[Bill Gayne]

See the attached link from the Irish Times:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2009/0512/1224246321957.html

My first cut at the list:

1. Doonbeg
2. Waterville
3. County Down
4. Old Head
5. Portrush
6. Portrush
7. Ballybunion old
8. Lahinch
9. County Down
10. Carne
11. Ballybunion old
12. Lahinch
13. Dooks
14. Portrush
15. Portrush
16. Ballybunion old
17. Sligo
18. Doonbeg

[Niall C]

Bill,

I haven't played nearly enough in Ireland to compile my own list but I was intrigued by your choice of 17th at Sligo. Great course, one of my favourites but is it just me who thinks the 17th is just a means of getting from the 16th green to the 18th tee ?

Niall

[Sean Leary]

I didn't get 17 at Sligo. The running out of fairway at the dogleg was really odd to me.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Picture Aidan Bradley



It's all about that green site. The cut off fairway is quirky but you still have to decide. Left edge  and Short = blind, so how far right to you place your ball to get the shot you want?


Looking at the list it struck me that with the maority of these courses the great holes do not come at the end.  Mostly by then we've played the massive dunes and are moving back towards the club house.  17th at Rosses point is great, 18 seemed a real come down after it.

[Tom_Doak]

Tony M:

You are right that the great holes on links courses do not usually come at the very end, and you've got one of the two reasons why.

The other reason is that all those courses were designed for match play, and it makes no sense to save the most compelling hole for last, when the majority of matches will be over by then.  Darwin wrote that it was "the duty of every good golf course to have a great 17th hole," because that's where matches are ended or sent to the 18th.

[Jamie Barber]

^Related to that, I read that Braid apparently thought the 18th green should always be flat to encourage a tight finish in matchplay. Maybe it was a concensus view?

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