Tag: Ballybunion

Golfweek’s Best 2023: Top 50 classic courses in Great Britain and Ireland

The traditional links courses find spots of honor on this ranking of the best classic courses in Great Britain and Ireland.

Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2023 rankings of the Top 50 classic courses in Great Britain and Ireland – built before 1960 – as determined by Golfweek’s Best raters.

The members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final rating for each course. Then each layout is ranked against others in Great Britain and Ireland to produce the final rankings.

Listed with each course below is its average ranking, location, designers and year opened.

*New to or returning to list

Other popular Golfweek’s Best lists include:

12 best golf courses in Ireland and Northern Ireland

The best golf courses that the Éire has to offer.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Ireland and Northern Ireland? The green waves of Emerald Isle? An ice-cold pint of Guinness? Rory McIlroy?

One thing that should not go overlooked is the beauty of both Irish and Northern Irish golf.

The Éire boasts some of the most breathtaking golf courses in the world, and Golfweek has compiled a ranking so you know exactly which courses you need to hit on your next golf vacation.

More U.K. course rankings: 10 best courses in Scotland | 10 Best courses in England

This ranking comes directly from the hundreds of Golfweek’s Best Raters for 2021 who continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course on a points basis of 1-10. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final rating for each course. Only a handful of courses in the world achieve a rating above 9, and any course rated 7 or above presents a can’t-miss opportunity.

For more of Golfweek’s Best course lists, check out the most recent selection of course rankings:

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Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy tackle Ballybunion in preparation for British Open at St. Andrews

Ballybunion’s Old Course sits at No. 7 on Golfweek’s list of classic courses in Great Britain & Ireland.

Tiger Woods teed it up this week at the 2022 JP McManus Pro-Am in Ireland, and he continued his major championship preparation at an Irish classic.

Ahead of next week’s 150th British Open at St. Andrews, the three-time Open champion – twice at the Old Course, which Woods claims to be his favorite in golf – played a round alongside good friend Rory McIlroy on Thursday at Ballybunion.

The Old Course at Ballybunion sits at No. 7 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses in Great Britain and Ireland and is the highest-rated Irish course on the list (not counting No. 1 Royal County Down and No. 5 Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland).

“This is a pretty historical Open we are going to be playing. I’m lucky enough to be part of the past champions who have won there and want to play there again,” said Woods of the Open at St. Andrews. “I don’t know when they are ever going to go back while I’m still able to play at a high level. And I want to be able to give it at least one more run at a high level.”

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Golfweek’s Best 2021: Top 50 Classic Courses in Great Britain and Ireland

From links layouts to parkland courses, these are the best courses built before 1960 in Great Britain and Ireland.

Welcome to Golfweek’s Best rankings of the Top 50 Classic Courses in Great Britain and Ireland – built before 1960 – as determined by Golfweek’s Best Raters for 2021 (pictured atop this story: Royal Dornoch in Scotland).

The members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final rating for each course. Then each course is ranked against other courses in Great Britain and Ireland to produce the final rankings.

Golfweek also ranks Modern Courses in Great Britain and Ireland. For more on top courses outside the U.S., check out the following lists:

Listed with each course below is its average ranking, location, designers and year opened.

Golfweek’s Best 2021: Top 50 Classic International Courses

From Royal County Down to Royal Melbourne, the top International Modern Courses built outside the U.S. before 1960.

Welcome to the initial Golfweek’s Best Classic International Courses list with the highest-rated courses outside the United States that were built before 1960. (Pictured atop this story: The Old Course at St. Andrews, with photo by Steve Flynn/USA TODAY Sports)

Each year we publish many lists, with the U.S.-based Top 200 Modern Courses and the accompanying Top 200 Classic Courses lists being the premium offerings. Also extremely popular and significant are the Best Courses You Can Play State by State and Best Private Courses State by State.

This is the first year for this International Classic list, and it is comprised of thousands of individual ratings of courses around the world. We also recently published the Modern Courses version, shining a spotlight on the best international courses built in or after 1960.

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The 800-plus members of our ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final rating for each course, which is then ranked against other courses to produce the final lists.

Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, the location, the year it opened and the designers. After the designers are several designations that note what type of facility it is.

Key

r: resort course
d: daily fee
p: private course
t: tour course
m: municipal
re: real estate
* Many international private courses allow limited outside play. Contact the courses indicated for more information on their guest policies.