Top 100 Courses 2017 - Golf Digest Ireland

D Hayes

tayto lover wrote: »

Lovely in summer but very poor in winter.
The members are currently only allowed 5 clubs and have to take a little mat with them to play the ball of. Very boggy. Poor drainage.

Regarding Dundalk - madness that clubs like this make the top 100 list when it's almost unplayable for half the year.

thewobbler

D Hayes wrote: »

tayto lover wrote: »

Lovely in summer but very poor in winter.
The members are currently only allowed 5 clubs and have to take a little mat with them to play the ball of. Very boggy. Poor drainage.

Regarding Dundalk - madness that clubs like this make the top 100 list when it's almost unplayable for half the year.

thankfully you're not responsible for setting the criteria.

Considering that the likes of Augusta completely shuts its doors for up to 4 months a year, while you'll never be allowed to strike a ball on a fairway on half the links in Ireland from January to mod March, you might not even up with 100 courses to review.

D Hayes

thewobbler wrote: »

thankfully you're not responsible for setting the criteria.

Considering that the likes of Augusta completely shuts its doors for up to 4 months a year, while you'll never be allowed to strike a ball on a fairway on half the links in Ireland from January to mod March, you might not even up with 100 courses to review.

I absolutely understand why world class Irish links use mats for half the year. And I agree with that.

For a parkland course in Ireland, being unplayable for half the year due to drainage issues is a completely different matter.

I think you're comparing apples with oranges in your previous comment, somehow.

tayto lover

Most links courses drop/place to the side in winter to protect the fairways.
It's no big deal and the course is great later as a result.

thewobbler

It's only apples and oranges if it suits your criteria to keep them separate.

---

I live near Dundalk and my experience of it is no better or worse than any other parkland within 30-40 miles I.e there's parts of it that hold up well, parts not so well, and a few parts that just aren't made for 200 days of rain a year.

Why you're picking it out as an example of unusually poor drainage, I'm not sure.

---

Re links golf: applauding some courses for closing down 80% of their playable area during the winter, while sticking the boot into other courses for getting boggy in places, is double standards. Pure and simple double standards. As a green fee paying customer, in either instance your value for money nosedives in the winter.

----

What Golf Digest and other ranking systems try to do is acknowledge the best golf courses on the island.

It's only fair that competitors are judged on their best days and not on their worst.

If not then it's the likes of Down Royal or Kirkistown - places that drain quickly and are playable 350+ days a year - which will come out on top. Two very decent courses by the way - but really not somewhere you play for a treat, for an experience, for an education.

If that's the kind of ranking you want to see, then good luck.

bmay529

tayto lover wrote: »

Most links courses drop/place to the side in winter to protect the fairways.
It's no big deal and the course is great later as a result.

I played the European about two weeks ago... full greens and full use of fairways... and in great condition

fred funk }{

bmay529 wrote: »

I played the European about two weeks ago... full greens and full use of fairways... and in great condition

Yeah...played it twice over the holidays. It's in great condition, fairways like carpets but it doesn't get that much traffic to rip it up.

Iceman78

How is Doonbeg on this list at all after 2016? Its greens are in terrible state. I have played it a couple of times and dont think it should be in the top 50 courses in ireland. there seems to be a massive bias towards links courses, personally i think some of the parkland courses are top class and should be much higher.
Before i get any silly comments about not playing links courses, i have played about 50/60 of the courses on the list and most of the top links courses with the exception of the top 2.

Kevinmarkham

Iceman78 wrote: »

How is Doonbeg on this list at all after 2016? Its greens are in terrible state. I have played it a couple of times and dont think it should be in the top 50 courses in ireland. there seems to be a massive bias towards links courses, personally i think some of the parkland courses are top class and should be much higher.
Before i get any silly comments about not playing links courses, i have played about 50/60 of the courses on the list and most of the top links courses with the exception of the top 2.

I would disagree that the greens are terrible. They are slow, nothing more, and that's because they are new and need a good year to settle in. I played it in August and there was nothing wrong with the roll, just the speed.

You are right about the links bias but that's unavoidable because there are so few of them worldwide and they are so revered as the origin of the game. I happily admit that I favour them over parklands and only a handful of parklands would be in my top 20 courses.

onlyfinewine

Logic my dear Watson! Money has to recouped and investments justified for this huge project in Adare which includes gutting a functioning 5 Star Hotel with thirty four new bedrooms being added on in a new wing.

bmay529

Links and parkland are two completely different beasts and pose a completely different challenge depending on weather. For me it is hard to beat a good links for spectacular seaside scenery and challenge if the wind blows. Top of my links list would be the sea holes in Ballybunion and Enniscrone (though havn't played Tralee or Lahinch yet). My favourite parkland courses are Mount Juliet, K Club and Druids Glen

Mantis Toboggan

Are the new rankings out?

Is it true that Grange Castle is gone into the top 100?

Macker1

Tyson Fury wrote:

Is it true that Grange Castle is gone into the top 100?

Tyson Fury wrote:

Are the new rankings out?

In at 99th place I believe.

paulos53

In the Irish Golfer Magazine top 100 which were published recently

https://www.irishgolfer.ie/single-post/2017/11/03/The-Irish-Golfer-Magazine-Top-100-Irish-Course-Ranking-2018

paulos53

The note at the bottom of the page means that their top 100 position will be short lived. Without seeing either course it is a fair assumption that both will be well up the next rankings list


Note: Adare Manor Hotel & Golf Club and Hogs Head were excluded from consideration as both were closed to the public at time of publication.

FixdePitchmark

I know a great effort goes into it.

But - it is what it is.

Don't get Portmarnock even in top 10. So all subjective.

fred funk }{

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

I know a great effort goes into it.

But - it is what it is.

Don't get Portmarnock even in top 10. So all subjective.

Agree. Very subjective.

Rumple Stillson

fred funk }{ wrote: »

Agree. Very subjective.

I have my doubts the panel played all 100 courses over the course of the year, of course it would probably be unreasonable to do so.
As you said, very subjective. The links thing is interesting, undoubtedly we have some amazing links but I'd rather spend 4 hours in Druids Glen than Royal Dublin.

PARlance

Macker1 wrote: »

In at 99th place I believe.

They must have made some serious improvements to the course and transported it to the coast, since I left.

Rikand

Macker1 wrote: »

In at 99th place I believe.

PARlance wrote: »

since I left.

That explains it then

PARlance

Rikand wrote: »

That explains it then

Athlone not in Top 100? Still a member?

FixdePitchmark

Rumple Stillson wrote: »

I have my doubts the panel played all 100 courses over the course of the year, of course it would probably be unreasonable to do so.
As you said, very subjective. The links thing is interesting, undoubtedly we have some amazing links but I'd rather spend 4 hours in Druids Glen than Royal Dublin.

Did see Royal Dublin so high and went - ok classic links but makes no sense that high.

But to see Druids Glen at 34 makes a joke of list when the likes of Royler and Tralee so high above it.

Tralee is a poor front nine. Very poor.

Roger_007

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Did see Royal Dublin so high and went - ok classic links but makes no sense that high.

But to see Druids Glen at 34 makes a joke of list when the likes of Royler and Tralee so high above it.

Tralee is a poor front nine. Very poor.

I don't see how Laytown/Betttystown keeps getting in to the top 100. I have a friend who's a member there so I play it occasionally with him. I think it's a very poor course and i can only assume that it gets into the list purely because it's a links.

Rikand

PARlance wrote: »

Athlone not in Top 100? Still a member?

Athlone don't pay enough to their ad sales department

Truthfully though Athlone probably don't deserve to be in the top 100 right now. While we still have one of the most challenging setups in the Midlands a number of changes have been forced on the club in the last couple of years which have negatively impacted course standards.

All about to change soon though hopefully. We will soon be appointing a general manager which can start to go some way towards righting the ship for us.

Look to see our glorious reentry in the next year or two!

Mantis Toboggan

PARlance wrote: »

They must have made some serious improvements to the course and transported it to the coast, since I left.

It's improved a lot in the two years I'm a member but I'm still surprised to see it there ahead of the likes of Thurles or Dundrum house.

First ever public course to make the list apparently so it's a pretty good achievement from synergy.

newport2

Carton House ranked above Druid's Glen?

FixdePitchmark

Tyson Fury wrote: »

It's improved a lot in the two years I'm a member but I'm still surprised to see it there ahead of the likes of Thurles or Dundrum house.

First ever public course to make the list apparently so it's a pretty good achievement from synergy.

Agree
Grange Castle a fine public course but something not right if Dundrum behind it .

tommypepper

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Tralee is a poor front nine. Very poor.

Way OTT there.

There is no way you could describe Tralee as a very poor front nine.

BLUEYK

newport2 wrote: »

Carton House ranked above Druid's Glen?

Madness, Druids Glen one of the best in the country. If I was offered a free game around Carton Monty I'd pass, boring, featureless, 5 hr rd min, enjoyment factor 0.

Don't get the usual hard on for links courses. Yes there are a dozen or so quality links but a lot of good to average links courses get ranked ahead of top parklands. Royal Dublin is a good links, that's all.

PARlance

Tyson Fury wrote: »

It's improved a lot in the two years I'm a member but I'm still surprised to see it there ahead of the likes of Thurles or Dundrum house.

First ever public course to make the list apparently so it's a pretty good achievement from synergy.

I've always defended the place as a good course. I've fond memories and Synergy did a good job while I was there but it shouldn't be in a Top 100 list. To have it in the 90-100 category with courses like Naas and Ballinrobe is a bit daft.

They give a bit of reasoning in the magazine and say it's a great example of a "pay and play" course. It's owned by the Council but leased out and run as a commerical entity. There's no real difference between it and other non-members owned course. You can "pay and play" in most courses here.

€20 for GC or €25 for a course like Wicklow (not in Top 100), I know where I would pay and play.