Top 100 Golf Courses of Britain & Ireland 2012

One hundred and seventy-five golf courses were on our shortlist for a position on our latest Britain & Ireland Top 100. At first glace the table will look very familiar and the reality is that there will be very few new Top 100 contenders in the current economic climate. Very few British or Irish courses have opened in the last couple of years and the position is unlikely to change in the short to medium term.

The good news is that many older clubs are embarking on renovation programmes, so clubs are not resting on their laurels and the golfing landscape is not standing still.

Some people will no doubt be fed up to see Royal County Down once again sitting at the head of our rankings. We make no apology for this because RCD is head and shoulders above any other British or Irish course. However we do have a great deal of change in the Top 20… in fact, no fewer than seventeen courses in the Top 20 have moved position. Sunningdale (New) is the most significant upward mover in the Top 20 and Royal Birkdale the biggest faller.

Those with eagle eyes will wonder how 49% of the courses in the hundred can move up while only 30% go down. I don’t know the answer, so please don’t ask me why as I surprised myself with that particular statistic.

Welsh courses have fared well. Aberdovey up ten, Royal St David’s up eight, Royal Porthcawl up four and Pennard up 2. The Twenty Ten course at Celtic Manor makes its first appearance in our rankings making a total of five courses from the Principality. Northern Ireland has its two heavyweights at Newcastle and Portrush, which are ably supported by Portstewart (Strand) and Lough Erne.

There’s mixed fortunes for the Republic of Ireland with nine courses going down the table and only three moving up. However, the Island, Druids Glen and Donegal reappear in our hundred this year to the detriment of Portmarnock Hotel Links.

In percentage terms, there’s more upward than downward movement from English courses and there’s a return to the Top 100 for the Addington and Woburn (Duke’s), while New Zealand and Broadstone make their debuts in our Britain & Ireland rankings.

Scottish courses continue to dominate the very top of the ranking table and while the Old course and Royal Dornoch make positive upward moves, the Ailsa course at Turnberry slips down. The pretty Queen’s course at Gleneagles makes a deserved return to the hundred while the Duke’s St Andrews makes its first ever appearance in our Britain & Ireland hundred.

We always welcome feedback, so please feel free to let us know what you think of our latest Britain & Ireland Top 100. We don’t claim to be “definitive” but we do like to think that we’re the most “informed” and considered golf course rankings in the business. If you’ve played any of our featured courses, we’d love to know what you think, so why not post a course review?

Keith Baxter
Editor-in-Chief
www.top100golfcourses.com

To explore in detail our new 2012 Britain & Ireland Top 100 click here:

For those interested, the ten courses that made way for the new are: Moortown, The Grove, Castlerock (Mussenden), Portmarnock Hotel Links, Sherwood Forest, Royal North Devon, Liphook, St Mellion (Nicklaus), Southport & Ainsdale, Montrose (Medal).