The staging of The Open at Royal Birkdale earlier this month bucked recent major championship trends of producing first-time winners. Many viewers must have thought that Matt Kuchar was going to win. Under normal circumstances he would have won, but in a cruel twist of fate Jordan Spieth somehow put paid to Kuchar’s hopes of lifting the Claret Jug: Spieth "flips switch" to win by three.

M. James Ward contributed a number of articles during July, and one in particular shines a bright light on the top golf courses situated within the Garden State. New Jersey is the USA’s 46th largest state by area, but its golfing reputation exceeds its diminutive geographical size: US Women's Open marks golf's stature in the Garden State.

In this edition, we’ve released the first Top 50 ranking update for the West & Southwest of Scotland, as well as an inaugural Top 20 for England’s North East region.

We’re also excited to announce the launch of our new Golf Resorts pages. Only a handful of golf resorts are currently showcased, but we’ll select one hundred of the world’s finest golf resorts. These luxury properties will not only boast stellar golf courses, but also the finest accommodations, gourmet dining and world-class facilities which are bound to please even the most discerning non-golfing partners. We’ll highlight new resort additions on a monthly basis. Check out our new Casa de Campo page – it’s the Caribbean’s best golf resort.

When we last updated our Scottish rankings two years ago, we issued a news release for each of the fifteen Caledonian regional charts that we maintain. This time around, we’ve decided to rationalise the process by grouping the regions into three broader areas, starting with the West & Southwest. We also asked four widely travelled Scottish panellists from a leading golf magazine if they would assist with our ranking process and, thankfully, everybody agreed to help.

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Our new North East England regional Top 20 features one course that is currently ranked in our World Top 100, three that are presently placed in our GB&I table (all located in Yorkshire), and eight that are ranked in our English Top 100. Ganton Golf Club heads our North East regional table and while it may not fit squarely into any recognised genre, this 1949 Ryder Cup venue has been a permanent fixture in our World Top 100 rankings down the years.

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The South Australian Government announced last month, that permission has been granted to develop an 18-hole golf course on pristine Kangaroo Island. Known as The Cliffs, Kangaroo Island and constructed on a premium 600-acre parcel of ocean front land in Pelican Lagoon, the course takes full advantage of the area's rolling sand dunes and sweeping coastal views. Much of the course is set atop 25-metre high cliffs and played directly adjacent the Southern Ocean.

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All in all, Cruden Bay is a real contender for the most photogenic course in Scottish golf and the course absolutely lives up to those photos. If you’ve not played here yet, you’re absolutely missing a treat, it’s a wonderful day’s golf that goes beyond just the 18 holes of the Championship Course. I’d therefore like to doff my hat and offer my congratulations Cruden Bay, my favourite golf experience to date.

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