Every course in the guide carries up to three separate ratings — for its facilities, for the design of the course as a whole, and for each individual hole — plus a short set of practical symbols on its review page. Here's what each of them means.
Facility ratings judge the breadth and quality of what a golf club actually offers, from the course itself through to the clubhouse, hire equipment and practice facilities. A low rating simply means a basic course with limited clubhouse facilities; a high rating means outstanding facilities including clubhouse, restaurant and hotel, quality hire equipment and a well-run practice range — not necessarily the best course design. We also weigh the welcome, the shop, the overall ambience and value for money. For clubs with more than one course, the rating covers the whole facility, not an individual course.
We set out to point to excellence rather than weakness, so most courses in the guide carry no star at all — inclusion on its own already means a course is of interest to the travelling golfer. We only award a star rating to courses whose design quality is particularly commendable, from ★★★ (courses which approach perfection, with no weak holes and the potential to require everything of the golfer, while remaining fair) down through ★★ and ★. An arrow (➚) marks courses we recommend for a fuller experience of the best in golf course design — generally, but not always, courses with the potential for future elevation to a star rating.
Unrated courses are included on the grounds of interest to the travelling golfer — historical, design, practical or otherwise. Their inclusion doesn't necessarily mean we endorse their design quality.
Every course's summary box carries a shading of its own. Most are in a pale sand colour. A small group of around 50 courses — from those rated ➚, ★, ★★ or ★★★ — carry a richer, deeper sand-coloured box instead: these are the courses our editorial team regard as the most enjoyable overall, not purely for design, but for the whole experience from booking to the 19th hole. It's a distinct editorial call, separate from the star rating itself — a course doesn't automatically get the richer box just because it's starred.
Each course's scorecard is colour-coded hole by hole, on a simple traffic-light system from strong to weak — with yellow representing an "average" hole, judged against the whole population of golf courses worldwide, not just those in Ireland.
Above green, a special gold rating denotes those few holes so well designed and integrated into their surroundings that it's difficult to imagine how they could be improved — a hole worth playing the whole course for, just so you can play that hole. A purple rating draws attention to a small number of holes chosen more for their historic or unusual character than for outright design quality — using our normal system, these holes would otherwise be green, yellow or red (never gold).
We summarise the 13 principles essential to good design set down in 1920 by Dr. Alister Mackenzie in his book Golf Architecture. Mackenzie is arguably the greatest golf designer that ever lived. It was surely no accident that his wartime expertise was camouflage: the best golf design leaves you with a feeling that any alterations to the land are so natural that they have been completely disguised.
Placed here for now — from the "Design Distinction: Irish Gold & Purple" section, page 17.
Where the book once listed things like handicap certificate requirements or clubhouse dining hours, most of that is now better found by a quick look at the club's own website — so on the site we show only the symbols that are genuinely useful to know before you book.
We're rolling these symbols out across the course pages, along with a phone number for making reservations.