terrific to see Ballyliffin motoring up the list. A jump of 10 is hugely impressive and I'm sure they can go further next year. It's a bargain of a course to play when you consider the pure quality of the course. Cost's about €60 a round.
john, Golf in Ireland

birr golf club is a good test of golf.i know its a tough track but our greens are as good if not better than summer time.i see alot of courses around ie irish open courses,every time the pros play them you have 15 to 20 under par winning them.Birr would only be a hidden gem also i dont know why esker hills isnt in the top 100.

how is Royal Co Down rated so highly having played it recently it is in my opinion one of the worst golf courses i have ever played , it is more like an obstacle course. Gary Player was right "send in the Bulldozers" the Strand course at Portstewart is by far a more superior course so much variety of holes , a course that you could play again and again and never tire of it . how can Royal Co Down be rated so highly when most of the shots you play you cant see your ball landing , too many blind shots. the scenery is fantastic, but if i want to look at scenery I"ll go to the Giants Causeway if i want to play golf i will go to a golf course not an obstacle course

Played Tullamore this year, fantastic course. Cannot understand how it dropped 8 places. Also Bantry Bay, which I have had the pleasure of playing a number of times, down 18 places??? Would love to know how many, if any reviews were carried out of these courses and what the reviewers comments were. Glad to see Portumna getting the recognition it deserves, beautiful course.

That list of the top 100 courses is a joke and the special mention list is every bit as bad. I bet there has been a lot of free green fees giving to the panel memebers to make your list. In the times we have at the moment i think it is very unfair on a lot of the smaller clubs, which are struggling at the moment not to have been givin a fair review. the top 10 is hard to argue with, but after that it seems that all you need to make your list is old money.

John O'Donnell the way you play golf they are all obstacle courses, but in saying that your right, keep her straight, keep her country!!!!

Rankings are based on advertisements. If a club drops advertisement in Gd they plummet, they buy some they rise.

Nice to see Portsalon club moving up the rankings,, it is one of the cheapest clubs for Green Fees and very friendly staff. Played there during the summer and it has some very good improvements since the last time I played it. Its not one of the "Big" Clubs but its location along one of the nicest beaches in the world makes it the perfect place to pass a summers day

The entire process is an absolute joke, Linton the fact is, you use this process to TRY and sell your very repetative magazine. In my opinion it has no credit whatsoever (excluding the top 20/25) but an idiot with with a couple of brain cells would be able to put this together, absolutely no need for a panel to sit around a table in a boardroom to work that one out! In my opinion the idea is good, but I dont think the right people are involved, I would prefer to see a panel that has no ties to any golf club on this island and to include the value for money/ overall experience factor.

Who would you like to see sit on the panel, P-Ro? It might be quite difficult to get suitably skilled people with a wide knowledge of Irish golf courses and absolutely no ties to any of them.

Sure, doesn't everyone have a tie one way or another?

Looks like a pretty good list to me. If the Top-25 are close to right then the rest are always going to split opinions fairly drastically.

Who would you like to see sit on the panel, P-Ro? It might be quite difficult to get suitably skilled people with a wide knowledge of Irish golf courses and absolutely no ties to any of them.

You dont happen to work for Golf Digest do you or maybe you were on the judging panel? But your comment above Tom kindda suggests that the panel are not visiting the clubs and are basing it on, as you would say "knowledge of irish golf courses", which to me is suggesting that they are not visiting the courses to apply Golf Digests scoring system.

I just want to say, I know its always going to draw some form of controversy, but I think GD should be more transparent with their (1)panel selection (2) scoring system (3) confirmation of actually visiting golf club .

wow is this list based on golf course? or is it all the other malarky i dont want to play a course because its value for money! i want to know whats a great track...to put Belvoir park on a par with portumna, you would be sorely dissapointed portumna is a nice track but its no belvoir, portrush valley lower than both! too many stupid calls to me. just a list to get people arguing.

ok didnt read the top where it gave the critiera, seems a fair system. just with some strange results.

the useless nature of this list is evident in teh manner by which Golf courses can go up and down so dramatically. a case in point is that the Old Head (a great course) went forward over 20 places - did they start mowing greens for the first time or something?

Golf courses are something that take a long time to improve and still a medium to long time to go backwards.

To say that a course can go forward or backwards by 10-20 places in 12 months is rubbish -

Finally shame on you Golf Digest for dropping Druids Glen - I played quiet recently and it simply has never been in better condition

Agreed Wicklow Lad. That's the biggest laugh of all. Luttrelstown and Headfort New are nice tracks but to say they should sit alongside Druids Glen is stretching the imagination. DG is a better course than Mount Juliet and far better than the Palmer course at K Club. Haven't played Adare so can't speak for that. Whats with the old Head I don't know. If it wasn't for the setting, it would be considered little more than an average parkland course. But I think it was when I saw Glen of the Downs get an honourable mention that I gave up. Might as well give my back garden an honourable mention. I've asked before and i'll ask again - where is Corballis?

Its all subjective. I find that I like a course that I play well and hate a course that I dont. All this, great test of golf stuff is bull. Noone wants to be made a show of. Golf digest would be doing us a much better service if they got together an up to date list of the deals available to join clubs for 2012 instead of the hope for prices on the web sites or the months out of date ones on the GUI website. Especially now that almost all the AGMs are over and new rates for 2012 have been finalized. By the way what tee boxes did these experts play off as that makes a remarkable difference to the playability of a course to the average golfer.
Corballis ? Give me a break its an oversized pitch and putt course with good greens.

Great to see Portumna climbing up the rankings, beatiful location and excellent test of golf even though I came very close to htting a deer once or twice from my drive, smart animals they stay on the fairways!! also brilliant to see New Forest inter the list...played it twice this year, and found it to be a good technical course, and when I played it during the summer the greens were immaculate. I am supprised with Lough Erne being at 32nd position...played it in 2011 and though it would be closer to the top 10...

I have to say Jimbo is right, Corballis needs to be considered for this. I also agree with Wicklow lad that Druids Glen needs to be higher up in fairness. Overall the list serves as a reminder of just how many great courses we have.

How many of the top 100 courses are in NAMA? Is it fair that struggling clubs paying their way should have to compete for recognition with subsidised NAMA courses? Maybe a top 100 courses based on value for money would be a better guide for potential customers.

Read a few of the reviews here and I agree with all of them. Everyone of us reading this will always have a soft spot for their own course or one which is steeped on history. I am no different kirkistown castle gc is one of the best challenging links courses here in the north. It's never going to be a ballybunion or a RCD. But for the all round golfing experience it is right up there (definitely above ardglass). I'd challenge anyone to rip kcgc apart of the back tees. And the quality of service from the staff and quality of food 2nd to none... Come and try us out.... Booooooom baby!!!

Come see Fermoy Golf Course,Fermoy, Co.Cork,A championship parkland courseto rival many.

Advertising in Golf Digest would help get a club up the rankings.

I agree RCD has too many blind shots and Portmarnock, Ballybunion, Portrush and Lahinch all have legitimate claims to depose it as num 1 - it wouldn't be the friendliest golf club in Ireland either !!
Subjective top 20s or 30s or 100s will always generate debate. Unless there is something objective to measure like 'world ranking points' in judging golfers for example, then its all a matter of opinion and bias of all kinds can play a major role. In particular bias towards 'tradition' and what already is in the minds of the judges re 'great courses'. The larger the panel the lower the influence of personal bias and if panelists had to score independently of each other THEN have all scores collated anonymously by independent statisticians, the result might be fairer. Taking an average of the annual Competition standard scratch scores for medals, open competitions like scratch cups and championships for all courses would give a more objective measure of the average degree of difficulty eg courses where 38-39 points regularly win club singles would rank higher than clubs where 43-45 points regularly win.
On a personal note, I'm surprised Concra Wood has not ranked higher as a great challenge of the back tees, playable off forward tees, spectacular location, wide variety of holes and very friendly!

Greater weight should be given to the overall golfing experience. That means qulaity of reception , pro staff amenity etc. Clubs should encorage a "smelling of the Roses"
Spot on with Kirkistone the food is great value for money. Friendly club is Carnalea
Belvoir also polite. Good Pro shop staff at Banbridge, Royal County Down.
Ballyliffin great all round. Rosapenna really good when competitons are on but too expensive.
Castle Dargen good senior management and pro but other staff need training.
Lough Erne Fantastic but over priced and food only average.
laytown and Bettys another top experience.
Roytal Portrush have generous members who are very friendly.
City of Derry have good members. Down to earth members and good experience at Massereene. Ballycastle could be fantastic but just lacks a bit of magic.
Tramore in Cork is coming on great and one of the best welcomes.
If I were to mix and match a course it would be - The Pro's from Royal County Down. The member friendliness of Carnalea, The accomadtaion at Lough Erne, The value for money food at Kirkistone, the owner of Castle Dargan, the restaurant position of Belvoir or massereene and probably play Royal Portrush with the last two holes exchanged for the last two at Laytown.

As a member of Concrawood watch us this Summer in July for the Euro-pro tour and see on SKY how good Concrawood really is. Check the website for some great open offers.