In 2008, when we conducted our first Irish golf course rankings poll, BACKSPIN broke fresh ground by becoming the first golf publication ever to treat and rank Irish links and parkland courses separately.

Since the magazine was introduced to the Irish market in 2000, by a team immersed in the traditions of golf since the Palmer and Nicklaus era, BACKSPIN has always sought to be vibrant, imaginative, authoritative and distinctly different.

Our pioneering approach to ranking Irish golf courses serves to showcase the Irish golf product in an entirely new light to the golfing world at large.

We have adopted the same format for our 2012 IRISH GOLF COURSE RANKINGS.   This poll reflects the views of 55 experienced golfers with a deep knowledge and appreciation of the Irish golf product.

To assist them in making their choices each voter was provided with a complete list of Irish golf courses in both categories...Links and Parkland. 

Voters were asked to nominate their 15 favourite courses in each category....courses that impress and delight them most in order of preference.

Special emphasis was placed on design, presentation, setting, challenge and the personal enjoyment factor.

Points were awarded in both categories as follows...
1st - 250; 2nd - 225; 3rd - 200; 4th - 175; 5th - 150; 6th - 140;
7th - 130; 8th - 120; 9th - 110; 10th - 100; 11th - 90; 12th - 80;
13th - 70; 14th - 60; 15th - 50.

To arrive at our final rankings in both categories we added the points awarded to clubs on the 55 voting forms.

DECLAN O’DONOGHUE
Publisher-Editor

Raymond Burns, Eddie Doyle, Peter Hanna, David Higgins, Liam Higgins, Francis Howley, Brendan McGovern, David Mortimer, Christy O'Connor Jnr, Peter O'Hagan, Denis O'Sullivan, Des Smyth, Gordon Smyth, Paul Thompson, Philip Walton.

Keith Bardon, Michael Burns, Colin Byrne, Michael Coote, Karen Delaney, Barry Doyle, Eddie Dunne, Jody Fanagan, Mark Gannon, Loyal Goulding, Niall Goulding, Dougie Heather, John L. Hughes, Helen Jones, Ken Kearney, Enda Lonergan, Sheena McElroy, Mary McKenna, Harry McKinney, Seamus McParland, Adrian Morrow, Christy Moylan, Pat Murray, Peter O'Hara, Paddy O'Looney, Eddie Power, Eileen Rose Power, Barry Reddan.

Pat Cashman, Cathal Dervan, Paul Gallagher, Shay Keenan, Brian Keogh, Denis Kirwan, Declan O'Donoghue, Philip Quinn, John Redmond, Ray Scott, Colm Smith, Liam Spratt.