Being a Top 100 Golf Panellist is what many aspire to. However, dreams of teeing off at Augusta National, Cypress Point, and NGLA weekly isn't the reality.

Monetising Panels

The vast majority of our panellists travel of their own accord and at their own expense to walk, play and see the best golf courses in their county or state, region, country or even around the world. Top 100 Golf Courses doesn't pay panellists, nor does it ask panellists to pay for the privilege.

Traits of a Top 100 Panellist

A good panellist is well-read and well-travelled. They will have seen, walked and played golf courses in their local area, in their region and around the world.

They should have a solid grasp of golf course architecture principles, be aware of golf course architecture best practices and have an awareness of agronomy.

When making decisions or compiling a ranking, they should be able to articulate and defend the decisions they come to.

Panellist's ID

We have panellists across the world with keen golfers helping us in every major golf centre. Many have worked with us for many years and others have just begun. The common denominator is a passion for golf courses, golf course architecture and golf travel.

Some of our panel members are used as Advisors. Some are industry professionals who are experts but can, at times, be biased. The opinions of their work aren't taken into account. The same can be said of golf courses where we may be members. We would never be a member of a club that we don't love or enjoy, inherently biased; we cannot allow those opinions to influence the ranking.

Some of our panellists work in other media organisations or simply do not want to be publicly known. We respect their wishes and do not disclose their identity. If you wish to verify the identity of any purported panellists, see below.

Current Top 100 Panellists

It has been noted that some individuals have claimed to be Raters, Reviewers, or even Panellists to access certain golf clubs or obtain golf.

If you have been approached or received correspondence from any individual who is not using an official @top100golfcourses.com email or @top100golfpanel.com email, we would kindly ask you to contact us to discuss this before approving.

Please contact us at info @ top100golfcourses.com or jasper @ top100golfcourses.com

Current Panel Composition (June 2025)

World Panel Co-ordinator - J Miners

World Ranking Lead - contact J Miners
16 Advisors

USA Lead - contact J Miners
New England - 5 Panellists/ 4 Advisors
Mid Atlantic - 1 Candidate/ 6 Panellists/ 3 Advisors
East North Central - 1 Candidate/ 6 Panellists/ 1 Advisor
West North Central - 2 Panellists
South Atlantic - Lead - J Peavy - 5 Candidates/ 10 Panellists/ 7 Advisors
East South - 2 Candidates/ 2 Panellists/ 1 Advisor
West South - 1 Candidate/ 3 Panellists
Mountain - Lead C Cunningham - 2 Panellists/ 5 Advisors
Pacific - Lead C Cunningham - 1 Panellist/ 2 Advisors

GB&I Region
GB&I - Wales Co-ordinator - J Miners
GB&I - Scotland Lead - J Henderson - 13 Panellists + Advisors
GB&I - England Co-ordinator - J Miners - 33 Panellists + Advisors
GB&I - Ireland & N Ireland Co-ordinator - J Miners - 6 Panellists + Advisors

Europe Region Co-ordinator - J Miners
Benelux Lead - B Branch - 2 Advisors/ 4 Panellists
Central Europe - 5 Candidates/ 2 Panellists/ 6 Advisors/ 1 Industry Professional
Spain & Portugal Lead - G Mataro - 9 Panellists + Advisors
France Lead - N Aubert - 3 Candidates
Scandinavia - 5 Candidates/ 1 Industry Professional/ 1 Advisor
Baltics - 1 Candidate/ 1 Advisor
South Europe - 3 Candidates/ 3 Advisors
Central East - 1 Candidate/ 2 Panellists/ 3 Advisors

Middle East Lead - J Tizot - 1 Panellist/ 4 Advisors

NZ Lead - M Wallbank - 4 Panellists/ 3 Advisors/ 1 Industry Professional

Aus Lead - K Pallier - 1 Candidate/ 4 Panellists/ 6 Advisors/ 1 Industry Professional

Asia Lead - J Yamakawa - 3 Candidates/ 3 Panellists/ 2 Advisors

Africa - 5 Advisors

Caribbean - contact J Miners - 1 Candidate/ 1 Panellist/ 2 Advisors

Become a Top 100 Panellist

How can you become a panellist for your county or state, country, region or even the world Top 100? It all starts with engagement!

1. Become a member of Top 100 Golf Asia
2. Reach out! Email jasper @ top100golfcourses.com

What will help you progress through the process? Here are some hints and tips:

• Post and tag us on Social Media (subscribe, follow, and interact with us!)
• Read our Ranking Guidance and let that advice guide you
• Leave a balanced rating
• Submit well-formatted, quality photos and videos

Good reviews are the bedrock of Top 100 Golf Courses. When articulating your experience, we want you to be open, honest and fair.

General Reminders

In the past, Top 100 Golf Courses had a policy of not publishing one-line reviews. Whilst not a hard and fast rule, a single sentence to the positive or negative without explanation isn't usually helpful to successive readers or the Top 100 audience.

Please also be aware, the first sentence of your review is used as a header. It is usually helpful to summarise your overall experience and explain your lasting impression.

What else may inspire or guide how you leave reviews?

How was the routing of the course? (Did it take advantage of the most interesting features of the land? Did it use major topographical features multiple times?)
Did the golf course flow with a steady cadence? (Was it nails from the beginning? Did it offer breather holes? Did it compress and release in terms of difficulty?)
Was it walkable? What about the distances between tees and greens?

Were there standout holes? Perhaps one alone that makes it worth a visit?
Was there a particularly strong stretch of holes? (Perhaps a minimum of three?)
Was there a unique feature that you've rarely seen elsewhere?

How were the par 3's as a set? Which were your favourites? (Were they all heroic? Did they ask different questions of you depending on pin location?)
Was there variety in the par 4's? (Short, medium and long? Were there half-par holes?)
Did the Par 5's stimulate risk-taking? (Going for it in two? Were there options for multiple routes to the hole? Was there excitement on every shot?)

How were the greens? (Speed is secondary to contour, shaping, and trueness.)
How were the putting surfaces? (Trueness vs simply fast.)
How were the playing surfaces? (Firm & fast vs green, lush and soft.)
How was the bunkering? Was it unique, ubiquitous or homogenous?

Terms & Conditions Regarding Reviews

We recognise not everyone will write like Bernard Darwin or Herbert Warren Wind, but readability is important. If your review isn't understandable or would require significant editing to make it so, we reserve the right to use our discretion in publishing your submitted review.

If the reviews contain profanity, abuse, defamation or obvious malicious intent, Top 100 Golf Courses retains the right not to publish submitted reviews.

If there are obvious grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors, Top 100 Golf Courses reserves the right to amend or edit submitted reviews. We will never materially alter the substance or content of a submitted review. If any alterations are made, it will be noted with (ED). This would be an extremely rare occurrence.

By submitting photos, videos or written content to Top 100 Golf Courses in any way, you have expressly given consent for Top 100 Golf Courses to use the media or digital assets at their discretion indefinitely. No claim can be made against Top 100 Golf Courses for copyright compensation or infringement.

If you share, post or upload content that is covered by intellectual property rights, you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free and worldwide licence to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate and create derivative works of your content.

If you feel your intellectual property rights have been violated by someone else posting your copyrighted material, contact us to arrange removal. Please email info @ top100golfcourses.com .

Review Development

We are in the process of refining the way you can submit reviews. As we develop this feature, user experience will be improved and submitted reviews will be easier to provide but also offer a more meaningful end result.

Current Ratings

As of 2025, all users of Top 100 Golf Courses can leave a rating when submitting a review. We believe this is important and appreciated by our users. Honest yet fair reviews and ratings matter in a world where glowing platitudes are seemingly always for sale.

User Ratings

Travelling golfers differ tremendously in what they feel is important or should be weighed and measured. We openly publish our Ranking Guidance for Panellists but also realise most will differ in their approach. As well, many golfers haven't had the privilege to see and experience a truly world-class golf course, as many are inaccessible for one reason or another. Hence, the barometer of average, good, excellent and perfection can vary tremendously.

A Question of Verbiage

Some individuals have visited clubs as Top 100 Golf Courses Raters and Reviewers, which is somewhat misleading, unintentionally or otherwise. Potentially soon, Top 100 Users will be able to leave a 'Score'. Top 100 Panellists will be able to leave a 'Rating'.

Current Rating System

It started as a 6 6-ball rating System, and later 1/2 1/2-ball increments were added to help add more nuance. Currently, the rating system stands as such:

1 - Very Poor
2 - Poor
2 1/2 - Fair
3 - Average
3 1/2 - Above Average
4 - Good
4 1/2 - Very Good
5 - Excellent
5 1/2 - Outstanding
6 - Perfection

As ratings have become more popular, we have noted that a scale of 3, 5 and 10 has emerged. With regards to a set of 3 (Bronze, Silver & Gold or Good, Better & Best) has become widely used. 5-star ratings for hotels and vacations are widely understood. A base 10 rating is also very common.

Whilst our current system offers 10 options, the 1-6 rating isn't intuitively recognised or understood. Moving to a base 5 system will be more intuitive and better understood.

Ratings In Conclusion

We hope this current review and explanation of the proposed rating system make sense and will give the travelling golfer more confidence when planning their next golf adventure.