This thread made a bit of a comeback recently. I realized that I never named my choice links. There are only eight links I would have considered for a shorter list. It becomes very difficult when I consider that Dornoch and North Berwick are shoe ins. It is a toss of the coin which I prefer, but North Berwick gets the nod. My three chasers are Dornoch, Sandwich and Lahinch.
I think I stated before that I started this thread to see what people thought of Open venues when push comes to shove. I am really surprised that they did quite poorly. Some 45 courses in all were mentioned and there are fourteen Open courses, more than a third of those mentioned. Yet, the Open courses received 50ish mentions out of 150ish total. About dead on proportionally. What is going on here? I thought the Open venues were meant to be some of the cream of the crop in the world yet plenty of second tier links gives theses big guns a run for their money. Carnoustie didn't even get a mention!
Obviously TOC swept the tables for Open courses. I think Portrush finished a distant 2nd. However, North Berwick fared much better than any other Open course other than TOC and it was mentioned nearly as much as TOC. I find this remarkable. I reckon it is no surprise that Dornoch cleared the tables. The course speaks for itself.
It is gratifying to know that Machrihanish held its own against the big boys such as Co. Down, Ballybunion and Lahinch. Speaking of Lahinch. I am surprised that it received 9 mentions. I don't hear that much about Lahinch on this site.
One last note. It is very interesting that Porthcawl had 4 mentions. That is the equal of Lytham, Troon, Portmarnock and Birkdale combined. Astonishing.
Ciao
Sean