James's course notes.

West Ireland · Patrick Murphy / Tom Simpson

Tom Watson called Ballybunion Old the finest seaside golf course he had ever seen. He had a point. The Old Course sits in Kerry dunes on the Atlantic coast with the kind of natural links terrain that cannot be manufactured — it evolved over centuries into something that modern golf architecture simply cannot replicate.

Da Nang, Vietnam · Luke Donald

Ba Na Hills sits at 1,400 metres on the Truong Son mountain range, and the cloud that rolls through mid-round is not a weather inconvenience — it's part of the experience. I've played this course in clear sunshine, in mist so thick the ball disappeared from sight within fifty yards, and in every condition between. The course functions beautifully in all of them.

Hua Hin, Thailand · Phil Ryan

Black Mountain Golf Club in Hua Hin is consistently ranked among the top five courses in Asia, and based on multiple visits I have no reason to dispute that ranking. Phil Ryan's 2006 design sits among granite outcrops with water features that are genuinely integrated into the strategy rather than decorating the margins.

Scotland · Allan Robertson / Tom Morris

Carnoustie is not a course designed to make you feel good about yourself. The Barry Burn crosses the 18th fairway twice. The wind off the North Sea changes direction between the front nine and back. Jean Van de Velde's 1999 Open collapse in that burn is the clearest illustration of what the course can do to a professional golfer with a three-shot lead on the final hole.

Belek, Turkey · Kyle Phillips

Carya Golf Club is ranked in the world's top 100 courses, and most people who play golf have never heard of it. That gap between quality and fame is the most striking thing about Belek as a destination, and Carya is its clearest illustration.

Dubai, UAE · Greg Norman

The Earth Course is the best golf course in the UAE, and it's not particularly close. Greg Norman's 2009 design hosts the DP World Tour Championship — the European Tour's season finale — and deserves every prestige booking it gets. The course plays 7,700 yards from the tips, which places it among the longest championship courses in the world, but the scoring is more accessible than the yardage suggests because the fairways are generous and the design rewards straight hitting over power.

Garden Route, South Africa · Ernie Els

Fancourt's Links Course in George is the most underrated golf course anywhere in the world. Ernie Els designed it to play as a genuine links course inland — fescue rough, bounce-and-run fairways, wind exposure that changes the scoring profile entirely from one day to the next. The result is a course that would charge twice what it does and still be considered fair if it were located in Scotland.

Tenerife, Canary Islands · Severiano Ballesteros

Buenavista del Norte is the Canary Islands course that I recommend most enthusiastically, and nobody outside of serious golf circles has ever heard of it. Seve Ballesteros designed it on the northwest coast of Tenerife with the Atlantic Ocean as the boundary on three sides and the Teno massif rising behind it. The result is a course of extraordinary scenic quality that also happens to be a very good golf course.

Mauritius · Peter Matkovich

Heritage Golf Club is the best course on Mauritius and among the top ten resort courses in the Indian Ocean basin. Peter Matkovich's design plays through sugar cane fields and wetlands on the southern coast with the Indian Ocean visible from multiple points and the Morne Brabant peninsula as a permanent backdrop.

Japan · Charles Hugh Alison

Hirono Golf Club is the Augusta National of Japan — not as a compliment borrowed from American golf, but as an accurate description of its standing in the country. The 1932 Charles Hugh Alison design was largely untouched during post-war reconstruction and plays through pines and azaleas with a quiet grandeur that no modern course has replicated in Japan or anywhere else.

Japan · C.H. Alison

The Fuji Course at Kawana Hotels Resort sits on the Izu Peninsula with Mt Fuji visible from multiple holes on clear days. On a clear October morning — which the Izu autumn provides with some regularity — you play eighteen holes with the mountain framing the left side of the course from the first tee. There is no similar view in golf.

South Africa · Gary Player

Leopard Creek backs onto the Kruger National Park. A wire fence is the boundary between the eighteenth fairway and the reserve. I have played this course in the presence of hippos in the water hazards, crocodiles in the drainage channels, and an elephant that walked along the fence line during the afternoon round. Nobody spoke for four holes.

Algarve, Portugal · Jack Nicklaus

Monte Rei is the best course in Portugal. I've said this for years and nothing has changed my mind. Jack Nicklaus's only Iberian design sits near Vila Real de Santo António on the Spanish border — ninety minutes from Faro, which puts most Algarve-based golfers off making the drive. Their loss.

Jeju Island, South Korea · Ronald Fream / David Pfaff

Nine Bridges is a golf course that makes you doubt the comparative merit of every other golf course you've ever played. I have stood on this course with clients who have played Augusta National and heard them say that Nine Bridges is better. I am not in a position to confirm or deny this because I have not played Augusta. What I can confirm is that the claim was made in complete seriousness by someone who has.

Scotland · Nature / Old Tom Morris

The Old Course is not a golf course. It's a place. The distinction matters — because when you stand on the first tee and look out over the shared fairways, the shared bunkers, the town visible along the entire left side, you're not about to play golf in the conventional sense. You're about to walk through six hundred years of the game's history, and the course is doing its best to make you feel every one of them.

California, USA · Jack Neville / Douglas Grant

Pebble Beach is not my favourite course. It's not the most technically interesting, the conditions are variable in ways that require patience, and the green fee at $595 (approximately £450) plus resort stay makes it the most expensive round in our portfolio. None of this changes the fact that you must play it.

Algarve, Portugal · William Mitchell

I've played Quinta do Lago South forty-odd times and it still gets me on the back nine. Holes 15 through 18 with the Ria Formosa estuary behind you — that closing stretch is as good as anything in continental Europe, and I'm not inclined to argue with anyone who says otherwise.

Costa del Sol, Spain · Robert Trent Jones Sr

Valderrama is the greatest course in continental Europe. I won't be argued out of that position. The 1974 Robert Trent Jones Sr redesign produced something that has no comparable equivalent in Spain or Portugal — a course where every hole demands a different kind of thinking, where the lies, the bunkering, and the cork oak trees combine to make standard course management completely irrelevant.

Northern Ireland · Old Tom Morris / Harry Vardon

Royal County Down is, by common consensus, one of the ten greatest golf courses in the world. The evidence is straightforward: every serious ranking places it here, every serious golfer who has played it confirms the ranking. I'll add my voice to the consensus without qualification.

Scotland · Tom Morris / John Sutherland

Royal Dornoch is the most underrated course in the world, which is something only people who've been there can say with confidence, because the people who haven't been there have never heard of it. It sits in a town of twelve hundred people on the Dornoch Firth, four hours north of St Andrews, and the entire golf world should make that drive.

Algarve, Portugal · Joe Lee / Rocky Roquemore

San Lorenzo appears on every European top-20 list that matters, and it earns every placement. The Joe Lee design from 1988 sits in the Quinta do Lago estate on the edge of the Ria Formosa lagoon, and the par-3 6th over the water is the most photographed hole in Portugal — which doesn't make it less beautiful, just harder to concentrate on.

Scotland · Willie Fernie / Mackenzie Ross

Turnberry Ailsa is the most visually dramatic golf course I have ever played. The lighthouse at the 9th tee, Ailsa Craig rising from the Firth of Clyde beyond, the sound of waves below the clifftop holes — there are photographs of this course that have driven more people to Scotland than any brochure.

Sicily, Italy · Kyle Phillips

Verdura is the finest resort golf property in the Mediterranean, and it's not close. Kyle Phillips' design uses the Sicilian coastline with restraint and intelligence — the sea is always present but it's never used as a gimmick. The course plays firm and fast in the summer heat, links-style in character if not in terrain, with greens that reward approach position rather than spin.

Muscat, Oman · Greg Norman

Al Mouj is the only championship course in Oman, and it punches far above the weight that 'only course in the country' might imply. Greg Norman's design sits on the Muscat coast with the Indian Ocean as a constant backdrop and plays a proper length — 7,325 yards from the tips — with conditioning that rivals the best courses in the UAE.

Gran Canaria, Spain · Robert Trent Jones Sr

Anfi Tauro is the Canary Islands course I recommend most enthusiastically to clients who have only been to Tenerife. The Robert Trent Jones Sr design from 1998 sits in a dramatic ravine on Gran Canaria's southwest coast, with the Atlantic Ocean visible from the upper holes and the barrancos — volcanic ravines — cutting through the lower part of the course in a way that's completely unlike anything in mainland Spain or Portugal.

Mauritius · Rodney Wright / Hugh Baiocchi

The Links Course and the Legend Course at Constance Belle Mare Plage sit on the east coast of Mauritius, where the lagoon is calmest and the light at tee time is extraordinary. Neither course is technically demanding by international standards — the yardages are modest and the design is accessible to a wide range of handicaps.

Marrakech, Morocco · Robert Trent Jones Jr

Golf Al Maaden is the best golf course in Morocco. Robert Trent Jones Jr's design opened in 2010 and immediately established the benchmark for what Moroccan golf could be — a proper championship layout with consistent conditioning, intelligent bunkering, and views of the High Atlas Mountains on clear days that make the approach shots more difficult than they should be.

Tenerife, Canary Islands · Manuel Piñero

Golf Costa Adeje in the south of Tenerife is the course that introduces most UK clients to Canarian golf, and it's a worthy introduction. The barrancos — volcanic ravines — that cut through the lower section of the course create forced carries and dramatic elevations that are completely unlike anything you'll find in Portugal or mainland Spain.

Da Nang, Vietnam · Colin Montgomerie / Ross McMurray

Colin Montgomerie's design along the Da Nang coastline is where serious golfers come to hit shots in Vietnam. Wind-affected, wide fairways with subtle undulations, links-style in character even without the Scottish seaside — our clients who play off single figures consistently rate it their favourite round in Asia.

Nairobi, Kenya · Various (founded 1913)

Muthaiga Golf Club is the oldest golf club in East Africa — founded 1913 — and members who have been coming here since before independence give it the atmosphere of a colonial institution that has quietly adapted to three generations of social change without losing its essential character. The clubhouse smells of leather and old wood in the way that only very old clubhouses do.

West Ireland · Liam Higgins / Ron Kirby

Old Head Golf Links is the most dramatic golf course I have ever played. The course occupies a promontory two hundred metres above the Atlantic, surrounded by ocean on three sides, and the views are genuinely distracting in a way that affects scoring. I don't say this lightly — I've played Turnberry, I've played Pebble Beach. Old Head is more relentlessly spectacular.

Costa del Sol, Spain · Robert Trent Jones Sr

Sotogrande was Robert Trent Jones Sr's first European commission, built in 1964, and it remains the most elegant parkland course on the Costa del Sol. The trees are enormous — sixty years of cork oak, stone pine, and eucalyptus framing fairways that feel closer to Augusta than Andalucía.

Belek, Turkey · David Jones

Rory McIlroy stood on the 18th tee needing a birdie to win the Turkish Airlines Open here. He made it. I have tried to birdie the 18th at PGA Sultan for fifteen years and it will not let me.

Algarve, Portugal · Frank Pennink

The Old Course at Vilamoura opened in 1969 and remains the most atmospheric course on the Algarve. The umbrella pines are now fifty years old, and playing through them on a warm October morning — the light filtering through, pine needles underfoot, complete silence between holes — is an experience that newer courses can't replicate regardless of budget.

Abu Dhabi, UAE · Kyle Phillips

Yas Links is the best links-style course in the Middle East, and one of the most authentic links recreations I've played outside of the British Isles. Kyle Phillips' design uses fescue rough, bounce-and-run fairways, and strategic wind exposure to produce golf that feels genuinely links in character despite being in the middle of Abu Dhabi.