Golfweek’s Best: Rating the British Open rota courses

How do Muirfield, the Old Course at St. Andrews, Royal Troon, Royal St. George’s and the rest of the rota stack up in the course rankings?

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All eyes will be on Royal St. George’s Golf Club in Sandwich, England, for this week’s British Open. But how does the links layout southeast of London stack up in a ranking of all 10 of the courses on the modern rota for the British Open?

Golfweek’s Best utilizes a national group of some 800 raters who judge courses around the world, rating each on a points basis of 1 to 10. Any course with an average rating over 7 is a great course, and anything over 8 is in truly rarefied air. Half the courses on the rota, which now includes Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, rate above an 8.

The following list of the 10 British Open rota courses is ordered based on those ratings. Also included is where each course ranks in Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses list for Great Britain and Ireland.