2024 Irish Golfer Top 100 courses

Portumna is such a lovely course. We do a club day out there every year even though it’s a fair distance away. They were blessed with the location, but they also keep it in brilliant condition.

7 played.

2 of them being Headfort Old & New where I'm a member so that doesn't really count. 😂

Hopefully I can add a few more to the list this year.

34....played ....No way Mount Juliet is better than Cork (I'm not a rebel!)...I have only paid over €100 for one of them. A lot are making it very expensive now.

Castletroy, Royal Curragh, Killarney (Mahony's & Killeen), St. Anne's, Esker Hills, Tulfarris, Arklow, Dingle, Bunclody, The Heritage, Tullamore, Carton House (O'Meara), Ballybunion Cashen, Belvoir Park, Galway Bay, Portumna, Dromoland, Murvagh, Fota Island, Cork, Mount Juliet, Portmarnock Jameson Links, Dooks, Doonbeg, Enniscrone, The European Club, County Sligo, Carne, Tralee, Waterville, Adare, Ballybunion Old, Lahinch, Royal County Down

I’d almost go the other way Fixd.

Doesn’t everyone, everywhere overrate their parklands?

if we are to accept that the best parklands in the world list would include Shinnecock, Merion, LACC, Riviera and dare I say it, Augusta, then we surely have to accept that on even the best parklands, there are some filler holes, other holes with zero strategy, and a handful of holes that are far from memorable.

I don't think you can spilt golf courses into merely links and non-links ie parkland.

I think parkland is too wide a catch-all. I don't think many if any on your list there could be described as parkland in the truest sense.

You have to take into account the land as it was, how much work had to be done to turn it into a golf-course, how much of the natural lay of the land was kept or incorporated into the course.

I think we need more descriptors to separate the types of golf course beyond Links, Heathland, parkland.

I'm sorry but there is no way Shinnecock should ever be described as a parkland for instance.

I don't like the term faux-links particularly either, but there are a lot of them in America and they are certainly not parkland courses.

Yeah the new course is hard to beat when it's at its best in the summer.

Having 2 courses on site is great. You're practically always guaranteed to find a tee time on pretty much any day apart from the very rare occasion. The 2 courses are very different and offer different challenges depending on what you're looking for. It's nice to be able to mix it up between the old and the new and stops it getting stale.

Like all clubs, it has its good and bad points but it's hard to deny the value for money when you compare it to other courses in the area. And if you were to pick Headfort up and drop it in/around Dublin then you'd easily expect the membership fees to more than double.

58 for me with a trip planned in the summer that will cover another 3. I am counting a couple of courses like Adare that have been renovated and could be considered a different course from the one that I have played.

Ulster is the big gap for me as Donegal is the only one of the 9 counties that I have played in.

Have managed 55 of them myself which is actually more than I was expecting to be honest.

A few on there that I'm friends of members that I haven't managed to get out on, so will need to give them a nudge 😉

Anyone know if Doonbeg play winter mats or temp greens - just seen it is "only" 75 euro - and as them things go these days - that is on cheaper side ?

Exactly 20 for me I believe and a fair spread if I do say so considering I only took up golf in 2015.

Cork, Fota, Castlemartyr, Old Head, Dooks, Tralee, Waterville, Ceann Sibeál, Enniscrone, Strandhill, Rosses Point, Rosapenna x3, Portsalon, Naas, Palmerstown House, Mount Juliet, Carton x2.

Hopefully add another couple this summer.

Royal Belfast at 60 seems odd. It’s a fun and enjoyable trek with some memorable quirks , but it’s not a great course.

O’Meara at 56 is always overrated on all these listings.. Yes it’s got an amen corner. But it’s just mediocre apart from that.

Galgorm Castle at 43. I know they spend a fortune adding to it every year. But it’s fundamentally a boring walk. All shine, no substance. This type of golfing experience shouldn’t be encouraged.

Amazing to myself, I have played 26 of them. I've walked another dozen. I might try get a few more this year

50 for me I think probably forgot a few 😂 Having played Portrush a few times now dont know how its No.1 great course no doubt.. but no 1 I dont know definitively up there.

Same boat RR.

I’ve a massive Kerry, Clare, Limerick shaped hole in my map of Irish courses played.

Every time I think of heading to the South West, I either book Donegal or Portugal.

Tralee and Ballybunion have always been the most accessible of the South West courses as they both have a few opens every year. However I noticed last year that it has become harder to get on the timesheet. They generally open the timesheet to members first and there were very few slots available to non-members.

I also see that Ballybunion are using the Cashen course for the Junior scratch cup this year, so that is 1 less opportunity to play the Old course.

17 played for me.

Of the rest of the list Heritage, Glasson, Carne, Enniscrone & Strandhill all booked for this year so far. Surprised I had played so many considering I only really started playing properly in 2021.

That's probably as good a stretch of courses as anywhere in the world. All within 100 miles (or so) of each other

The problem is that 100 is exactly the wrong number for Ireland.

It should be top 50; it needs to be top 50 to make it prestigious.

For once you head into the 80s and 90s, it kind of simultaneously feels like “one for everyone in the audience” and “it’s their turn”, rather than an acknowledgement of class.

Off the top of my head, courses I’ve played that could easily be dropped into that list without complaint include Lisburn, Kilkeel, Kirkistown, Coolatin (though I’ve heard it has lost some land), Woodenbridge, Greenore, Massereene, Knightsbrook, Mount Wolesley.

this doesn’t make the list wrong. Just that there’s nothing much to differentiate why and why not in the lower echelons.

Any of the top clubs have opens at reduced green fees? I cannot see myself playing any of them otherwise.