Ireland’s top 100 golf courses ranked – and time to stop labelling Dooks ‘a hidden gem’

Kevin Markham gives his thoughts on Irish Golfer’s new Top 100 Courses in Ireland

Thu, 11 Mar, 2021 - 15:11

Kevin Markham

The Irish Golfer magazine has just published its top 100 Irish golf courses for 2021. The ranking should certainly add fuel to the fire in our anguished hopes of returning to play golf in the near future.

Knocking a ball into a net in the back garden or putting over bumpy carpets just doesn’t do the trick.

This is the magazine’s fourth ranking but it is the first time – and, we all hope, the last – that we’ve endured such a chaotic year as the last one. The closures and restrictions stifled so many of us and that includes members of the Irish Golfer ranking panel. I am one of those members. In a normal year, I would expect to visit 50 to 60 Irish golf courses; last year I managed 10.

There are eight members on the panel (a mix of golf pros, golf media, and golf course designers), and none of us played or visited as many courses as we normally do.

Does that mean the ranking lacks validity? Of course not. Golfers may have been restricted in their plans but that doesn’t mean golf clubs have been sitting back with their feet up. Far from it. Golf clubs utilised those quiet periods to improve their courses and get important and often lengthy jobs completed exactly because the courses were empty. The 2021 ranking reflects these efforts and restores some natural balance.

The view from the tee on the newly elevated 18th at Ballybunion Golf Club.

The top 10 is always hotly contested (and debated) and this year saw just one change: Ballybunion moves up one to 7th, swapping with Tralee. Ballybunion got hammered in 2019, as it dropped four places to 9th due to poor course condition. It has been easing its way back since then. That said, Tralee has been doing a lot of work in recent years and is going toe-to-toe with Ballybunion… and will continue to do so.

The biggest mover in the top 30 is Dooks, which is up three places to 24th. It is often referred to as a ‘hidden gem’ but the time for that to stop is now. It is far too good to carry that mantle and its conditioning and location are just two cherries to enjoy on top. A well-deserved rise.

And that’s Co. Kerry taken care of!

Fota Island slips back to 31st. There's no better example of a course that has lost ground by doing nothing differently. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

The biggest drop of any course is three places. Fota Island slips back to 31, while Powerscourt West matches that drop and slips out of the top 50. There are no better examples of courses that have lost ground by doing nothing differently. The courses which moved ahead of them, however, have made upgrades either to the course or the facilities and that extra effort has been rewarded. The most obvious of these is Ardglass.

Ardglass, at 49th, moves up four places, making it the biggest mover on the list.

There are two big changes in the high forties. After such a successful and last-minute hosting of the DDF Irish Open, Galgorm Castle was rightly praised. It has moved up two places to 48th. Ardglass, at 49th, moves up four places, making it the biggest mover on the list. The Co. Down club is implementing a lengthy masterplan and it’s clearly bearing fruit.

The second 50 has several small shifts – Dingle is up three to 68th – and two new entries (Clandeboye (99) and Tramore (100)) but no major movers to upset the apple cart.

A view from behind the 16th green at Tramore Golf Club. Picture: Kevin Markham

In total, there are 53 courses that have changed position this year, but only 18 of these have moved by two or more places.

So who takes the top spot? That will be Royal Portrush, which rose to no. 1 in 2019, and has been fighting off the challenge of Portmarnock since then.

No doubt this ranking, like every other ranking ever produced about anything, will generate debate.

Let’s just hope you can do it soon on a golf course.

How Irish Golfer ranks them: