Irish – Ultra Golfing

Golfweek course-rating guru completes Irish top 100 tour

admin — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 18:38:21 +0000

Want to know more about some far-flung golf course that most people have never heard of? Want to dig into the details of the Golfweek’s Best course rankings, or those of other publications? Or just want to sit and listen with fascination as one of the most well-traveled players in the world speaks with incredible intelligence about great golf holes, long walks and dream vacations?

Jonathan Cummings is your guy. Conveniently, he works as a consultant for Golfweek, running the database that drives all our course rankings. He also authored “The Rating Game,” an absolute insider’s book that takes a look at various course rankings and features a foreword by architect Tom Doak, whom Cummings has known for decades.

A retired mechanical engineer and general math whiz who also worked as an anti-submarine warfare consultant for DARPA within the U.S. Department of Defense, Cummings must begrudgingly admit to being a list “chaser,” one of those afflicted souls who tries to play every course on various best-of lists. This summer he completed a doozy, having finished a list of the top 100 golf courses in Ireland, counting both the Republic and Northern Ireland. He already was more than halfway through the list when he acquired Irish citizenship and set about playing 45 more top courses around the Emerald Isle.

Following are his thoughts on list chasing, golf in Ireland, how rankings work and what’s next.

How did you get into the chase, and why?

I’ll bet, like many other chasers, you really don’t make a beginning “decision” to chase lists. It’s more likely you wake up one day, having traveled for golf significantly and having just read a magazine top-100 list, and ask yourself, “Geez, I wonder how many I’ve played?” If you find you’ve played a significant number, then it’s not a stretch to set the goal for yourself to try for them all.

There are obstacles. For me (and undoubtedly many others), it was Augusta National. As ANGC is on most of the top lists, until you’ve checked that off, completing a top list is not reachable. I was lucky to have a friend of a friend invite me for a few days to ANGC, so after that, completing a number of top-100 lists became within reach.

The “why” is easy. If you love to travel, love to play golf, are intrigued and want to investigate how no two golf courses are alike, then a top-100 list can be viewed as a road map, channeling your travel plans.

How did you compile your top 100 in Ireland, what with lists changing within the span of you playing them all?

There are only several top-100 Ireland lists published that I’m aware of (there are probably others). Golf Monthly’s Irish Golfer top-100 lists have been published for 20 years or so. It’s an Irish magazine with a panel of mostly writers run by the editor of Irish Golfer. Top100golfcourses.com also does an Irish top-100 list. I asked some knowledgeable friends which list was considered “more the standard” and was told Irish Golfer. I made a spreadsheet with every course on all Irish Golfer annual lists since the IG lists had been published. As of October 2024, I had played 55 of the most recent 2024 list.

At about this same time I received word that after applying and submitting paperwork, I was granted Irish citizenship (a whole story in itself). So while I had been to Ireland many times before, I decided that in tribute to my new passport, it would be fun to spend a summer there and play the 45 courses I hadn’t played on the 2024 Irish Golfers top-100 list.

Because there have been few new courses built in Ireland over the span of Irish Golfer’s lists, it turns out it really didn’t matter which list I had chosen. Unlike Golfweek’s Top 200 Modern course ranking, which changes with each publication as new courses are added, the Irish Golfer lists were mostly the same. In fact, I only have to play 15 more Irish courses to complete all the lists of the past 20 years. It was the same for top100golfcourses.com. I’m essentially done with those lists (maybe missing one or two) as well.

Question everyone will ask: What are your top five in Ireland, and why those?

A list of my top Irish golf courses would likely be similar or even the same as those lists from many others. The “Big Five” of Ireland – County Down, Lahinch, Ballybunion, Portmarnock and Portrush – are broadly considered to sit at the head of the Irish class. I don’t disagree.

To me, Royal County Down ranks so highly because of its sheer jaw-dropping beauty. It’s not without its warts: too many blind shots, and it may border on being too penal. But to see Royal County Down in the autumn when the heather and gorse are in bloom, with the sea to one side and the noble steeple of the Slieve Donard hotel framed by the Mourne Mountains on the other … well, it doesn’t get much better than this. If there is something close to spiritual in the game of golf, this is it.

My love for Portrush is based on my admiration of the well-contoured, sometimes terrifying putting surfaces. The Ballybunion “why” is based on pure awe as to how the course (back nine in particular) is ingeniously routed up, over, below, alongside and through the dramatic dunes. Portmarnock’s circular routing, like Muirfield’s, continuously changes a player’s wind-correction adjustments, brilliantly confounding targeting. And the “why” for Lahinch is more emotional. It’s undeniably a world-class tactical challenge with some surprising and even whimsical holes, great beauty and an 18-chapter book tied together to tell a compelling overall story – Lahinch is all this but something else. The farm my grandfather was born on (still in the family) is not far away, and Lahinch is the first great U.K. course I ever played many years ago.

Next question everyone will ask: Which of the non-big-name courses stood out to you, and why?

Links highlights included: Arklow, Rosslare, North West, RCD Annesley and the fabulous Wild Atlantic Dunes nine at Carne (I played the original 18 at Carne some 30 years ago.) Why? Because with only about 250 true links courses in the world, it’s a delight to find any new ones with character that you haven’t played.

Parkland highlights included Dun Laoghaire, Bunclody, Ballinrobe, Royal Belfast, Malone, Belvoir Park, Naas and Tulfarris. Each commands a noteworthy setting, which is one reason that sets them apart, particularly with Bunclody, Belfast and Tulfarris.

Also, quite a number of the second-echelon parklands I found were mostly American and somewhat forgettable. There are easily 20 to 30 courses on the Irish Golfer top-100 list that I would not be interested in playing again.

What makes Irish golf special and distinct for you, as compared to Scotland or other links-golf destinations?

Man, put me most anywhere in the U.K. and I’m in seventh heaven. Scotland, Wales, England, Ireland, Cornwall, the Hebrides and everywhere else in the U.K. — I’ve been to most all of them many times. I don’t think any one area in the U.K. is better than any other. Some areas like Liverpool, Troon, Fife, The Lothians, Dover, et cetera, have more concentrations of great links golf, probably more so than any one area of Ireland, but for me Ireland gets the edge on being special because of my Irish heritage. And besides, the Guinness tastes better in Ireland.

What’s it like for an American to spend such a long summer in Ireland? Any highlights?

I’m lucky enough to be quite familiar with the Emerald Isle. Being in Ireland for an extended time was really not too different from being over there for a “standard” trip of one to two weeks.

As you may imagine, the required planning involved was extensive. It took all winter, but it worked out well as I basically had no hiccups during the trip. I was by myself the entire time, which is probably something I wouldn’t like to do again. I ended up with many tee times at the end of the day behind full tee sheets, which often made for long rounds. I was also almost never paired with anyone, so I didn’t end up meeting a lot of folks.

Some other random observations: I put a ton of miles on a rental car, 2,500 miles without leaving the island. I also found that I enjoyed the smaller towns more than the big ones. Finally, I was insanely lucky with the weather. It was warm (even sometimes hot) with little rain – while I was rained on during a few rounds, I was not rained out of any of the 45 courses I played.

When you look at the various lists, especially in Ireland, does anything make an eyebrow stand up?

I was surprised by the lack of depth of the various Irish lists before it dawned on me how few candidates any Irish top-100 list draws from. There are around 400 courses on the entire island, of which around 50 are 9-holers. That means that around 30 percent of all the 18-hole courses make a top-100 Irish list. Compare that to the U.S. with 16,000 courses, meaning that only around the top half a percent of the U.S. courses make a top-100 list.

That is likely why I was a little disappointed in some of the Irish top 100 in the second half of the list. They were certainly worthy courses, but not in the same league as the second half of courses in an American or combined U.K. top-100 list.

You have so much experience with rating, and have written the book — what oddities jump out in course rating?

Umm. I believe that all the magazines concentrate too much on rating courses. At the end of the day, all magazines that I know of publish lists of golf courses that are rank-ordered (including all published Golfweek lists). While assigning numbers in an attempt to measure golf course quality is a common approach, it’s really done because it simplifies post-processing — running averages and sorting results. The problem is this intermediate processing step introduces errors in the final sorted lists.

I’m a firm believer that the best rater uses a spreadsheet and sorts his/her own list without the initial use of numbers. A simple best-to- worst personal list, with new courses added to the spreadsheet as they are played, should be developed by every rater. There is a method that is outlined in “The Rating Game” of laterally combining many personal ranked lists into one overall ranked list.

I’m not a big fan of categories, either, for much the same argument. Categories can be hard to quantify and sometimes of questionable value. Quantifying categories and summing them based on some formula is doubly bad as it introduces not one but several intermediate steps, each with associated errors.

What’s next for you? I don’t believe for a minute that you’re done looking at great courses.

Probably a little more “chasing” in me, but at 73 I’m not far from list-chasing retirement.

I’ve played 30 to 40 of the top courses in Australia, but I’ll never complete the Aussie top 100. Same for Europe, especially Eastern Europe – I’ve played the European world-ranked courses but am unlikely to get to many of the others. Again, same for Asia – played the greats, but there are many on various lists I haven’t played and am unlikely to see.

I’m intrigued by Canada. Scores Magazine has listed the top 100 courses in Canada for years. I’ve played 30 or so of them, so I think over maybe three years, the current top 100 would be doable. Getting in a car from home and going for a drive for a month or so sounds appealing as compared to recovering from jet lag after flights over the ponds.

I’ll need to practice, “Oh Canada!”

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IRISH OPEN: RORY MCILROY WINNING INTERVIEW

admin — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 17:35:28 +0000

Rory, PLAYERS, Masters, and now the Amgen Irish Open. 2025 is the year that keeps on giving, isn’t it?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it is. I said it out there on the green, but 2025 is going to go down as one of the best years of my career, if not the best, or at least the most memorable for a lot of different reasons.

Yeah, just an incredible week: The crowds, the atmosphere out there all week, but especially over the weekend and here in the last few groups.

Yeah, just such a thrill and such a pleasure to play in front of so many people and to feel that support and have them rooting you on down the closing stretch. I’m glad I rewarded all their support with a nice finish there on 18 and obviously getting the job done in the playoff.

As an Irish golfer growing up, one of the ones we always wanted to win is the Irish Open. I played my first Irish Open at Carton House down the road 20 years ago in 2005 with Harry on the bag, so it’s been a pretty cool journey since then. Yeah, just amazing.

Q. Well done, Rory. Can we just go back to the 72nd hole in regulation. You’re standing on the fairway and you know you need an eagle. What’s the thought process you go through? What were you talking to Harry about?

RORY McILROY: Just club selection, wind. I knew I had 202 yards downwind. I knew an 8-iron didn’t really have a chance to go as long. I felt like there would be adrenaline and if I hit it hard, I could get it all the way back there.

I caught it a tad skinny, just got a little bit late on it, but it was still a decent shot. It obviously left me that putt.

I guess the thing going through my head when I was looking at the putt was the putt I had at Royal County Down last year on 18 to try to get in a playoff with Rasmus, but it was an easy putt. It was uphill; it was right-to-left. I could be aggressive with it. I could have a go at it.

So I picked my line. I’d left a few putts short today. I just told myself, just get this one to the hole, give it a chance. It was nice to see it go right in the middle.

Q. Adding to your legacy, which you continue to do this year, just a few weeks before the Ryder Cup, you were talking earlier about looking for a W and bringing momentum into that. You pretty much did that. What does that mean to you?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think I said a win going into the Ryder Cup, I didn’t think was necessary, but it would have been very nice and it probably would have validated the fact my game was in good shape and I was happy with where everything is.

My game is in good shape. Even if I hadn’t have won here this week, I would have walked away being pretty encouraged about where everything is. Tee to green, I felt like I was good. It was nice to be in sort of the heat of battle and in contention and having to hit different shots under pressure, especially over those last few holes where there’s a little bit of trouble here and there and you have to manage your game a little bit.

I felt like I did most things well this week, and I’ve got another week next week to just keep on trying to sharpen the tools. Not that I don’t feel this way, but I’ve got another couple weeks to feel 100 percent ready for whatever I’m going to face at Bethpage.

Q. Sticking with putts, have you ever seen a putt like that roll in at the end of a round?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, when it hit the left side and just how slow it went round the hole, like it was in slow motion. I was like, no, it can’t. I felt like there was a lot of putts this week that looked like they could have went in and they didn’t. Thankfully, it just fell in there on the front side again.

I guess with the poa greens like this and they get a little bumpy and a little soft, they can roll a little bit. It’s hard. That was a 6-footer. You don’t want to hit those in too hard. You want to try to hit them in at a decent speed, and sometimes they can wiggle offline. It wiggled just enough to go in.

I got a little bit lucky, that putt on 13 and then the drive on 15, I felt like that was a big moment in the round as well.

Q. What is it about your putting specifically and to hole 30 feet, 28 feet on the last? And how you turned it around at the start of the season to have your best statistical putting season?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I finally found my range, around 30 feet, it looks like. Yeah, it’s been a great season putting-wise. I think I finished fourth in strokes gained putting on the PGA Tour, which is by far statistically the best I’ve ever done.

I’ve worked with Brad Faxon now for the last 6 1/2 years, and I learned a few things, I think. Working with Fax has really helped, I think, the style of putter that I’ve gone, the Spider, the mallet-style putter definitely helps me in some of the strokes with the way I do, it helps me be a little more consistent.

Then when I do work with Fax, we keep it very, very simple. There’s really only a couple of thoughts that — sometimes he’ll come over to The Bear’s Club or whatever, and it’s supposed to be for a putting lesson and we don’t even hit any putts. We’ll talk about putting. We’ll grab a coffee, talk about mindset, we’ll talk about routine, and that will be it.

Sometimes I don’t even need to go and hit a putt. It’s just talking about it and just being in the right mindset. Like one of the best putts that I felt like I held today was the second putt on the second playoff hole, little slider, four feet left-to-right. That was a nice solid stroke, especially to get the ball in just before he hit his putt.

So even just little things like that, under a little bit of pressure, being able to stick to your routine, making good strokes, I have been pleased with that part of my game this year.

Q. So you’re going back in your thoughts to what you’re working with Brad in big moments and you have to hole the putts?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, you’re just thinking your process. For me it’s about keeping my right arm soft. It’s about keeping the putter level through impact and picking my spot a couple feet in front of me, lining up to that.

Yeah, I think that’s the nice thing, when you get under pressure and your routine is dialed in, it sort of makes everything a little bit better and makes everything a bit easier.

Q. You’ve been in a lot of playoffs. You lost your first couple but you’ve won the last six, including your three titles this year against J.J., Justin, and Joakim. The playoffs have been kind to you.

RORY McILROY: They have. Yeah, I started my career with a couple of losses in playoffs, three losses, I think: Switzerland, Hong Kong, and the Honda Classic, but after that it’s been much better.

I feel like playoffs in golf are a bit like tie breaks in tennis. It’s really about who blinks first. It’s almost about just being a little bit patient. On that 18th hole, we both played pretty safe the first two times. Then Joakim was probably being a little more aggressive with his second shot on the third go round and just pulled it slightly and hits it in the water.

So it’s sort of like I’ve watched a lot of tennis this week because of the US Open, and if you can just hold your serve, it really is about that. Thankfully, I did enough to get over the line.

Same thing at the Masters, same thing at THE PLAYERS. Playoffs, I feel like I’m a lot more comfortable in them. I feel like I’ve got a good strategy for them is probably the big thing.

Q. You mentioned on TV that when you holed the eagle putt on 18, it was one of the coolest moments on the golf course. How does it rank up there with the achievements you achieved on the golf course over your career?

RORY McILROY: It’s right up there. Just that scene on 18, hitting your second shot into the green, and you’ve got the grandstand and all the crowd on the right, but then half of the first fairway is full as well. It’s just absolutely incredible seeing it.

You always want to have the putt on the last green to win or do something big, and that was definitely one of them. I’ll remember that for a long time.

Q. Rory, were you watching the leaderboard throughout the round? Did you know exactly where you stood at all times?

RORY McILROY: I tried not to look at it on the front nine, and then I sort of when we were going into the back nine, I wanted to maybe have a little bit of an idea of what was going on. I birdied the 9th hole to get to like 14-under at that point.

I’m trying to think of the first leaderboard I saw. Maybe on 12? I saw I was tied for the lead maybe at that point. So the sand save on 12 was big.

Yeah, I had an idea the last sort of five or six holes, but I think up until that point, it really doesn’t do me any good to look at them because I feel then it influences my play, and it shouldn’t influence how you play coming down the last few holes. I felt like I did a good job of that.

Q. Needed to get off to a fast start, and obviously a bogey at the 1st. Is that like — is it head down at the time, the opposite of a fast start?

RORY McILROY: I felt like I hit two good shots into the 1st. We teed off in that little squall, like the conditions weren’t great starting off. I just missed the green to the right. It was a pretty simple chip shot, but because of the moisture on the ground, if just came off hot off the club, and that took me by surprise. I hit that chip shot six or seven feet high and I missed coming back.

I guess the start of the round isn’t that easy. You’ve got some chances, and you have a chance on four of the par-5s. But to bounce back straight away, the birdie on 2 was nice and then the birdie on 4 and 5, from 1-over through one to 2-under through five was nice.

Q. Rory, you said at The Open, I think it might have been on Saturday, that Scottie looks inevitable. Do you feel a bit inevitable yourself, like you’re bulletproof with the way that you’ve taken the chances that you’ve had this year and been able to put them away?

RORY McILROY: I think the more and more you get yourself in these positions, the more comfortable you are. I’m not always in a situation like we had on the back nine where there’s three or four of us in with a chance. I always feel like I always put myself in those positions and be able to find a way to get it done.

It doesn’t always work out that way, but as I said, the more you get yourself in those positions, the more comfortable you feel. I think the more experience you have, the more you figure out what is going to be enough to get the job done. I’ve played over 400 professional tournaments, and I’d like to think I’ve been in contention in at least 25 percent of them, if not more.

So I’ve had an ability to try to win big golf tournaments, and I sort of feel like I’ve got the experience to know what to do and when to press and when to be conservative. It’s just finding that balance.

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IRISH OPEN: RORY MCILROY INTERVIEW

admin — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 17:35:18 +0000

Q. Rory, welcome back to Ireland as a grand slam winner too. Tell us what it’s like to be back.

RORY McILROY: It’s lovely to be back. I’ve got some great memories of the K Club. I came here to watch the Ryder Cup in ’06 with my dad and to win my only Irish Open here nine years ago.

It’s got a lot of great memories for me, and hopefully I can add to them this week.

Q. Obviously an amazing year, but what’s the reaction from the fans and the people been like? I think you described it’s cathartic.

RORY McILROY: I think it was for the whole golf world in a way, the world of golf. Professional golf anyway has been through a lot over the last few years, so I think there was quite a cathartic reaction to it.

It’s been amazing. It’s just — yeah, I think everyone was sort of on that journey with me. So to have that collective reaction and to see genuinely how happy people were for me to be able to achieve, it was something that I’ll never forget that.

It is, it’s cool to be back in front of them. Hopefully I can reward them all with playing some good golf over the weekend.

Q. I believe after tomorrow’s round you’re going to have a green jacket and all the other three majors here with you for people to see. How much pride does that give you in front of the home fans?

RORY McILROY: It’s absolutely amazing to be able to share that with people. I keep saying — you know, over the years when I dreamed of winning the green jacket, I always said, if I ever did it, I’d never take it off, and I probably haven’t worn it as much as I should have. So any opportunity to put it on, alongside the other major trophies, is very, very cool. I’m excited for that.

Q. I know you came up a bit short last year at Royal County Down, but you said that walk up 18 on Sunday was one of the best walks you’ve ever had. Try to describe that, what it’s like in front of the fans.

RORY McILROY: Again, it’s amazing. I feel so fortunate that I get to experience things like that and that people are so invested on this sort of golf journey that I’m on. It really does, it feels amazing to have that support and just the — look, I still wish I had held that putt on the last and be able to get Rasmus in the playoff, but just to have that experience and to feel those feelings, again, it’s amazing.

I know that I’m very fortunate I get to experience it, and I certainly don’t take it for granted.

Q. Three weeks away from the Ryder Cup, I don’t need to tell you that. You’ve been in multiple Ryder Cups. You’re the most experienced player in the Ryder Cup this year. Where are the excitement levels three weeks out from that?

RORY McILROY: Honestly, since The Open passed, it’s the one thing I’ve really been looking towards and making sure my game is in the best possible shape. I think we have a wonderful opportunity to do something — honestly, one of the greatest achievements in the game right now is to win an away Ryder Cup, and I think this European team has a great opportunity to do that.

We’re all very excited. We know it’s going to be a tough task. There’s a reason why every Ryder Cup for the last 10 years has went to the home team. So we know it’s going to be very tough, but I honestly think we have 12 guys and the captain and the vices and everyone else involved, we’ve got all the ingredients. We just need to put them in the oven, and hopefully it all works out for us.

I’m excited for the opportunity. I’m also excited for the challenge too. We know it’s going to be a very challenging environment to play in, but that’s what we want. The best players want to challenge themselves, and that’s what it’s going to be.

Q. Finally you’ve obviously got this week, Wentworth and the Ryder Cup. You’ve had the most amazing year. Try to describe 2025 in your words.

RORY McILROY: I guess it’s the year that everything came together for me. It was basically the one piece of the puzzle that was left for me to complete. When I look at my career and my whole picture as a golfer, I basically, I’ve done everything I wanted to. I guess everything after that, it’s a bonus, but you have to reassess your goals.

Again, the one thing for me — obviously I’d love to win this week. I’d love to win next week at Wentworth. But the one thing for me this year to reassess my goals, an away Ryder Cup, after everything that’s happened this year, would be — I would look back on 2025, and there’s no way that I would — if I did have a better year in the game, I’d love to see it.

But if we were to win an away Ryder Cup with everything else that I’ve been through this year, 2025 would be the best year of my career.

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