5 Irish Golf Courses top the World Rankings! – AGS Golf Vacations

In the second half of the 19th century the first golf clubs were founded in Ireland as listed in the Table below. Some had Military connections or were started by Scottish and English settlers, or by local businessmen.

• Five of them are in the World Rankings: Royal County Down, Portmarnock, Royal Portrush, Lahinch and Ballybunion.
• Royal County Down, Portmarnock, Royal Portrush and typically the top 3 courses in Ireland.
• Royal Dublin is unique in that it is only 3 miles from the centre of Dublin.
• Malone and Royal Belfast (both in Belfast) are currently the highest ranked inland courses.
• Athlone and Curragh are well regarded and often make Ireland top 100 from other listings.
• Ardglass is not generally recognised by ranking panels but being close to Royal County Down it is enjoyed by many visiting golfers.
• The nine Links Golf courses listed have proved to be most successful.

The Oldest Club – Members of The Curragh Golf Club play their golf over the Oldest Golf Course in Ireland, dating from 1852, when a course was laid out “on the links near Donnelly’s Hollow” by David Ritchie, from Edinburgh. The club’s historian Col. Wm. Gibson (retd) discovered this in 1981 and he has recently found that a Golf Club was established at the Curragh Camp by the Royal Lanark Militia in 1858; some 21 years prior to the institution of the currently recognised oldest club in Ireland, Royal Belfast (1881).

The 6,585-yard, par 72 course is routed over rolling terrain which is naturally well drained, allowing play during wet periods when others are closed. With just over a dozen bunkers in play, sand should not spoil your round too much here. There is evidence around the course of trenches and foxholes from old army training days but the most incongruous site to behold is the huge number of sheep which once grazed the fairways freely but are now confined to the rough.

If you would like to play the oldest known golf course in Ireland and some other stunning Irish golf click here and take a look at some of the golf trips we have to offer. It’s a beautiful magical place to play golf!

Irelands Oldest Golf Clubs

Date
Golf Club
Type
2012 Ranking
Location

1858
Curragh
Heathland
100+
County Kildare

1881
Royal Belfast
Parkland
72
Belfast

1885
Royal Dublin
Links
19
Dublin

1888
Royal Portrush
Links
3
Causeway Coast

1889
Royal County Down
Links
1
County Down

1892
Lahinch
Links
6
County Clare

1892
Athlone
Lakeside
100+
County Roscommon

1892
County Louth
Links
9
North of Dublin

1893
Ballybunion
Links
5
County Kerry

1894
County Sligo
Links
11
Rosses Point Sligo

1894
Portmarnock
Links
2
Outside Dublin

1894
Ballinasloe
Parkland
100+
Galway

1894
Portstewart
Links
17
Causeway Coast

1895
Malone
Parkland
52
Belfast

1896
Ardglass
Clifftop
100+
County Down