Royal County Down claims top honour

If a week is a long time in politics, a year is an eternity in golf course punditry. Yet, in the case of Royal County Down, which will stage the Walker Cup next September, the virtue of patience has been fully rewarded after the links was selected as the country's top course for 2007 by Golf Digest Ireland in a rather spectacular turnaround, a year after it failed to break into magazine's top-10.

Not surprisingly, given Ireland's great tradition of links courses, the list - which appears in the May issue of the magazine - is dominated by seaside courses. No fewer than seven of the top-10 and 13 of the top-20 courses are links, with Royal County Down claiming the number one spot from The K Club (Palmer Course). Royal County Down moved from 12th position in 2006 to occupy top position, while the Palmer Course has fallen from first down to number nine.

Despite a very successful staging of the Ryder Cup last September, the Palmer Course is no longer even considered as the top parkland course in the country. That honour has now fallen to Adare Manor, which will play host - for the first time - to the Irish Open, next month.

By its very nature, selecting the "best" of anything is prone to individual partialities. What constitutes best? Is it the setting? Is it the number of great golf holes? Is it a course's ability to make a player use every club in the bag in attempting to manage it? How do you combine all of these things? To be sure, the final selection will lead to quite a bit of debate at the 19th hole of many a golf club.

In contrast to a year ago, when the top-100 courses were determined by the magazine's readership, the 2007 selection process was conducted by a five-person panel which spanned a cross-section of Irish golf. Chaired by Padraig Ó hUiginn from the Irish Golf Trust, the panel also consisted of Albert Lee (Hon Secretary of the Golfing Union of Ireland), Ada O'Sullivan, (the Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup captain, representing the Irish Ladies Golf Union), Michael McCummiskey (General Secretary of the Irish Region PGA) and Dermot Gilleece, (editor of Golf Digest).

The result is that Royal County Down has been restored to a position of eminence, being one of four courses that failed to break into last year's top-10 who have been elevated. While the Newcastle links has made the most spectacular improvement to occupy the prized first place, the other courses who moved into the top-10 are: Royal Portrush, from 11th to seventh; Adare Manor, from 18th to third; and Waterville, from 15th to sixth.

In such year-on-year comparisons, there are winners and losers and, most obviously, the four courses that have fallen out of the top-10 are: Ballyliffin Glashedy (from sixth to 20th); Druids Glen (from eighth to 18th); Co Sligo (from ninth to 13th), and Lahinch (from 10th to 11th).

The European, which was ranked second a year ago, has dropped to fifth, while Mount Juliet, which occupied third position in 2006, has fallen to 10th.

According to Gilleece, the "top-10 came as a pleasant surprise, not for its composition which I thought largely predictable, but for the finishing positions of certain courses. For instance, I didn't expect Adare Manor to climb as high as number three, even though I believe it to be the country's top parkland course. And where considerable upgrading in recent years has been reflected in the overall dominance of Royal Co Down, it could be argued that Royal Portrush and, to a lesser extent, Ballybunion, had suffered in this context".

1 Royal Co Down, 2 Portmarnock, 3 Adare Manor, 4 Ballybunion Old, 5 The European Club, 6 Waterville, 7 Royal Portrush, 8 Co Louth, 9 The K Club (Palmer Course), 10 Mount Juliet.

11 Lahinch, 12 Tralee, 13 Co Sligo, 14 Carton House (Montgomerie Course), 15 The Heritage, 16 Killarney (Killeen Course), 17 Portstewart, 18 Druids Glen, 19 The Island, 20 Ballyliffin (Glashedy Links),

21 Carne, 22 Fota Island, 23 Royal Dublin, 24 Doonbeg, 25 Old Head of Kinsale, 26 Headfort New, 27 Carlow, 28 PGA National, 29 Portmarnock Links, 30 Glasson, 31 Luttrellstown Castle, 32 Mullingar, 33 Malone, 34 Castlerock, 35 Slieve Russell, 36 Cork, 37 Belvoir Park, 38 Dundalk, 39 Hermitage, 40 Donegal (Murvagh).

41 Dromoland Castle, 42 Carton House (O'Meara Course), 43 The K Club (Smurfit Course), 44 Westport, 45 Tulfarris, 46 Enniscrone, 47 Esker Hills, 48 Rathsallagh, 49 Seapoint, 50 Tullamore,

51 Clandeboye, 52 Mount Wolseley, 53 Dundrum House, 54 Connemara, 55 Dooks, 56 St Margaret's, 57 Ring of Kerry, 58 Powerscourt West, 59 Rosslare,

60 Rosapenna (Sandy Hills), 61 New Forest, 62 Killarney (Mahonys Point), 63 Ballybunion (Cashen Course), 64 Ballyliffin Old, 65 Rathcore, 66 Skelligs Bay, 67 Portsalon, 68 Knightsbrook, 69 Millicent,

70 Grange, 71 Killeen, 72 Castleknock, 73 Bantry Bay, 74 Athlone,75 Malahide, 76 Woodbrook, 77 Royal Belfast, 78 Limerick, 79 Laytown and Bettystown, 80 Roganstown,

81 Castletroy, 82 Gowran Park, 83 Thurles, 84 Monkstown, 85 Glen of the Downs, 86 Seafield, 87 Woodstock, 88 Waterford, 89 Galway GC,

90 Co Meath, 91 Portumna, 92 Tramore, 93 Headfort Old, 94 Ballycastle, 95 Charleville, 96 Royal Tara, 97 Dungarvan, 98 Blainroe, 99 Woodenbridge, 100 Castlebar.