Irish Golf Course Rankings 2008

Royal County Down and Mount Juliet have been voted Ireland's top links and parkland courses in a new survey

BACKSPIN is the first golf magazine ever to treat Ireland¹s links and parkland courses separately in a rankings survey.

The 52 strong voting panel included Ryder Cup, Walker Cup and Curtis Cup players, championship winners, PGA Irish region competitors, members of the Irish golfing media and other Irish golf personalities. All four provinces were represented on our voting panel.

Panellists were provided with a complete list of parkland and links/shoreline courses in the 32 counties. Backspin included shoreline courses in its links category and sought clarification from the four branches of the GUI on which courses are categorised as links/shoreline in each province.

Voters were asked to nominate their 15 favourite courses in both categories. Special emphasis was placed on design, presentation, setting, challenge and the personal enjoyment factor.

It is important to make the point that some outstanding new courses are likely to command higher positions in future Backspin surveys as they become more established.

Points system:
Voting forms offered the following points to nominated clubs in both categories: 1st - 250pts; 2nd - 225pts; 3rd - 200pts; 4th - 175pts; 5th - 150pts; 6th - 140pts; 7th - 130pts; 8th - 120pts; 9th - 110pts; 10th - 100pts; 11th - 90pts; 12th - 80pts; 13th - 70pts; 14th - 60pts; 15th - 50pts.

Backspin¹s Top 3 Clubs - Links/Shoreline category:
* Royal Co. Down - C¹ship course (9865 pts) received 14 votes of 250pts and 8 votes of 225pts
* Portmarnock Old (9700 pts) received 13 votes of 250pts and 12 votes of 225pts
* Royal Portrush - Dunluce (8810 pts) received 10 votes of 250pts and 4 votes of 225pts
* All 52 panellists voted for RCD; 50 voted for Portmarnock; and 48 voted for Royal Portrush

Backspin¹s Top 3 Clubs - Parkland category:
* Mount Juliet (9345 pts) received 12 votes of 250pts and 11 votes of 225pts
* The K Club - Palmer course (8655 pts) received 9 votes of 250pts and 9 votes of 225pts
* Adare (8035 pts) received 11 votes of 250pts and 11 votes of 225pts
* 49 of the 52 panellists voted for Mount Juliet; 47 for K Club (Palmer); and 42 voted for Adare.

Links/shoreline courses were ranked 1 - 30 and Parkland 1 - 40 as there are considerably more parkland courses in Ireland

Verification of results:
The 52 voting forms were given to Cooney & Co, Dalkey, Co. Dublin (Accountants & Registered Auditors) for a full and comprehensive audit prior to publication.

Full Results - Links / Shoreline category:
1st - 9865pts Royal County Down
2nd - 9700 Portmarnock (Old)
3rd - 8810 Royal Portrush (Dunluce)
4th - 7870 The European Club
5th - 7155 County Louth (Baltray)
6th - 7120 Ballybunion (Old)
7th - 6675 Waterville
8th - 6480 Lahinch (Old)
9th - 5215 County Sligo (Rosses Point)
10th - 3295 The Island
11th - 2830 The Royal Dublin
12th - 2820 Enniscrone
13th - 2740 Ballyliffin (Glashedy)
14th - 2080 Portstewart (Strand)
15th - 2070 Doonbeg
16th - 2050 Ballyliffin (Old)
17th - 1800 Tralee
18th - 1380 Connemara
19th - 1290 Belmullet (Carne)
20th - 1255 Old Head Kinsale
21st - 1030 Donegal (Murvagh)
22nd - 955 Portmarnock Hotel & Links
23rd - 940 Cork (Little Island)
24th - 740 Rosapeena (Sandy Hills)
25th - 730 Dooks
26th - 660 Westport
27th - 550 Castlerock
28th - 430 Woodbrook
29th - 425 Arklow
30th - 380 Seapoint

Full Results - Parkland / Inland category;
1st 9345 Mount Juliet
2nd 8655 K Club (Palmer course)
3rd 8035 Adare
4th 6815 Druids Glen
5th 6465 The Heritage
6th 6145 PGA National Ireland
7th 5545 Killarney (Killeen)
8th 4665 Headfort (New)
9th 4255 Fota Island
10th 3475 Carton (Montgomerie)
11th 2995 Carlow
12th 2945 Slieve Russell
13th 2530 Malone
14th 2340 K Club (Smurfit)
15th 1490 Glasson
16th 1440 Luttrellstown Castle
17th 1385 Hermitage
18th 1255 Belvoir Park
19th 1170 Killarney (Mahony¹s Point)
20th 1100 Mullingar
21st 1095 Powerscourt (East)
         1095 Knightsbrook
         1095 Rathsallagh
24th 900 Tulfarris
25th 885 Grange
26th 840 Carton (O¹Meara)
27th 745 Mount Wolseley
28th 710 Tramore
         710 Shannon
30th 695 Woodenbridge
31st 670 Headfort (Old)
32nd   600 New Forest
33rd 575 Powerscourt (West)
34th 570 Dundalk
35th 560 Co. Tipperary (Dundrum House)
36th 500 Moyvalley
37th 480 Clandeboye (Dufferin)
38th 440 Tullamore
39th 400 Druids Heath, 400 St. Margaret¹s

Touring & PGA Irish Region Pros
Gary Cullen, Eamonn Darcy, Eddie Doyle , John Dwyer, Noel Fox, Peter Hanna, George Henry David Higgins, Francis Howley, David Jones, Brendan McGovern, John McHenry, Gary Murphy, Christy O'Connor Jnr, Peter O¹Hagan, Denis O'Sullivan, Glen Robinson, Des Smyth, Mark Staunton, Paul Thompson , Simon Thornton , Barrie Trainor, Philip Walton

Irish Amateurs
Declan Branigan, Michael Burns, Moira Cassidy, Eddie Dunne, Jody Fanagan, Mark Gannon, Loyal Goulding, Tony Heverin, Ken Kearney, Shane Lowry, Adrian Morrow, Garth McGimpsey, Mary McKenna, Liam MacNamara, Paddy O¹Looney, Eddie Power, Eileen Rose Power

Golfing Media
Cathal Dervan, Paul Gallagher, Mark Jones , Seamus Keenan, Brian Keogh, Charlie Mulqueen, Declan O'Donoghue, John O¹Sullivan, Philip Quinn, John Redmond, Colm Smith, Liam Spratt