The Island Golf Club Upgrades - 2020

When I first started writing about golf courses I never thought that I'd end up talking to and meeting some of the world's great golf architects.

Over the past three years I have spoken to Tom Doak about his Renaissance Club, on Scotland's Golf Coast (East Lothian), met Martin Hawtree during his work on Castlerock, and had lunch with Gil Hanse, at Narin & Portnoo (now open for play).

I have played golf with Ally McIntosh several times and chatted to both him and Ken Kearney during a Top 100 ranking meeting.

Talking to these guys just demonstrates how differently I look at a golf course. Golf course design is a discipline quite a distance from my sphere of interest.

And that was my concern when it came to The Island Golf Club, and the changes being

Ireland's Top 100 Golf Courses... with a difference

Strandhill, a popular and high ranking choice

Rankings always stir debate. Usually that debate is well behaved and considered, but sometimes it gets out of hand with insults being flung in all directions. That's partly the Social Media age where people feel they can say what they like, how they like. Gone is the age when people acknowledged that others were allowed to have an opinion different to their own.

I knew full well that would be the case when I started the project to produce a list of Ireland's favourite golf courses. I called it a Top 100 because that's what catches the attention and, by inviting three other golfers to join me in selecting their favourite 25 Irish golf courses, I was fulfilling that brief. As it turned out there were 48 courses mentioned in all.

The purpose was to get four golfers to pick their FAVOURITE courses... and not what