Uncrowned jewels: 20 golfing gems that won’t charge eye-watering green fees

Kevin Markham selects Ireland’s Top 20 value courses...

Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. The same is true of value. What one golfer might consider exorbitant, another might pay willingly for the experience that lies ahead. It’s a puzzle that can never quite be solved. Just as some American golfers won’t even consider a course unless the green fee is over €100, so there are Irish golfers who refuse to pay more than €50. Each to their own but my view is that both such categories of golfer miss out on playing some spectacular Irish courses — links and parkland alike.

For those with tighter purse strings here are 20 courses which I consider to offer the best value for money in the country. You might not recognise all the names… but golf is about thrills, excitement and, most of all, fun. These courses are brimming with the stuff and are ranked in order of their green fees.