Scotland may be the spiritual home of golf but Northern Ireland is unquestionably home to the world's best golfers.
In 2011, three golfers from Northern Ireland, ending with Darren Clarkes's epic win at the Open, won majors within an 18 month space of each other, it signalled the start of what has been a dominant period for Northern Irish golf with world no1 Rory McIlroy leading the charge.
There are 19 countries with at least two golfers in the top 200 in the world but none has a smaller population than Northern Ireland.
With a population of around 1.8 million people, the country boasts two of the biggest names in golf – Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell – both within the world’s top dozen players.
Northern Ireland has one point in the Official World Golf Rankings for every 5,254 people who live there – by far the best ratio of any with at least three players in the top 200.
That’s quite a feat when you consider McIlroy lost more ranking points than any player in the world this year.
