Ireland's Rankings... The Comparisons

The 14th at Rosapenna (Sandy Hills)

Over the last year or so there have been five major rankings of Irish golf courses. These come from an Irish magazine and four UK golf media. The ranking comparisons are shown in the table below.

The top 30 courses according to Golf Digest Ireland (GDI) are in the left hand column - call these the benchmark as they're taken from the Top 100 Irish Golf courses. The remaining rankings are alongside, showing which Irish courses make the top 100 GB&I ranking. The overall GB&I ranking is then shown in brackets.

The Word Is Golf

Articles/Contributions to four magazines this month: one Irish, two British... and one Russian. A very strange sensation looking at a page of indecipherable (Cyrillic) lettering and only recognising your name. I wrote the piece for Silk Way Tours, based in Cork, who are luring Russian golfers to Ireland.

I was honoured to be invited on to the Golf World panel to contribute to their Top 100 Golf Courses in Britain & Ireland. 19 of our courses make the cut, with Royal County Down sitting very comfortably in top spot. Lough Erne is the only parkland to make the cut, at 98.

In Golf Monthly there's a piece about five 'hidden gems', namely Arklow, Carlow, Galway Bay, Scrabo and Strandhill.

In Ireland of the Welcomes, a magazine aimed mostly at Americans, I get to talk about the beautiful golf experience of playing the west coast, the north west and Donegal.

And then of course, May sees the publication of my second book: Driving the Green.

Competitions - Golf Forums, Magazines and Websites

It's Christmas - apparently - so here's my first gift to you: links to some current golf prizes you can win.

Golfing Weekly: The Irish golf magazine (part of Golf Digest Ireland) has a signed shirt of McIlroy's to give away.

Golf Magic, a UK golf forum, constantly gives away stuff - at the moment you can win an Taylormade Ghost Spider S Putter, Titleist Winter Gear and a Golfbuddy GPS device.

Golf Monthly: Ryder Cup DVDs and golf clubs.

Today's Golfer: three different trips (Bulgaria, Northern Ireland, Spain) and golf clubs. This is also the same for Golf World magazine, its sister publication.

Golf International Magazine: nothing at the moment... oddly.

Sorry to sat that some prizes are for 'UK residents only', so you'll need to consider that, or give the address of a friend/relative in the UK.

You should also visit different golf club websites as they often have free fourball giveaways every month, e.g. Headfort and Dromoland Castle.


And remember, a golf prize is for life, not just for Christmas.

Golf Monthly - April 2012

Writing articles for golf magazines offers a huge sense of reward when you see them in print...

... getting paid for them is all the sweeter!

So it seems slightly ironic that I have been paid for an article in this month's Golf Monthly, for writing about Scotland.

[Photo: the 9th at Nairn Dunbar]

I flew over with my wife last November, in the misguided belief we might see the Northern Lights. 10 year cycles, solar flares... all that stuff had me thinking it was a good time to head to Aberdeen and then on up to Nairn, where we'd be right on the coast facing north.

There were to be no Northern Lights... not unless you count the flames spurting from the tops of oil rigs in the distant Cromarty Firth... but we stayed in a plush hotel (the aptly named Golf View Hotel) so we had all the comforts we could want... not to mention Nairn Golf Club next door and Nairn Dunbar Golf Club a couple of minutes away.

[Photo: the lighthouse at the end of Fortrose & Rosemarkie]

We were over for a few days and we - sorry, I - made the most of it, playing Nairn, Nairn Dunbar and Fortrose & Rosemarkie all on the one glorious day (my wife forgave me... in January), and then Castle Stuart (home of the 2011 and 2012 Scottish Open) and Forres over the next couple of days.

[Photo: the Castle Stuart Clubhouse]

In terms of brief descriptions:

• Nairn is a highly rated links, with a flat landscape, perfect greens and a long history. [Photos]
• Nairn Dunbar is a parkland close to the sea, with a very easy rhythm and intriguing greens. [Photos]
• Fortrose & Rosemarkie is a links that juts into the sea, running out to a lighthouse with deep ocean on each side, and what must be a terrifying test of golf in a strong wind. [Photos]
• Forres is a more obvious parkland, but it's hard to tell how good when you spend the entire round under an umbrella.
• Castle Stuart is a links that runs across two tiers and has such amazing shapes to fairways and greens that it's almost fairytale links. And then there's the clubhouse. [Photos]

[Photo: the 1st at Nairn]

Which is my favourite course? As with all courses each has its merits, but if I was going to play one, and only one, then I'd pick Nairn Dunbar. Colour, trees, rhythm, fun - it all adds up.

And if you fancy the non-golf alternatives, I strongly recommend the 18 year old single malt from Tomatin Distillery in the Cairngorm National Park. Just make sure the other half is driving.

Portumna

[Photo: the par three 5th, down into the trees at Portumna]

I was asked last week to write a short piece for the UK’s Golf Monthly magazine. What they wanted, they said, was a review of a course that I rated highly but that few people in the UK would have heard of.

Decisions, decisions. There are so many courses to choose from: I have written pieces on Rathcore and Shannon; I have raved about Portarlington and Scrabo; and I have decided that Rosslare is one of the best links never to be mentioned. And I haven’t even started on Northern Ireland yet.

In the end, the course I picked was Portumna in Co. Galway. It wasn’t difficult to write about. In fact, the greatest difficulty was keeping the piece to the required length. The course is located in an old estate, with sweeping movements to a landscape that sits so elegantly in a forest. There are deer that constantly appear and big trees make emphatic statements at every turn. And then there’s the 17th, a par five that everyone seems to remember with fondness.

[Photo: approach to the 17th]

What I don’t understand is why this course is not talked about in the same breath as many of the other big parklands. It’s not in the top echelon perhaps (Mount Juliet, K Club…), although I’ll happily sit down and argue the finer points, but it knocks the stuffing out of many of the big new resorts, like Mount Wolseley or Knightsbrook. Oh, and let’s not forget that you can play Portumna for €30 to €35.