Top 100 Golf Courses is proud to present its latest rankings for the twenty-six counties that constitute the Republic of Ireland. We established our Irish chart back in 2006, so this is the 5th biennial edition of the Emerald Isle’s Top 100 listings.
There aren’t any dramatic upward or downward moves at the top end of chart and within the all-links Top 10, only three courses change place this time around. Tralee(now position 6) swaps places with County Sligo (Championship)and Rosapenna (Sandy Hills) drops one place, replaced by the Island.
Substantial upward movement does take place further down the chart, where Shannon(up twenty-two places to 64) and Castletroy(also up twenty-two spots to 68) make the joint biggest climb towards the top.
Significant fallers this time around include Killarney (Mahoney’s Point)(down eighteen places to 75) and three courses that each drops ten positions: Skellig Bay (now number 66), Naas (new position 76) and New Forest (now ranked at 80).
Two years ago, we had fourteen new entries to liven up the Top 100 but, this time around, there are only five. The first of these courses is Esker Hills at position 73, where it’s actually a re-entry because it featured at number 84 in 2008 and position 100 in 2010.
Similarly, Knightsbrookreturns to the Top 100 chart at number 93, having made our 2008 list at number 60 and our 2010 rankings at position 82.
Completing the line-up of new courses in our 2014 Irish listings, you’ll find County Mayo’s Ballinrobe(at number 94), County Meath’s Headfort (Old) (at position 98) and Portarlingtonfrom County Laois (at number 100).
We always welcome feedback at Top 100 Golf Courses… in fact it’s positively encouraged, so please let us know if, in your opinion, there any Irish courses that are too high or too low in the standings.
Are there any entries in our Irish Top 100 that shouldn’t even be there at all or have we perhaps missed a course which should have made the cut, like one of the dozen or so layouts that we included in previous rankings?
Top 100 has never claimed to be “definitive” but we do strive to create the most “informed” golf course rankings. If you’ve played a course in our Irish Top 100 then we’d be delighted to hear what you think of it, so why not post a course review or two?
Jim McCann
