The Official Ireland Golf Guide 2010

Where the
Eight of the best
As good as it gets: below Ballybunion’s vistas;
facing the 17th at the Palmer Course, the K Club
The great eight
Philip Reid of the Irish Times has played virtually every hole and tee in Ireland.
Here he gives us his favourite eight courses… which, a bit like the ﬁ ckle Irish
weather, is liable to change from breakfast to dinner time.
H
ow do you define your
2
Baltray

favourite golf course? Is it the
(Co Louth)
challenge that is presented on This links course hard by the mouth of the historic river
each and every hole, or the sum of Boyne remained a hidden gem for much of its existence,
the total? How do you compare links to parkland? but in recent years – as host to the Irish Open in 2004
Or old to new? What of the off-course facilities? Is it the and 2009 – it has shown itself to be a fully polished jewel.
seductive taste of the sea salt that appeals, or the view of Originally designed in the 1890s, the course was updated
the mountains? Such diversity, such choice! And what of in the mid-1920s by the noted architect Tom Simpson,
the welcome you get on arrival, that famous céad míle The four Par 3s are especially memorable, although the
fáilte – one hundred thousand welcomes? signature hole is the drivable Par 4 14th which resembles
1
a lunar landscape around the raised green.
Adare Manor

(Co Limerick)
There’s something bewitching about the grandeur of 3
Ballybunion

(Co Kerry)
Adare Manor Hotel and Golf Resort, set by the banks of Only in Ireland, to be sure! Where else, pray tell, would
the river Maigue with features such as a Lebanese cedar you ﬁ nd a graveyard – very much in play – hugging the
tree overlooking the 18th green that is reputed to be the right hand side of the ﬁ rst fairway? The Old Course at
oldest of its kind in Europe. The course – designed by Ballybunion is one of Mother Nature’s true gifts to the
Robert Trent Jones Snr – has a front nine which has a Irish landscape, a links that thankfully has won its battle
14-acre lake as its centrepiece, but it is the back nine with coastal erosion over time. Although there are many
which is most enthralling with many tree-lined holes magniﬁ cent holes, from start to ﬁ nish, the signature hole
and a classic Par 5 ﬁ nishing hole that requires an is the Par 4 11th which is played from a tee atop a cliff
approach shot over the river to a green surrounded overlooking the Atlantic to a fairway with the ocean on
by evergreen trees. one side and towering dunes on the left.
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PG 12-14 8 of the Best.indd 12 12/14/09 6:43:51 PM
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