As competition for a place in our main Top 100 Golf Courses ranking becomes more intense, it’s even more so for those courses ranked 101st to 200th, a.k.a. “The Next 100”.
Our latest ranking of Australia’s Top 100 Golf Courses produced the most fulsome set of numbers in the ranking’s 40-year history, and that data explosion trickled down to the hundred courses below it – and beyond.
While every two years the mission appears to be to identify the 100 best golf courses in the country, in truth it’s about many more courses than that. Since 2020, we’ve been equally interested in the landscape beyond the top echelon. It’s a nod on two fronts. Firstly, to the high calibre of golf courses in Australia, but secondly to the closeness under our criteria between the courses ranked just inside and just outside the Top 100.
Usually, about 15 marks out of 80 separates the No.1-ranked course from 100th yet only 4 to 7 points separates 100th from 200th. Those comparisons grow ever narrower the further down the list you go, making it a far tighter exercise the deeper you venture.
This marks the fourth time Australian Golf Digest has published a secondary list in the wake of the main Top 100 ranking. If there was a trend evident across the “Next 100” lists of 2020 to 2024, it was a gradual narrowing of the gap across all 200 courses. That tendency did not abate this time. While in 2024 just 4.32 points out of 80 separated course No.100 from No.200 (and 5.3 points in 2022 and 7 points in 2020), this time it was 4.13 points. The most compact spread yet highlights how little separates our 100th best course and those ranking 200th and further down. (For comparison across the main list, 15.2 points separated No.1 from No.100 in the new list. That gap was also 15.2 points in 2024, then 16.5 in 2022 and 16 in 2020.)
Curiously, plenty of steadiness was evident amid the tight margins. Seventy-nine courses from the Next 100 list of 2024 return this time (that figure was 67 in 2024), and of the other 21 courses, 12 appear here as the result of a promotion from beyond 200th place, with eight demoted from the Top 100 and one deliberately omitted due to major course renovation work (Pennant Hills). Meanwhile, a trio of courses featured in the Next 100 two years ago climbed into the main ranking for 2026.
How can we be sure these rankings remain accurate so far down the list? More course-evaluation data than ever before. Our panel of 271 judges lodged 7,899 separate evaluations across 824 different courses. Of those evaluations, nearly 4,000 were provided for courses that didn’t make the Top 100. Our panel is tasked with the instruction to avoid focusing on the elite courses alone and instead to view every course as a potential contender for either ranking. As such, in the period from March 2024 to February this year they inspected courses as remote as Dungog and Denmark, Padthaway and Pemberton, Millmerran and Magnetic Island.
New South Wales again owns the lion’s share of the Next 100, with 40 courses from our most populous state. Contributing 29 courses confirms Victoria’s place as the nation’s golf centrepiece (Victoria is also home to 39 of the Top 100), while the remaining states and territories provide a roughly proportionate number, considering the total courses in each. Unlike the Top 100, every state and territory has at least one course ranked in the Next 100.
Once again, to uphold the sanctity of the primary Top 100 Courses ranking, those ranked 101st to 200th are listed alphabetically by state or territory and without individual rankings.
Flinders, VIC
It’s quite shocking to think Flinders, a frequent contender for the main Top 100 Courses list, hasn’t made the grade in the ranking’s 40-year history. The coastal layout received acknowledgement as a ‘vote recipient’ in 1996 and 1998, but never has it cracked the Top 100. It’s a total anomaly for a course where Peter Thomson used to hone his game prior to Open Championship campaigns, such was its links-like quality. Recent design work carried out by course architect Michael Henderson and his Holes in the Ground firm has addressed inconsistencies in the greens and bunkering while enhancing the turf quality. The course has threatened to bust into the Top 100 while remaining a denizen of the Next 100, indicating that if Flinders ever does leave this list, it’ll surely depart in a northerly direction.
Was it in the Next 100 last time? Yes. Has it made the Top 100 before? No
Sandhurst, VIC
Another perennial contender for the main list is Melbourne’s Sandhurst Club, where both the North and Champions courses continue to challenge for a place in the Top 100 and are regulars in the Next 100. The Champions is a one-time Top 100 entrant, although that inclusion came 14 years ago. The two courses present contrasting yet complementary experiences, both designed by Peter Thomson and Ross Perrett. The Champions is Sandbelt-styled, treelined, strategic and classic, with flowing fairways, subtle contours and open-fronted greens. The North course is links-inspired, open and windswept, featuring rugged terrain, wall-lined hazards and burn crossings that create a dynamic, challenge. Together they present visually appealing, varied, engaging and memorable tests of precision, creativity and strategy across landscapes that reflect both tradition and innovation.
Was either course in the Next 100 last time? Yes (both). Has either made the Top 100 before? Yes (Champions)
When? 2012 (89th)
Long Reef, NSW
Dramatic coastal land is coveted in golf-course architecture circles and such sites are celebrated when allowed to shine in our game. Where they become rare, however, is in suburbia. Sydney is blessed with a significant stretch of coastal golf land in the city’s south-eastern suburbs that includes a chain of four courses, but less acknowledged is a similar site along the Northern Beaches. A little like Victoria’s Flinders course, Long Reef is another serial contender that has never made the Top 100 but would surprise few if it did. The peninsular land is flattish but enjoys one striking high headland from which several of the best holes flow, notably the steeply downhill 16th fairway. In recent years, Northern Beaches resident Craig Parry has assisted in rationalising the layout’s bunkering and removing unnecessary pots.
Was it in the Next 100 last time? Yes
Has it made the Top 100 before? No
Araluen, WA
Many of the best golf courses outside Perth to emerge in the past few decades hug the coast, yet one bucked that trend and used an undulating and scenic inland location across which to flow 18 holes. Araluen, the design product of Michael Coate and the late Roger Mackay, uses its setting in the Perth Hills, south-east of the city, to full impact. Fairways climb, descend and twist dramatically with no hole even close to flat. Big features are a hallmark, including large bunkers, which neatly match the bold design. However, arguably the only aspect holding Araluen back are those bunkers. Their sheer size makes them prone to washouts in rain events while debris collects inside them. As such, the club allows preferred lies within its bunkers, which surely pleases many golfers but not the purists.
Was it in the Next 100 last time? Yes
Has it made the Top 100 before? Yes
When? 2016 (95th), 2014 (86th), 2012 (93rd), 2010 (77th), 2006 (58th), 2004 (63rd), 2002 (69th), 2000 (70th)
The courses ranked 101 to 200 in Australia
Australian Capital Territory
Gold Creek
Yowani
New South Wales
Belmont
Catalina (1-18)
cluBarham
Cobram Barooga (Old)
Coolangatta-Tweed (River)
Cromer
Cypress Lakes
Duntryleague
Forster Tuncurry (Tuncurry)
Hawks Nest
Horizons
Kooindah Waters
Lakeside Camden
Links Shell Cove
Long Reef
Lynwood
Macquarie Links
Manly
Mount Broughton
Murwillumbah
Oatlands
Ocean Shores
Pacific Dunes
Pambula-Merimbula (Championship)
Pymble
Rich River (East)
Rich River (West)
Riverside Oaks (Gangurru)
Ryde-Parramatta
Shoalhaven Heads
Teven
The Coast
Thurgoona
Tocumwal (Captains)
Tocumwal (Presidents)
Tura Beach
Twin Creeks
Wollongong
Yarrawonga Mulwala (Lakes)
Yarrawonga Mulwala (Murray)
Northern Territory
Alice Springs
Queensland
Bribie Island
Burleigh
Indooroopilly (River)
Kooralbyn Valley
Maleny
Mirage
Nudgee (Kurrai)
Palm Meadows
Palmer Sea Reef
RACV Royal Pines (Green/Gold)
Twin Waters
South Australia
Millicent
Mount Osmond
Tea Tree Gully
Victor Harbor
Tasmania
Devonport
Launceston
Royal Hobart
Ulverstone
Victoria
Anglesea
Bairnsdale
Ballarat
Eagle Ridge
Eastern (North)
Eynesbury
Flinders
Gardiners Run
Growling Frog
Horsham
Kew
Keysborough
Kooringal
Lakes Entrance
Leongatha
Mornington
Northern
Patterson River
Portarlington
Queenscliff
RACV Healesville
RACV Torquay
Ranfurlie
Rosebud (South)
Sandhurst (Champions)
Sandhurst (North)
Shepparton
Southern
The Sands Torquay
Western Australia
Albany
Araluen
Bunbury
Busselton
Gosnells
Royal Fremantle
Secret Harbour
Sun City
The Vines (Championship)
Did you miss our Top 100 Courses ranking in the May 2026 issue? The full list – and an explanation of the process and judging criteria – is available at australiangolfdigest.com.au/australias-top-100-golf-courses-2026-27/
