Our ratings and rankings

When a golfer rates a golf club, they do so by giving a grade for different items like: 

• The general impression of the golf club
• The course(s) played
• The facilities (practice facilities, parking, etc.)
• Course maintenance (greens, fairways, tee-boxes, etc.)
• Clubhouse (appearance, atmosphere, etc.)
• Value for money
• Hospitality
• Surroundings
• Restaurant

Not all the items mentioned above have the same impact on the overall rating. The impact of a golf course is much higher than for example the grade given for 'the restaurant' or 'value for money'. A golfer can grade each item which will lead to a compounded overall rating for this club. So, a golfer never gives an overall rating, this is the result of all the items combined. 

To obtain the rating of a golf club, we take an average of all reviews that were written by golfers about this specific golf club. In this average, the following variables are taken into account:

• the reputation of the golfer (steel, bronze, silver, gold)
• the date of play (or the date of the review if play date is unknown)
• the completeness of the review (based on how many items were filled in and how long the motivation text is)

The higher the reputation, the more recent and the more complete the review is, the more contribution points a club receives for this review. A review for a steel member (just signed up, no reviews) generally will be around 50 points. In comparison, the review of a gold member can have an impact that is 6 times higher. 

A golf club receives contribution points for every review they receive. Based on the number of (total) points, a golf club will have an active (green background) or inactive (grey background) ranking.

Contribution points for clubs will always keep depreciating so our information stays relevant. A rating becomes active (= credible) when a club has obtained at least 1000 contribution points. 

Only clubs with an active rating can obtain a 'recommended' (7.5 out of 10 or higher) or an 'outstanding' seal of approval. Also, only clubs with an active rating are included in our Golfers' Choice Rankings. 

We only publish a Golfers' Choice Rankings for a country when:

• the majority of the clubs in that country have an active rating
• we have sufficient (new) reviews per golf club
• we have a decent distribution of these review among all golf clubs in that country

This is also the case for every individual item. So when not have enough golfers have reviewed an item like 'restaurant', 'hospitality' or 'surroundings' we will not publish a Golfers Choice Ranking for that item in that specific country even though we might publish other rankings.

All reviews are taken into account until the 31st of December for that specific year. So for instance, all reviews until the 31st of December 2022 are used for the 2023 Golfers' Choice Rankings.

To make sure our ratings are accurate and relevant, we depreciate the contribution points over time for reviews given to a golf club. That way golf clubs are motivated to keep gathering reviews by golfers so the rating keeps providing an accurate picture. This is very important as golfers will base their choice where to play on the overall rating of a golf club. 

The contribution points a review has received has an impact of 100% in the first year. After the first year – and every year to come – the review will loose 50% of its contribution points. So if a golf club does not receive any new reviews, in time they will loose their active ranking and they will become less visible on Leading Courses as golf clubs with an active ranking are shown before clubs with an inactive ranking in our country and region listings. Also when people search for clubs, we favour clubs with an active rating. 

Every day our content team checks each and every review and determines which reviews are to be approved, disapproved or flagged for further investigation. If a review is flagged, we will reach out to the golfer to explain to us why the review should be approved. A review is flagged if for example the motivational text is very positive and the grades are very low. Or, if the grades are very high or low but when this is not clearly motivated (or no motivation is provided). 

We have clear and strict guidelines in place, as genuine reviews are very important for our site and visitors. If interested, please check our Editorial Policy to understand what is allowed and what not. 

If you have any other issues or questions about reviews or a rating, please check our Help Center.