Ireland's Best 18 Holes

The following is a personal view of a dream eighteen hole course chosen from the courses featured in Links of Heaven. Our dream course is not overly long at 6,677 yards, but its par of 71 would be very difficult to match. We hope it will start as many arguments as it resolves.

1. Portstewart #1 (Tubber Patrick), par 4, 425 yards: Perhaps the best opening hole in links golf, with a dramatic descent from a gloriously elevated tee into an amphitheatre of dunes.
2. Tralee #2, par 5, 590 yards: Some holes on this course are over-designed, but #2 is not one of them. Here Palmer and Seay have used Tralee Bay to great effect -- creating a sweeping dogleg right with the beach as a constant hazard for the slice-prone. The Dingle peninsula sits brooding on the horizon. Panoramic views of the entire course from the tee.
3. Portsalon #2 (Strand), par 4, 430 yards: Altered and lengthened by Pat Ruddy, but still a cracker. An elevated tee shot across the beach must skirt ancient-looking rock formations, leaving a heroic approach over a river. The views over the Lough are as stunning as any at Pebble Beach or Turnberry.
4. Royal County Down #4, par 3, 217 yards: This oft-photographed hole is at its most glorious when the gorse is in bloom in early June. It is a beast at any time of the year, however, as the tee-shot is all carry over the gorse until the cluster of eight bunkers in front of the hard, narrow green. The view from the back tee is the most gorgeous of all the vistas on the course.
5. Lahinch #5 (Dell), par 3, 156 yards: This Old Tom Morris original is completely blind from the tee. The green is bordered by high dunes on all sides, a unique green placement which would never be copied today. On your first visit, there is nothing to do but aim for the white stone marker on top of the dune and hope. Also makes some people's Worst 18 list.
6. Rosapenna Sandy Hills #6, par 4, 390 yards: A good drive to the crest of a hill unveils a picturesque approach towards a backdrop of beach, sea and hills, with a natural chasm narrowing the fairway dangerously near the green.
7. Ballybunion Old #11, par 4, 453 yards: "Don't be right, all of Ireland is to your left" was the advice we received when we first played this hole. How true. Downhill and bunkerless, the landing area for the drive progressively narrows between the dunes on the left and the sea. The second shot is played to a small green on a shelf with trouble on all sides.
8. Ballybunion Cashen #15, par 5, 487 yards: One of the eeriest holes in golf, this par five is played over a crest of a hill into a bowl surrounded by the steepest sandhills you can imagine. The third shot is played to a green built high on a plateau. The unearthly solitude and strange terrain would make it a good location for the first Star Trek golf movie.
9. Cruit Island #6, par 3, 160 yards: There are so many wonderful par 3s in Ireland, but this one makes worthwhile the considerable effort it takes to just find Cruit Island Golf Club. The shot is all carry over a deep and craggy Atlantic inlet to a long, narrow green perched at the edge of a cliff, with pounding white surf below. The ever-present wind is usually into the player and from the right, necessitating a medium to long iron despite the hole’s modest length.
10. Enniscrone #13 (The Burrows), par 4, 338 yards: A great links hole, a short downhill par 4 that scares and entices, charms and frustrates, all at the same time. Exquisite scenery off the tee, but the narrow, tilting landing area is intimidating and either the wind or the humps and hollows of the fairway conspire to throw many shots off-line and into the fearsome rough. A well-placed tee shot leaves just a wedge to a lovely, but tightly guarded green.
11. Waterville #11 (Tranquillity), par 5, 496 yards: Gary Player thought this was one of the best par 5s in the world. Almost bunkerless, this aptly-named hole sends you tumbling through a long, undulating chute lined with stately dunes. You feel cut off from the rest of the world amid the delightfully natural terrain.
12. The European Club #17 (Tom Watson), par 4, 392 yards: One of several holes at Pat Ruddy's masterpiece that provide a fairly generous landing area (this time in a pretty valley), but demand an accurate second to a well-positioned, slightly elevated green protected by natural swales and a pot bunker.
13. The Island #13 (Broadmeadow), par 3, 215 yards: A wake-up call after meandering through the dunes of the first twelve holes at The Island. It is all carry over a half-moon shaped estuary. There is bail-out room to the left, but to reach the putting surface the water must be negotiated with a long iron or wood. Beyond the green the village of Malahide provides a lovely backdrop.
14. Portmarnock #14 (Ireland's Eye), par 4, 395 yards: The most elegant of Portmarnock's fine collection of par 4s, the line for the tee shot on this dogleg left is said to be "Ireland's Eye," an island poised on the horizon. The second shot is played over large bunkers to a plateau green that accepts only the most precisely played shot. English great Henry Cotton's favorite hole.
15. Royal Portrush, #14 (Calamity), par 3, 213 yards: A treacherous and historic hole with a huge chasm of rough waiting to swallow any shot short or right of the green. Usually played into the wind. Bobby Locke got up and down from the depression to the front-left of the green in all four rounds of the 1951 British Open. This area thus became known as "Bobby Locke's hollow," and you are advised to keep it in mind, as it is the only conceivable bail-out area. The hole is said to be a source of inspiration for Pete Dye.
16. Carne #17 (An Muirineach), par 4, 390 yards: A treacherous, exhilarating adventure played on a narrow plateau high up in some of the planet’s most sublime dunes land.
17. Co. Sligo #17 (Gallery), par 4, 455 yards: One of the toughest holes to par in all of Ireland, this severe dogleg sweeps uphill and to the left on the second shot. The green is large but slopes severely from the back.
18. Laytown & Bettystown #18, par 5, 475 yards: Not the best finishing hole in Ireland, but the most fun, with two blind shots, including the approach to a green hidden in the dunes.

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