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.

Golf World: Top 100 Courses (You Can Play)

The August edition of Golf World magazine had a special section devoted to the World's Top 100 golf courses. There was an interesting caveat at the end: namely that these were courses that will take a green fee... which means courses like Augusta National were not on the list.

Golf Digest Ireland will be bringing out their Top 100 Irish Courses in mid-November, so it's always interesting to provide a little groundwork, a little perspective, before that list (always up for debate) arrives on the newsagents' shelves.

[Photo: view back to The Lodge from Doonbeg's 9th green]

There were 9 Irish courses included on the Golf World list - ranked in reverse order:
71 County Louth
64 Doonbeg
56 Lahinch
40 Ballybunion (Old)
36 The European
33 Portmarnock (Old)
18 Waterville
7 Royal Portrush (Dunluce)
and at number 1...

[Photo: The par three 4th at Royal County Down]

1 Royal County Down

Great to see RCD still being lauded internationally, at least by our neighbours across the Irish Sea.

The list also included 22 courses from the USA, 16 from England, and 13 from Scotland.

Great Scott, it's Never (Big) Easy


On another subject, the magazine did three big interviews with professional golfers - the first of which was with Darren Clarke. Bear in mind that this magazine was published in the run-up to the Open Championship, so what a coincidence that the other two articles were: first, with Ernie Els - talking about how he believed he could win another Major and what he was doing differently that would allow him to achieve that goal - and, second, with Adam Scott saying he was ready to win his first.

Turns out that one of them was almost right!

[Photo: Waterville's 1st Hole - 'The Last Easy']