Portrush, #11 in Ireland

[Robert Thompson]

Demonstrating just how ridiculous ratings have gotten, a Golf Digest Ireland rating of that country's courses came up with the following list that has County Down and Portrush out of the top 10 for that country. It really makes the entire list a complete joke, especially when one sees what is first on the list.... why bother doing these ratings when they are so obviously not reflective of reality?

For the record, the GDI Top 20 were: 1 K Club (Palmer); 2 The European Club; 3 Mount Juliet; 4 Portmarnock (Old); 5 Ballybunion (Old); 6 Ballyliffin (Glashedy); 7 Co Louth; 8 Druids Glen; 9 Co Sligo; 10 Lahinch (Old); 11 Royal Portrush (Dunluce); 12 Royal Co Down; 13 The Heritage; 14 Old Head of Kinsale; 15 Waterville; 16 The Island; 17 Royal Dublin; 18 Adare Manor (Resort); 19 Tralee; 20 Carton House (Montgomerie).

[Steve Lapper]

Having played many on that list (14 to be exact) what a unbelievable joke!!!

Maybe it was a list of most advertising-friendly sites? Perhaps a list of places most easily marketed to stupid unknowledgable golfers from abroad?

Ratings/Raters/Lists.....all over-rated!

[jeffwarne]

The Irish tend to be quite proud of their American style courses-

That could be worst list I've seen.
My all time favorite course (-edging out North Berwick) Royal County Down rated 12th?

Must be those brown spots

[Lloyd_Cole]

Robert
I'm glad you found that. A freind told me about it but I couldn't find it on line to post. The very worst list I've ever seen. Really very funny in a Beckett sort of way.

[Ian Andrew]

There is was thinking about a wonderful hole that I would love to play again.........and as Jon Stewart would say

wwwwwhhh....wwwwhaaaaa?

The best thing about the day I spent playing the K Club was the rain, because at times it obscured the most unnatural landscape I have seen on a golf course. The course leaves me tremendously flat and was the worst of all 10 I saw, by a lot. Blaaaa.

Golf Digest continues to make me suspicious of their lists. After they selected the The Rock best course here last year (a course that no one wil go play, because nobody likes it), I'm left to wonder how the lists are made. I know a series of the panelists and all said they saw it and hated it. So how does it win when you can't find one person who raves about the place?

How does Royal County Down finish behind the modern rich and well promoted K Club. Makes you wonder.

[Robert Thompson]

This list is now being discussed in an Irish newspaper. Apparently the magazine defended it by saying 50% of the voting was done by readers and 50% by journalists and other notables. The article said that a bulk of voting came from the Republic, which is why Co. Down and Portrush are so low. So let me get this straight -- Co. Down and Portrush are both Top 20 in the world on most lists, and only in the bottom half of this Ireland only list?
If I were the publication, I'd have been hesitant to publish this -- it just looks so wrong.

Here are some quotes from the story:

Linton Walsh, publisher of the magazine, explained that the 3,000 readers votes counted for 50 per cent of the points totalled and five golf journalists counted for the other 50 per cent. The key factor was that you had to have played a course to vote for it. In this respect, clearly the majority of readers of the magazine are from the Republic, and that explains why Royal Co Down and Royal Portrush did not finish as high as in other polls.

Said Walsh: "We have had an amazing reaction to the survey. Some people love it, some hate it, but we feel that it is very worthwhile to have the ordinary golfers voting for courses they have played, and we intend to try and develop and enhance it next year."

I must confess to some reservations about the small number of journalists votes counting for 50 per cent of the survey, but I commend Golf Digest Ireland for attempting to tap into the feelings and opinions of the "ordinary" golfer.

Other magazines internationally have confined their surveys to so-called "experts" and that can get a bit snobbish and restrictive.

Having said that, any ranking list of golf courses is prone to cause annoyance and irritation to those who feel they should be higher up the list. In Germany, one magazine rated its Top 50 courses - and got a number of solicitors' letters as a result.

I look forward to GDI refining their voting method, but hope that they will continue to involve the votes of the golfing public as a greater part of the 2006 survey.

[Peter Pallotta]

Interesting.

If Golf Digest in the U.S. ever had courses ranked by their "readers" alone, would the results be equally as skewed?

[i.e. skewed from the perspective of lovers of good architecture, that is, but presumably NOT from that of the readers/players themselves]

If so, what would that MEAN, if anything?

Is one TRUE test of architectural quality the pleasure it gives to the greatest NUMBER of golfers?    

If the answer is "yes" then the K Club is "quality architecture". Or is it?

[And I don't think it works to say that it's simply a matter of "quality MARKETING". Those players who voted the K Club their favourite MAY have been influenced by marketing, but perhaps not; and besides, we're all influenced in our likes and dislikes by SOMETHING, no?]

Peter

[Sean_A]

Peter

You write "skewed" like it is necessarily a bad thing.  I really enjoy www.top100golfcourses.co.uk.  Their system utilizes magazine legwork to greater effect than the magazines themselves.  Brilliant concept and in my opinion, a more accurate listing than any magazine offers.

Ciao

Sean

[Mike_Cirba]

At the risk of sounding terribly arrogant, the inclusion of the "public" on these lists leads to the type of uninformed, thoughtless commentary and ratings one finds in that annual volume by Golf Digest, "Places to Play".  

Any rating list is only as good as the informed, experienced opinions and overall knowledge of those doing the rating.

[Jordan Wall]

If County Down was number 12 in the country then why was it number 4 in the world last year??  Portrush number 3 in the world but 11 in the country???  European club number 2 in country but behind Portrush and County Down at number 61 world???



1. St. Andrews (Old) St. Andrews, Scotland
2. Royal Melbourne G.C. (Composite) Black Rock, Australia
3. Royal Portrush G.C. (Dunluce) Portrush, N. Ireland
4. Royal County Down G.C. Newcastle, N. Ireland
5. Royal Dornoch G.C. (Championship) Dornoch, Scotland
6. Muirfield Gullane, Scotland
7. Ballybunion G.C. (Old) Ballybunion, Ireland
8. New South Wales G.C. Sydney, Australia
9. National G.C. Woodbridge, Canada
10. St. George's G. & C.C. Islington, Canada
11. Turnberry (Ailsa) Turnberry, Scotland
12. Carnoustie G.C. (Championship) Carnoustie, Scotland
13. Kingston Heath G.C. Melbourne, Australia
14. Hamilton G. & C.C. Ancaster, Canada
15. Royal Porthcawl G.C. Porthcawl, Wales
16. Royal St. George's G.C. Sandwich, England
17. Casa de Campo (Teeth of the Dog) La Romana, Dominican Republic
18. Sunningdale G.C. (Old) Sunningdale, England
19. Beacon Hall G.C. Aurora, Canada
20. Kingsbarns G. Links St. Andrews
61. The European Club Brittas Bay, Ireland

[PThomas]

and I thought the K CLub was a terrible choice for the Ryder Cup...guess I was wrong...

[Andy Levett]

It’s not such a daft list if you remember that a lot of  Irish and British golfers don’t especially like links courses. Plenty do of course, but their votes will be split among the myriad  of great links, whereas there are a relatively smaller number of high-profile parkland courses in the island.
So it’s not so amazing that a nouveau parkland track should be number one – but  the relative rankings of the links courses are interesting.
I’ve played Portrush and if the The European Club or Glashedy really are better they will be monuments to their creators of  metals more precious than brass.

[Sean_A]

Andy

Its good to see you post again.  Where are those photos and impressions of Perranporth that you never promised, but I insist you did?

I don't know about Glashedy, but if The European Club is better than the old guard, put my head in a noose because my brain is adled.  There are at least 9 courses in Ireland better than TEC, including a trio that folk hero Hackett.

Ciao

Sean

[Matt_Ward]

All this demonstrates is that the "average" golfer on either side of the pond can clearly outline their own ignorance / stupidity. Portrush / Dunluce is simply a grand experience -- provided they widen the place a tad bit more.

Likely, if you had the average golfer here in the States you would get what Mike Cirba mentioned -- the "Place to Play" handbook from Digest. And we all know how informative that listing is too.  

[Jack_Marr]

Personally, I think the rankings sound bizarre. However, it's just as valid as any other list. It was voted for by the readers, and it's intended for the readers. QED.

[Tom_Doak]

A badly designed voting system inherently produces bad results.

[Matthew Schulte]

That really is the single most inexplicable list I have ever seen.  Let's hope the list motivates ignorant tourists from abroad to skip Portrush and RCD.  We can only hope tee times will be easier to come by.  As mentioned the list either stems for their love of American style golf or it relates back to advertising revenues.  UNBELIEVABLE.

[Dan Moore]

Inexplicable.  I've only played 6 or so from the list and the K Club would be #6 on my list.  When I get to the West and Southwest, I'm sure it will drop even further on my list

That said, and while I would not have even considered the K Club for the Ryder for many reasons, primarily because it is not representative of Irish golf, the final 3 holes at the K Club with their abundance of water will be very good high pressure match play holes, probably better as a group than the final 3 holes at many of the better links courses such as RCD or Portrush.

[mike_malone]

 I find that many people evaluate a golf course on many nonarchitectural items. When you pull up to a CCFAD and they take your clubs and put a nice bag tag on it many people begin to think "Wow this is a nice golf course". I haven't been to the K Club (and won't be going there) but I bet the reception there is more hospitable than the classic links courses. Also, when people pay more they think it MUST be better.

  So, this ranking is not surprising to me.

[Brent Hutto]

A wise fellow once pointed out to me that for millions of golfers, the answer to a question like "How did you like Royal Portrush?" can only take the form "It was in pretty good shape and I shot an 84".

Give a thousand randomly selected golfers a survey and you'll get many more who think in terms of "conditioning and a number" than you will those who think about heritage, strategy, maintenance meld or any of the other stuff we geek out over on this site. On average, the winning course on that kind of survey will be the ones that look good, are in good repair and are "fair" (i.e. that offer few challenges to scoring other than sheer length, obvious hazards to be overcome and fast-but-receptive greens).