When Chris Bertram from Golf World first went to St Patrick's he said he thought it would get into the top 3 one day and has recently said he still holds with that view.
Tom is right when he says that UK and Irish magazines have traditionally rated Ballybunion below the US raters.
Golf World is a UK publication and this list re-establishes the 'Big 5' there -
1. Royal County Down (No change)
2. Royal Portrush (No change)
3. Ballybunion (Up 2)
4. Portmarnock (Down 1)
5. Lahinch (Up 1)
6. St Patrick's (New Entry)
7. Waterville (Down 3)
8. The Island (Down 1)
9. Country Louth (Down 1)
10. Adare (Down 1)
Contrast that to the ranking in the 'Irish Golfer' publication from early 2022 -
1. Royal Portrush (no change)
2. Portmarnock (no change)
3. Royal County Down (up 1)
4. Lahinch (down 1)
5. Adare Manor (no change)
6. County Louth (no change)
7. Ballybunion (no change)
8. Tralee (no change)
9. St Patrick's (new entry)
10. Waterville (no change)
If you look at how Irish courses slotted into GOLF magazine's last rankings it goes -
1. Royal County Down (No change)
2. Royal Portrush (No change)
3. Ballybunion (No change)
4. Lahinch (No change)
5. Portmarnock (No change)
6. St Patrick's (New entry)
For what it's worth, I would have it in the top 5 already. Here's what I wrote about it last year if anyone is interested!
https://www.ukgolfguy.com/rosapenna-st-patrick-links
Incidentally, in the UK, Turnberry gets the opposite treatment to Ballybunion. It's consistently ranked in the top 2 or 3 in the UK magazines, always lower in GOLF. Purely supposition, but there may still be an issue there with some US raters not having seen the Ailsa post changes given the make-up of that GOLF panel. Or maybe they just don't like it as much.