Tour of Irish and UK courses brings golf enthusiasts to Sligo
BEST friends Ken Hannah and Steve Collins recently visited two Sligo golf clubs as part of their quest to play on the top 100 courses in Great Britain and Ireland.
The pair, who are members of Royal Cinque Ports, have regularly played the top 100 courses based on Golf World magazine’s bi-annual rankings which often change. This tradition harks back to the 1980s and have now played a grand total of 162 courses.
Two Sligo courses, County Sligo Golf Club in
Rosses Point and Enniscrone Golf Club, both feature in the 2022 list. Rosses Point came in at number 61 while Enniscrone was ranked 76. This isn’t the first time for either course to feature in the magazine’s top 100, with County Sligo GC featuring as high as 26th in 1992 while Enniscrone’s best placed rank was 53rd in 2016.
Ken and Steve, who organised the trip with Dream Links, played a total of four Irish courses which included Carne and Lough Erne. They celebrated their latest achievement with pints of
Guinness and oysters in Harry’s Bar and Grill. The Golf World magazine placed the St Andrew’s old course in Fife at number one. Royal County Down came in at number two while Scottish trio Turnberry, Dornoch Royal and Muirfield completed the top five.
In their entry about County Sligo Golf Club, the magazine said: “A soulful links with surroundings to match. Benbulben is a brooding presence as the backdrop to historic Rosses Point, famous for its dramatic two-level terrain and wonderful back nine revered by TomWatson. The 17th is part of a fine finish. Not Ireland’s most famous, but one of its best.”
Meanwhile, remarking on Enniscrone Golf Club, they said: “That we are suggesting there are 75 better courses in Great Britain and Ireland than Enniscrone is testament to the incredible depth to our golf. Enniscrone would comfortably sit 40 places higher. Packed with rumbustious holes over rumbling terrain, the stretch from the 11th home is magnificent.”