The purpose of the Review of The Month feature is twofold. Top100GolfCourses has always aimed to salute and encourage those who are putting admirable effort into reviewing the world’s great golf courses. Moving forward, we are also looking to learn from these experts! We’ll be chatting with the month’s star authors and discussing topics such as golf in their area, what they like to see in a strong course review, and of course dig a little deeper into their own winning review.
April 2023’s Review of The Month comes from Alan McDaid, whose glee at having played Ardglass Golf Club invited comparisons to both Pebble Beach and the club’s more famous neighbor, Royal County Down.
You can read all of Alan’s winning review below, and find other takes on Ardglass here.
Photo credit: Gary Lisbon
Whilst lacking the elegance and grandeur of it's near neighbour RCD, Ardglass packs a mighty punch, and is an exhilarating cocktail of jaw dropping scenery and fun quirky golf holes.
On arrival at the car park you can immediately see that this is no ordinary golf course, as the 15th century castle operating as the clubhouse greets you with an imposing embrace. The first tee-shot is as memorable as a start as at any course in the British Isles, but in all honesty its a straight forward enough tee shot, just don't go left!
Holes 2-5 continue along the cliff face with the Irish sea guarding against any errand left tee shots, it's a superb stretch of holes to start the round off, with the 4th being my personal favourite. Its a raised teeing ground, with a fairway framed by 4 inviting pot bunkers, with the green in the distance looking like it is falling off into the Irish sea.
Holes 6-8 are a little more pedestrian, good golf holes, but lacking the spectacle of what has proceeded them. The 9th is a brute of a par 5, which is typically played into the wind, and uphill all the way. Then on holes 10-13 the fireworks return, the 10th being a lovely downhill long par 3 towards Coney Island, the 11th a contender for the best par 5 in Ireland, and the 12th being Ireland's version of the 7th at Pebble Beach.
The closing stretch of holes are testing golf holes but again fall victim to the quality that preceeded them. But the 18th is a risk-reward drivable par 4, where anything from a 2 to 6 is in play. Ardglass is a golfing destination in its own right, and is only getting better and better as the membership continue to invest in course improvements that genuinely help to refine the product and create what I personally think is the most fun round of golf in Ireland.