GIVEN that Druids Glen has yet to celebrate its first birthday, the host venue for next month's Murphy's Irish Open is already establishing a strong reputation at and international level.

In the ninth and latest edition of Following The Fairways, author Nick Edmonds has placed the Co Wicklow course at sixth place in his Top 50 parkland courses in Britain and Ireland, ahead of Mount Juliet (ninth) and The K Club (23rd). The Nick Faldo inspired Chart Hill course is placed at number one.

Allowing for the fact that history and tradition is just one of the criteria used by Edmonds along with others such as quality of terrain, condition of the course and natural beauty it is no surprise that St Andrews is placed at number one in the links category, followed by Royal Co Down and Ballybunion at numbers two and three respectively.