Ireland Golf Courses

Northwest

County Sligo (6347 yds, Par 71)
County Sligo Golf Club is one of Ireland's great Championship Links located on the Rosses Point peninsula, 6km from Sligo. The present Championship links was designed in 1927 by the famous golfing architect, Harry S. Colt, with a variety of holes to create a test for the very best golfers. Three extended beaches beneath the cliffs keep the Atlantic at bay to the west of the course, while towering Benbulben competes with the ocean for scenic splendour on the land side.

Other courses in the area which are worth playing are Westport, Enniscrone and Galway Bay.

Southwest

Ballybunion Old (6603 yds, Par 71)
After playing Ballybunion for the first time, you would think that the game of golf originated there. Located on the Shannon estuary, it is a true seaside links course, virtually treeless and a course of sharp contours throughout. It looks like a course laid out on land back in the 10th century. While there would appear to be a lot of blind shots, there aren’t. It is a course that will test your patience. It is not a course that favors one particular style of play over another, but one that simply rewards good play and good shots. It is a true test of golf.

Adare (7138 yds, Par 72)
Designed by Robert Trent Jones, Adare Golf Course is just a nine iron away from the front door of the Manor. The golf course has three lakes, including a 14-acre lake that anchors the front nine, while the River Maigue meanders through the back nine creating a sense of beauty and challenge.

Doonbeg (6800 yds, Par 72)
Doonbeg is a spectacular new traditional 18-hole golf links development on a 337-acre complex of sand dunes and 1.5 miles of ocean front with tremendous views of the Atlantic coast from every hole. Designed by Greg Norman who described the site as "one of the greatest sites in the world for a sand-dune style links course". Doonbeg is located between two of Ireland's greatest links courses, Ballybunion and Lahinch.

Dooks (6572 yds, Par 70)
Dooks - a word derived from Gaelic meaning sandbank - is a testing 18 hole links, situated in one of the most picturesque corners of the Ring of Kerry. The golf course is laid out on one of three stretches of sand dunes at the head of Dingle Bay.

Tralee (6047 yds, Par 71)
The course at Barrow is the creation of Arnold Palmer. No critic may claim that this is an “Americanized” golf course. Palmer has created a pure, unabashed links-style golf course on fertile, rugged Irish soil. The front nine play nicely on open flat land with several memorable golf holes. It is the back nine at Tralee that grabs your attention, with its absorbing mix of mountainous dunes, carries over cavernous valleys, and a stretch of unforgettable seaside holes.

Old Head Golf Links (6047 yds, Par 72)
The Old Head of Kinsale is one of the most remarkable developments ever conceived in the history of golf. The Old Head is ideally located on the South Coast of Ireland; 30 minutes drive from Cork International airport. The course was designed by a combination of Ireland’s greatest past golfing heroes and recognized international contemporary design experts - led by Joe Carr, Ron Kirby, Paddy Merrigan and Eddie Hackett.

Killarney (36 holes)
Killarney is truly one of the world’s most beautiful golf settings. The Killeen Course, twice host to the Irish Open, is a fair, straightforward test of Parkland golf. Killeen offers a mix of holes, several bordered by water, others open with judicial bunkering, and yet others tree-lined with enough creeks and ponds to demand precise shots for an honest score. Number 17, a hole of modest length is made difficult by a silver of green guarded by a cavernous front bunker.

Waterville (7239 yds, Par 73)
Lacking the grandeur of Ballybunion and Lahinch, Waterville’s test is more straightforward. The sand dunes are less intimidating, the greens a bit more welcoming. Much like Muirfield in Scotland, it is perhaps Waterville’s subtleness and its changes in the directions of its holes that it finds its greatness. Played from the championship tees, it is the longest of the Irish Courses, and certainly, some may argue the hardest. It possesses four of the finest par 3’s in all of Ireland.

While in the south of Ireland, you may consider playing Cork Little Island, Harbour Point, Fota Island, Shannon, Mallow, Ennis, Dromoland, Mount Juliet, and Ring of Kerry Golf Club.

North

Royal County Down (6720 yds, Par 71)
Currently listed as the 18th Best Course In the World by Golf Digest, Royal County Down rightfully takes its place among the other legendary courses of the world. Royal County Down, situated alongside the Mountains of Mourne and the Town of Newcastle, is one of golf’s most inspiring settings. The challenges provided by its golf holes are no less spectacular. It is essentially “big” golf with demanding carries and a premium place on precise iron shots. The abundance of gorse and heather, though quite beautiful, severely penalizes any wayward golf shot.

Royal Portrush (6593 yds, Par 72)
This beautiful links course is laid out on a wonderful stretch of natural golfing terrain, with the course threading its way through a tangle of giant sandhills, dunes and wild dwarf roses. It is also the only course in Ireland to have hosted the British Open.

Portstewart (6804 yds, Par 72)
This is a difficult, but fair, open links course giving magnificent views of the Donegal Hills, the rolling Atlantic, Strand Beach and the River Bann. The greens are fast and true and the course has hosted many events, such as the Irish Professionals.

While in the north, play Castlerock, Ballyliffen, Ardglass, and Warren Point.

East

Portmarnock (7102 yds, Par 72)
Portmarnock has hosted the lion’s share of The Carrolls Irish Open over the last several decades. It displays, what many consider, the finest use of bunkering on any course in any country. Fairly straightforward in nature, there are perils for missing nearly every green or fairway. The 14th and 15th are Portmarnocks most famous with the former being described by Sir Henry Cotton as “the best golf hole in the world.” Played with a prevailing right to left wind off the sea, the par 3 15th may call for as much as a driver, and nearly requires that you send your ball out over the boundary fence and allow the strong breeze to bring it safely to the green.

Island Golf Club (6646 yds, Par 71)
This Links is located across the estuary from the quaint village of Malahide, just north of Portmarnock. This beautiful links course, in splendid isolation is surrounded by the Irish Sea, Donabate beach and Broadmeadow estuary. Nestling between the highest sand dunes of any links course in Ireland its rugged beauty cannot fail to impress.

Royal Dublin (6590 yds, Par 73)
Ireland's second oldest golf club and one of the Ireland's premier sporting theatres, Royal Dublin provides visiting players with a combination of a superb championship links course and a degree of hospitality that mirrors its historic development. A formidable challenge where accuracy is of greater need than length and where the wind can change the entire personality of the course from one day to another.

County Louth (7216 yds, Par 73)
One of the greatest courses in Ireland lies no more than 30 miles north of Dublin (and about an hour's drive), just beyond Drogheda in the small fishing village of Baltray. Also known as Baltray it is a truly magnificent and totally natural golf links.

Other courses well worth playing in the East are Druids Glen, The European, Links Portmarnock, and The K Club.