Top 100 Golf Courses, the most informed and dedicated ranking website, proudly presents its 2012 golf course rankings for the Republic of Ireland.
We created a Top 100 chart for courses in the 26 counties of Ireland in 2008 and since then the top five has remained the same, even after carrying out two biennial updates.
Only one of a few courses at the top of the tree – No.1 rated Ballybunion (Old) – has held the same position throughout, with the others moving around positions 2 to 5.
The four Munster counties of Kerry, Clare, Cork and Limerick have collectively formed something of a golfing power base in the Top 20 of Ireland with seven courses from that area in the south west of the country featuring in the upper reaches of our rankings.
Mayo, Sligo and Donegal have now matched that strength and depth as the climb of Ballyliffin (Old) to position 20 also gives those three counties in the north west of the country seven courses in our Top 20.
Further down the Top 50, the highest climbers are the new Christy O’Connor Snr and Jnr-designed Concra Wood course (up ten places to number 32), the redesigned Narin & Portnoo links layout (up nine spots to 35) and the revamped 18 holes of the Championship course at Rosslare (up 16 positions to 37).
In the bottom half of the Top 100 table, several courses have made big upward moves: the eccentric Strandhill links in County Sligo rises an incredible forty-three slots to number 51, the modern Jeff Howes-designed Bunclody layout in County Wexford moves up twenty three places to 55 and the parkland beauty at Naas in County Kildare leaps up seventeen positions to number 66.
Unfortunately, several courses take sizeable tumbles in the opposite direction: K Club (Smurfit) dives eleven to 39, Druids Heath plummets fifteen to 54, Hermitage falls nineteen to 75 and both the West and East courses at Powerscourt take substantial drops to 63 and 94, respectively.
Fourteen new entries freshen up the Top 100, the highest of which is County Galway’s Portumna, and it’s quite a hidden gem that we’re happy to expose.
For those who would like to keep track of the courses that dropped out, here’s the full list: Roganstown, Woodbrook, Ring of Kerry, Castleknock, St Margaret’s, Knightsbrook, Waterford Castle, Killarney (Lackabane), Faithlegg, Castle Dargan, Courtown, Limerick County, Malahide and Esker Hills.
We genuinely welcome feedback at Top 100 Golf Courses… in fact we positively encourage it. Are there any Irish courses that are too high or too low in the standings? Are there any that shouldn’t be there at all or have we missed any courses – like maybe North West or Letterkenny – that really should be in the Top 100 rankings? Please let us know what you think as we take on board all your comments.
Top 100 doesn’t claim to be “definitive” but we do like to think we’re the most “informed” golf course ranking operation in the business, allowing ordinary golfers to participate in the composition of the various Top 100 golf course listings.
If you’ve played any of our featured courses in Ireland, we’d be really pleased to know what you think of them, so why not post a few course reviews?
Jim McCann
