyhulme Hall, a manor dating to the 12th-century reign of Henry II. The hall was demolished in 1888.

“I was basically the first person to go in there for over a hundred years,” Hopkins told the BBC.

Unlike the storied wine cellar at Augusta National Golf Club, this one holds nothing worth uncorking. But it does offer a taste of the club’s past.

The site of the sinkhole sits in a portion of the property known as “The Cellars,” which once served as a workers’ entrance. According to the club’s published history, Davyhulme Hall passed through generations before being inherited in 1844 by Robert Henry Norreys, known locally as Squire Bob.

The club, which proclaims itself the fourth-oldest golf club in England, began as nine holes. By 1931, after acquiring additional land, it expanded to 18, with the design work handled by the club’s professional, Ernest Smith, a character of some note. Smith would later earn a place in the Guinness World Records for playing golf in five countries within 24 hours, flying by light aircraft from Scotland and looping through the U.K. and Ireland in a single day.

In gratitude for his architectural work, the club granted Smith honorary membership, a rare gesture in an era when professionals were rarely welcomed into clubhouses as peers. Two years later, according to the club’s website, he eloped to South America with the daughter of a member to whom he had been giving “lessons.” The club’s history puts that word in quotes before noting, with admirable understatement: “This caused quite a stir.”

So has the cellar.

Per Hopkins’ account to the BBC, members have already begun debating what should become of it. Some have suggested preserving it as a feature of the course. For now, though, it doesn’t appear to be interfering with play.

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The post The best golf courses in England | 2022 ranking appeared first on Golf.

The post The best golf courses in England | 2022 ranking appeared first on Golf.

There are many course rankings out there. What’s the point? For starters, to educate golfers on everything this game can do to challenge your skill and — more important — your spirit. That’s exactly what makes GOLF’s inaugural rank of the Top 100 Courses in the UK and Ireland our most thrilling yet, spotlighting the obvious (i.e., the courses that have played host to the 149 previous Opens ahead of this July’s sesquicentennial), those that routinely pepper our World Top 100 and a few surprises. Golf here is, well, as bloody good as it gets.

While Scotland is the home of golf, England has the most Top 100 Courses in the UK and Ireland with an astounding 46. Four of the 10 active Open venues are in England — St. George’s, Birkdale, Lytham, and Liverpool (all royal). Royal Cinque Ports and Prince’s also hosted a few generations ago.

Rumpled fairways, deep pot bunkers, and subtle green complexes define England’s best. This list has an unrivaled number of illustrious golf courses, and it’s important to note the diversity of styles and terrain. With newer designs (relatively speaking, of course) by Harry Colt — Sunningdale and Swinley Forest — England is home to beautiful blends of links and heathland.

England

7. Sunningdale (Old)

8. Royal St. George’s*

14. Royal Birkdale*

15. Swinley Forest

16. Woodhall Spa (Hotchkin)

18. Royal Lytham & St Annes*

22. St. George’s Hill (Red & Blue)

24. Rye

27. Royal Liverpool*

29. Royal Cinque Ports**

31. St. Enodoc (Church)

32. Walton Heath (Old)

34. Ganton

38. Royal West Norfolk

40. Notts

41. West Sussex

42. Silloth on Solway

43. Royal Worlington & Newmarket

46. Woking

48. Alwoodley

51. Addington

52. Formby

55. Royal North Devon

58. Burnham & Berrow (Championship)

59. Saunton (East)

60. The Berkshire (Red)

67. Huntercombe

69. Royal Ashdown Forest

70. Southport & Ainsdale

71. Hillside

72. Stoneham

74. Wentworth (West)

75. Huntstanton

76. Hankley Common

78. Broadstone

81. Walton Health (New)

85. The Berkshire (Blue)

86. New Zealand

89. Moortown

92. Worplesdon

94. Cleeve Cloud

95. Liphook

96. Delamere Forest

98. Prince’s**

100. Littlestone (Championship)

*Open Championship host in active rota
**Open Championship host not in active rota

The post The best golf courses in England | 2022 ranking appeared first on Golf.

The post The biggest surprises on our inaugural list of the Top 100 Courses in the UK & Ireland appeared first on Golf.

The post The biggest surprises on our inaugural list of the Top 100 Courses in the UK & Ireland appeared first on Golf.

It’s rare to see anything shorter than a par 70 get praise for its great design here in the U.S. But our course raters favored a par 68 and par 69 so much, they cracked our top 25 in the British Isles. Architecture editor Ran Morrissett explains.

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