Golf World Magazine, the publisher of the industry-leading Top-100 Golf Courses franchise, has published its second Top-100 Golf Resorts: Continental Europe ranking. And it’s a very different-looking list and publication to the inaugural ranking that was published in 2016.
“With the goal of rewarding the resorts that continually look to innovate, invest and improve, we completely overhauled our assessment criteria for our 2018 ranking and expanded our review panel to include more than 40 industry experts. It’s by far our most thoroughly researched and reviewed ranking,” explains Golf World editor, Nick Wright. “We also changed the look and feel of the design to reflect the fact that we’re writing about some of the continent’s premier places to stay and play golf. The new ranking has a much more upscale and elegant feel.”
The new 2018 ranking system places more emphasis on the quality and volume of available golf and takes its lead from Golf World’s latest Top-100 Courses: Continental Europe ranking, which published last year. “Our most recent European courses ranking was invaluable in helping us create our new resorts list,” explains Wright. “It enabled us to set the benchmark against which we could compare the golf offerings of every resort. That is why we have seen some big changes – up, down and new – in the list.”
Golf World also changed the way it marked accommodation, this year taking into account factors such as service and ambience as well as the standard rooms and dining categories. So ‘accommodation’ was replaced by ‘resort experience’ in the assessment. “Resorts are more than just rooms and food,” says Wright. “We wanted to reward the venues that went the extra mile to make guests feel welcome and comfortable while on-site.”
The final change to the ranking criteria saw Golf World revise its ‘accessibility’ category and replace it with ‘location’. In the 2018 ranking, the magazine awarded bonus points to resorts it felt were easily accessible, both from the UK as well as from international hubs, but decided this was both unfair and inaccurate. “We felt it unfair to judge the quality of a resort on either its proximity to or ease of travel from the UK,” explains Wright. “Why should a great resort in Europe receive fewer points simply because British travellers may find it inconvenient to get to? That made no sense. The purpose of the ranking is to highlight the best of the best, not the easiest to visit.”
As a result of the changes and revamped assessment process, there are no fewer than 10 new entries in the list: Golf Club Eichenheim, Royal Bled, Royal Mougins, Hotel du Golf Barriere, Chateau de Chailly, Onyria Palmares, Lofoten Links, Sand Valley, La Reserva Club and PGA National Sweden.
“What this new list shows us is that competition in the resorts sector is healthy and fierce – and that’s great news for the travelling golfer. We could easily have made this a Top-150 ranking, such is the breadth and quality of the choice. Next time, we just might!”
The November issue of Golf World is on-sale now in bookstores and shops, and can also be downloaded online at: www.greatmagazines.co.uk/golf-world-print-single-issues