Links you have to love
LET’s be gracious. There ARE many great seaside golf courses throughout Scotland and on the west coast of England. We may not have as many as some of the others, largely because we are a pretty small island, but what may be lacking in quantity is more than atoned for in quality.
Whether you are in the south-west of the country, where Ballybunion, Lahinch, Waterville, Tralee and Doonbeg shine like a beacon, in the east where Portmarnock, Co Louth, The European Club, The Island and Royal Dublin provide outstanding examples; in the north where Royal Portrush, Royal Co Down, Portstewart and Castlerock stand out and in the west and north-west where you have such gems as Co Sligo, Enniscrone, Connemara, Carne, Donegal, Ballyliffin and Rosapenna, you simply cannot go wrong.
Categorising golf courses is a very selective operation. People will look for different attributes, length, location, challenge, condition etc. But from my perspective, they should also be picturesque and pleasing on the eye and with the kind of natural links turf from which you are just aching to hit long irons and wooden clubs into far distant greens surrounded by towering dunes and bunkers seemingly carved out of the earth by the wind and burrowing animals centuries before.
And because I place as much emphasis on beauty of location as on the quality of the golf, one or two courses that inevitably crop up in any survey of our greatest links will be conspicuous by their absence.
ROYAL CO DOWN:
THE funny thing about this course on Dundrum Bay, beside the bustling seaside town of Newcastle and in the shadow of the Mountains of Mourne, is that it has its weak points. There are several blind shots but those who decide against coming to this heavenly spot are undoubtedly the losers.
One sad aspect of the course is that, while it has staged the Walker and Curtis Cups, several men’s and women’s British Amateur Championships and a host of other major events, the Open Championship itself has never gone there. Still, nothing should take from the enjoyment and sense of being somewhere special once you stand on the first tee at RCD. If there isn’t any wind, some may think it’s a pushover. But when the elements turn less than hospitable, maintaining a respectable round can be a daunting task indeed.
There are birdie chances, though, as early as the par five 1st and indeed none of the long holes should prove too difficult. Everyone’s favourite hole has to be the 9th, which can be played as a par four or five and described in the following terms by noted journalist and golf course designer Donald Steel in his book “Classic Golf Links of Britain & Ireland”:
“It is like the unveiling of a long-awaited painting as the heathery crest is scaled and the spotlight suddenly focused on one of golf’s great sights,” he enthused.
WATERVILLE
THREE men who really knew and loved their golf, Jack Mulcahy and Eddie Hackett, now deceased, and Tom Fazio, were responsible for the creation and modernisation of this magnificent links in one of the most idyllic parts of the country. The Ring of Kerry has been extolled in song and story and it’s where Mulcahy decided he should build his dream golf course.
Symbolically and fittingly, the highest tee on the course at the par three 17th is known as Mulcahy’s Peak after the founder who set about his task with his exemplary accomplice Hackett in the early 1970s and developed a magnificent and picturesque course, blessed with sensational views of Ballinskelligs Bay, into a mecca for golfers worldwide. More recently, the celebrated American architect Tom Fazio was invited to reconstruct the opening holes and make a few other subtle alterations to a few others.
In these difficult times, the future of facilities as far off the beaten track as Waterville may be open to some doubt. But the spirit of the locals, led by the genial golf director Noel Cronin should not be underestimated. They are proud of their golf course and their town and with every good reason.
BALLYBUNION
TOM WATSON’S favourite links and little wonder. Friends convinced the American superstar to make the pilgrimage to the now-famed Co Kerry town in the early 1990s even though at the time he had hardly heard of the place. Like so many before and since, Watson was captivated by the sight of the towering dunes, the rolling fairways, the deep valleys, the undulating greens, indeed the total ambience of a course whose closing 13 holes are ranked with the very best in the game.
“You will always enjoy and never tire of playing Ballybunion,” pronounced Watson. There are countless signature holes, although most opt for the 455-yard 11th played along the towering cliffs with the Atlantic pounding away several hundred feet below as their favourite. The fairway tumbles down between the dunes through two terraces to a cunningly located and tricky green. Those leaving this hole after signing for a par four experience a special feeling of satisfaction and exhilaration.
THE EUROPEAN CLUB
PAT RUDDY’S magnificent links on the shores of the Irish Sea at Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow, is one of the most successful of the many new courses created in the country over the past 20 years or so. It was the realisation of a dream held by golf nut and journalist Ruddy for a very long time but even he must have been astonished at what he was able to achieve once he had identified the 200-acre site as ideal for his purpose.
In many ways, this was key to the entire development. The European is a special piece of links land and Ruddy’s expertise as a designer ensured that the rest would naturally fall into place. He was never going to overlook the potential of the magnificent beach that comes into the picture as often as possible and most especially so at holes like the 12th and 13th. There are sweeping views of the Irish Sea at all but one of the 20 holes: yes, that’s right. Twenty! Pat Ruddy has always had an eye for unconventionality and likes to do things differently.
One more thing – the European is not for rabbits. Unless you play to a pretty decent standard, it may not be the place for you!
CO SLIGO
ROSSES POINT has been one of the great traditional homes of golf in these islands for many years. This is down to the quality of a links that is flanked on one side by the broad Atlantic and inland towards the amazing Ben Bulben mountain range in the heart of Yeats country. If the views are majestic so, too, is this a links of regal quality, blessed with magnificent golf holes and none more so than the 460-yard 17th, one of the finest two-shotters in the game.
CO LOUTH
BALTRAY – as the host of this week’s 3 Irish Open is invariably called – filled the role as “a hidden gem” for the best part of 100 years until 2005 when out of the blue, it was invited to host the Irish Open. It was an inspired decision as the links stood up to the best efforts of many of the world’s finest and its stature was further underlined by the decision to bring it back this year under the new sponsorship of mobile phone company 3.
Unless the wind is howling in off the adjacent Irish Sea, there is no reason for any reasonably able golfer to be fearful of taking on Baltray. It is true links golf, especially when the sun is shining and the course is running fast and bouncy, as it so often is when the East of Ireland Championship is played there every May Bank Holiday weekend. Pádraig Harrington reckons the 5th and 7th holes are among the best par threes in the country but there are many other outstanding challenges, all located in a delightful setting some four miles or so from the town of Drogheda.
ROYAL PORTRUSH
IN 1951, golf was nothing like as popular as it is today and so the Royal & Ancient at St Andrews had no hesitation in allocating that year’s Open Championship to the great links on the northernmost tip of Co Antrim. Max Faulkner captured the old claret jug on the only time the event was staged outside of England, Scotland or Wales.
The R&A have since toyed with the idea of returning to Portrush only to come to the regrettable conclusion that the links couldn’t cope with the massive demands of a modern Open Championship. But that doesn’t mean the course has lost any of its lustre over the years and major events (including the annual North of Ireland Championship every July) go there on a regular basis.
Portrush is not ultra long or ultra difficult by modern standards. It is a formidable test and as always, could prove too difficult for many when the wind is at its wildest. There are some famous holes on the course known as Dunluce and none more so than the superb one-shot 14th called “Calamity Corner”. Miss the green here – and it’s a good 200 yards from the back tee – and the options aren’t immediately apparent.
PORTMARNOCK
OF the 10 links here, the famous North Dublin links is arguably the least attractive in a visual sense. It is relatively flat and there are few sightings of the nearby Irish Sea or indeed Lambay Island.
When it comes to the playing of golf, however and the matter of true links quality, there can be no arguments – Portmarnock is up there with the very best and way ahead of most.
Donald Steel, in his book on great links courses, put it succinctly: “Professionals liking for Portmarnock is based on its fairness, its almost complete lack of blind shots, the flattish nature of the fairways and the greens which encourage a smooth stroke. There are none of the mountainous dunes to be found out in the west but the rough is fierce and the bunkers deep. You pay in plenty for your indiscretions.”
LAHINCH
LOVERS of links golf just can’t get enough of this delightful if slightly quaint course perched on the Atlantic in the extreme west of Co Clare. It may not be the purists’ idea of a great layout and certainly the 4th and especially the 5th holes were designed in and for another era. One presents a “blind” shot for the second, the other a “blind” tee shot to a green located between and at the bottom of two towering dunes. Any golf course architect suggesting holes like this duo today would immediately be hauled off to the nearest asylum but you may well ask – would Lahinch be the poorer without them?
My answer is an emphatic yes although one shouldn’t run away with the idea that these are the only memorable holes on an ancient links originally designed by the legendary Old Tom Morris and recently updated by Martin Hawtree.
ENNISCRONE
MANY will be surprised at the inclusion of Enniscrone but since Donald Steel redesigned most of the back nine holes in 2001, this links on the Sligo-Mayo border has grown and grown on the many who heard rave reviews of the place and went there to see for themselves. The GUI were so impressed that they have earmarked it for this year’s Irish Close Championship and the Ladies Interpros are also going there.
This is links land of exemplary character with rolling, undulating fairways winding their way through towering dunes with superb views of Killala Bay and the Ox Mountains ever present.
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