Royal County Down is named the world’s No.1 golf course

Irish golf is on top of the world again.

Ireland is officially home to the world's finest golf course. Royal County Down has risen to No.1 in the prestigious Golf Digest world top 100 ranking of golf courses, leaving a host of incredible tracks in its wake. The Northern Irish course, which hosted the Irish Open in 2015, is hailed for its glorious location and rugged terrain, with the magazine proclaiming there is 'no lovelier place in golf'. It says: "On a clear spring day, with Dundrum Bay to the east, the Mountains of Mourne to the south and gorse-covered dunes in golden bloom, there is no lovelier place in golf than our new No. 1 ... "Though the greens are surprisingly flat, as if to compensate for the rugged terrain and numerous blind shots, bunkers are a definite highlight, most with arched eyebrows of dense marram grasses and impenetrable clumps of heather." RCD comes in ahead of a trio of American courses - Augusta National, the home of the Masters, last year's No.1 Pine Valley and California's Cypress Point. There are three other Irish courses in the top 100, with Portmarnock (25), the Dunluce course at Royal Portrush (27) and Lahinch (65) all making the cut.