Highly Commended, Best Sports Podcast, Independent Podcast Awards 2026... “An open invitation to the sport, demystifying bucket-list golf.”

Legend has it Old Tom Morris spilled a barrel of sand on the 10th green at Prestwick, couldn't pick it up, and accidentally started a practice greenkeepers still use 150 years later.

Last week we previewed the Old Course at St Andrews. Next week we review it. In between, there's a man whose shadow hangs over the whole place, and I'll be honest: before we played it, I knew the name and not much else. So this week I'm taking you behind the scenes of how we research an episode, and sharing everything I found out about Old Tom Morris.

In this episode:
- Old Tom's life, from his birth in 1821 to his death in 1908
- His apprenticeship under Allan Robertson, and the feud over the gutty ball
- Prestwick, the first Open in 1860 and his four Open wins
- How he reshaped the Old Course: bigger greens, new tees and managed bunkers
- The greenkeeping habits he's credited with that are still used today
- The Old Tom Morris courses we've played, including Cruden Bay, Castletown, Wallasey and Carnoustie
- Why he's still revered, and where he died: a building we ended up eating in after our round

This is part two of our three-part series on the Old Course at St Andrews, part of our journey to play every course in the UK and Ireland's Top 100 in just 10 years.

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Five hours after finding out we’d got on the Old Course at St Andrews, we hit record, and neither of us could stop grinning.

The Old Course is ranked number two on our list, it’s the course every golfer dreams of playing, and we were teeing off two days later. This is episode 92 of the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast, recorded before we played: two giddy golfers, a chaotic day of train bookings, and a lot of first-tee nerves.

In this episode:

• Why St Andrews is the ultimate golfing pilgrimage, and why Chris’s only childhood dream was winning the Open here
• The first-tee fear: a huge fairway, out of bounds down the left, and the “stay left” advice we keep hearing
• The Road Hole 17th, driving over the corner of the hotel, and the Valley of Sin on 18
• Why the 12th hole hides its bunkers (the course used to be played in reverse)
• Old Tom Morris, the 1764 decision that fixed golf at 18 holes, and Tiger Woods’ bunker-free Open in 2000
• Is the Old Course overrated? Chris’s Beatles argument for why the doubters are missing the point
• The St Andrews checklist: the Jigger Inn, the Dunvegan, bag tags and the Himalayas putting green
• The Signature Holes Challenge and the side bet we invented live

Our full verdict on the Old Course comes in the review. Until then, the one thing that really helps us reach more golfers is you hitting follow on your podcast app.

Top 100 in 10 is our attempt to play every course in the UK and Ireland’s Top 100 in 10 years.

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Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

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I (Nish) went back to Carnoustie with something to prove, and this time the wind never turned up.

Last time we played Carnoustie Golf Links, it was in the famous brutal winds of “Carnasty”, and I barely got to see the course. This time, at exactly the same time of year, the flags hung dead straight and the sun shone all day. For the first time I could take in the Championship Course the way it was designed, from a high-handicapper’s eye view. I’ve come down from an 18 handicap to 15.8 since my last visit, and it shows.

In this episode:

• Why zero wind changes everything at an Open Championship links, and what I missed first time
• Immaculate fairways, carpet greens and the green-to-tee transitions I never noticed before
• Why Carnoustie’s bunkering is a mental test, not a punishment
• Hogan’s Alley (the 6th), Ben Hogan’s only Open win, and the Barry Burn finish on the 18th
• A 90 that beat my handicap, with no lost balls
• Post-round in the hotel bar with our host Paul from Golfing Around Scotland, plus Andrew and Tony
• The crazy realisation about the Top 100 list: do we have to play every course twice?

Top 100 in 10 is nominated for Best Sports Podcast at the Independent Podcast of the Year Awards. If you enjoy the show, hitting follow is the single biggest thing you can do to help us reach more golfers.

Send us a message

Support the show

Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

You can even sign up to our podcast mailing list on the website and get a limited edition Top 100 in 10 ball marker when you complete your profile

Or follow our live journey on Instagram @top100in10 or Tiktok

A world record holder, a motorhome he calls a Sherman tank, and a shower-rating system that took on a life of its own.

Josh Simpson, the Ginger Golfer, played 652 golf courses in a single calendar year. In this bonus episode, I skip the usual questions and ask about the stuff that makes you wince: the key that snapped in the lock (twice), the scrambled eggs he deeply regretted ordering, the hungover round after a night backstage with the Wombats, and the day his team made him play one more course, soaked through, two days before the finish.

We also get into the golf community that carried him round the country, the best advice he has for anyone chasing a bucket-list course (“don’t be a dick” is the short version), handicap gaming, whether he’d do it again (he reckons 750 was possible), his favourite hidden gems outside the top 100, and four questions from you.

If you enjoy the show, the one thing that really helps us reach more golfers is hitting follow.

Follow Josh: https://www.instagram.com/ginger.golf/
Josh’s part in the story from Andy’s side: Episode 89 https://pod.fo/e/68c209

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Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

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Ryder Cup history, three tour stars as members, and a reputation for being a bit exclusive. So why did a society of ten amateurs get treated like old friends at Lindrick Golf Club?

We took our Top 100 Society to South Yorkshire for our third society day, to a course that sits outside our UK & Ireland list but ranked 82 in the English Top 100. This is the visitor's-eye view: the welcome, the course, and whether it deserves a place on your list.

In this episode:

• The 1957 Ryder Cup, the last GB&I win, and the farmer who nearly derailed it over a £150 fee for the 5th tee
• Head professional Andy on what visitors get wrong about Lindrick, and why John Jacobs matters here
• Why three Lindrick members (Westwood, Fitzpatrick and Willett) played together in the 2016 Ryder Cup
• A club with no tee sheet for members, where clubs are waiting out for them when they turn up
• The back-nine run from 12 to 18, with par threes that wouldn't look out of place at Formby
• The small touches (the range-ball bag, the scorecards) and the pro-shop moment that says it all

Our verdict: at roughly £85–£150 a round, it's a serious golf course with a genuine welcome, and it's one to add to your list.

Want to play with us? Join our golf society (free, WhatsApp announcements only)

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Rory McIlroy just named Royal Birkdale, Sunningdale Old and Hankley Common as his three favourite courses in England, and all three are in Andy's top ten.

Andy (@28to8golf) counts down his top ten courses, from Hillside and St George's Hill to Turnberry and Sunningdale Old, and tells us why St Andrews Old Course only makes number six. Along the way he names the hidden gems beyond the Top 100: Pleasington near Blackburn, The Players Club in Bristol, Mold in Wales, plus short-course favourites like the Queen's at Gleneagles and Balcomie at Crail.

He also takes us behind the scenes of Josh Simpson's world record 652 courses in a year: cold-calling Scottish clubs, the 6,000-yard rule, and the putter that nearly had the wrong number on it. Find Andy on Instagram: @28to8golf

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Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

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I called Swinley Forest my number one course in the UK the first time I played it. Then I got the chance to play it twice in one day — and I wanted to know if it would still hold up.

Listen to our Swinley Forest Review

When a society day at Swinley Forest had a last-minute dropout, I jumped at the chance to go back — 36 holes, shotgun start, and a four-course carvery lunch in the middle, the kind of tradition you find at clubs like Sunningdale, Royal St George's and Walton Heath. It was my first time playing 36 holes in a day, my first shotgun start, and my first time revisiting any of the 29 courses we've played so far.

In this episode: how the society day came about, what 36 holes and a shotgun start actually feels like, the four-course carvery experience, how the club handled my gluten-free/coeliac needs, whether the course conditioning held up after a summer of heatwaves, a costly mishap on the 18th green (and the tip I learned from it), and my final verdict — does Swinley Forest still deserve the number one spot?

Find out more about our award nomination

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We turned up to Walton Heath Golf Club in the middle of the UK's third heatwave of the summer, found out our booking had been binned, and ended up playing two intertwined, Ryder Cup-pedigree golf courses as just the two of us — in golden hour, on fairways baked so dry the ball was rolling 200+ yards.

This episode is powered by Fourball Draws - where you can win a fourball on some elite courses for just a fiver - visit fourballs.co.uk and use code TOP100 to buy 2 or more tickets and get one absolutely free!

This episode covers the golf at Walton Heath — both the Old Course (ranked 39 in the world top 100) and the New Course (ranked 88), reviewed together because the two courses share the same land and are played as a composite layout for events like the Ryder Cup and the AIG Women's Open. We talk brutal heather, ridiculous bunkering, our top holes on both courses, a 36-hole match play battle, and a signature hole challenge on each.

If you're new here: this is the Top 100 in 10 podcast, where we're trying to play every course in the UK and Ireland's top 100 in 10 years. Hit follow if you want more of this — it's the single biggest thing that helps the show grow.

Catch part one of this Walton Heath review (the welcome and clubhouse) if you haven't already.

Send us a message

Support the show

Learn more about our journey on our website Top100.in10.co.uk

You can even sign up to our podcast mailing list on the website and get a limited edition Top 100 in 10 ball marker when you complete your profile

Or follow our live journey on Instagram @top100in10 or Tiktok