Best Golf Courses in Ireland: Top 20

No two Irish golfers will ever agree on the Best Golf Courses in Ireland. Yet, almost every golf magazine produces rankings, usually annually, proclaiming their Best Golf Courses in Ireland, as if it is some objective truth. Well not really (advertising spend anyone!). Some like chocolate, some like vanilla; some like blondes, some like brunettes, some like red, some like white (we like both!). Preferences, opinions – its what the world go round; even Google can’t disprove them.

So we here at Real Irish Golf decided to take a different approach – technically (or so we’re told by folks who know) a Meta-Analysis. We combined as many of the Ireland Best Golf Course rankings we could find (n = 8 to be precise), assigned 20 points to a #1 ranking, 19 points to a #2 ranking, and so on, and then simply totaled up the points for each course to determine the Top 20 listed below.

Do we agree with this ranking? Of course not – but as a method to remove biases (apparently we here at Real Irish Golf have some too!) it seems fair. How can any serious golfer have Tralee outside the Top 10? Isn’t Druids Glen the best parkland in Ireland? The Top 10 are all true Links Golf Courses – we say Amen! to that. We look forward to hearing about your biases – let the disagreements begin!