By Tony Dear
You’ve saved and planned for months/years and, at last, you’re heading east across the Atlantic to the Emerald Isle for two weeks of world-class golf and the sort of hospitality you’ve read about in tourism guides but didn’t think actually existed.
Your itinerary has been set in stone for ages and likely includes any number of fabled links – Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, Portmarnock, Co. Louth (Baltray), The European, Waterville, Tralee, Connemara, Carne, Enniscrone, Co. Sligo (Rosses Pt), Donegal (Murvagh), Ballyliffin and Rosapenna where Michigander Tom Doak’s amazing new St. Patrick’s course opened in June.
It’s a pretty impressive list of venues from which to choose. What will make your trip even more memorable though, is finding an obscure links course your friends won’t know about but which you have time to visit having played a big-name course in the morning. At the lesser-known links, you’ll find the same expansive landscapes and firm, sandy turf as at the more famous courses, but you’ll pay half or even a third as much to play them and be welcomed like a long-lost member.
Here are 10 of the best on the island of Ireland with green fees ranging from €35 (about $41) to £105 (about $146).
Southeast
Rosslare – Co. Wexford (60 minutes south of the European Club)
It says so much about the golf in this country that a course like Rosslare, designed by Fred G. Hawtree and five-time Open champion JH Taylor and opened in 1925, is barely known outside it. The club abandoned its original nine holes for 18 on a superb stretch of linksland a little further north in 1925 and since then little has changed. Rosslare is a fairly standard out and back routing about the same width as the Old Course at St. Andrews and possesses the sort of humps, hollows, cropped turf and random contours that make links golf such an adventure.
€50 – rosslaregolf.com
Arklow – Co. Wicklow (15 minutes south of The European Club)
Hawtree and Taylor laid out the course on classic linksland in 1927 since then a few changes have had to be made due to the ever-meddlesome Irish Sea. Eddie Hackett, the Godfather of Irish course design, was called upon to restore some lost holes in the 1970s and, toward the end of the century, Eddie B. Connaughton, who specialized in turf care and agronomy but also redesigned a number of courses, made several alterations. Arklow is a wonderful round of golf, with the thrilling front-nine providing most of the highlights.
€45 – arklowgolflinks.com
Northeast
Ballycastle – Co. Antrim (25 minutes east of Royal Portrush)
The delightful Ballycastle, one of the Golfing Union of Ireland’s (GUI) founding clubs, begins with five parkland holes on the south side of Cushendall Rd and which circle Bonamargy Friary, a Franciscan foundation established in 1485, before crossing the road and heading for the coast. After three or four pure links holes, the course begins to climb the high ground above Glenshesk, one of the Nine Glens of Antrim. The views from the top of the cliff over Rathlin Island, the North Atlantic and the Mull of Kintyre are spectacular. You drop back down to sea level at the short 17th then finish with the linksy 18th. Ballycastle may only measure 5,876 yards, but it’s quite a journey.
£105 – ballycastlegolfclub.com
Corballis Links – Co. Meath (5 minutes north of The Island, 25 minutes north of Portmarnock) 
After a hugely enjoyable, though somewhat stern, morning round at Portmarnock or the nearby Island GC, you will enjoy the opportunity to shoot a lower (much lower) number at the Par 66 Corballis Links. Now owned by Fingal County Council, the course has existed in one form or another since 1906, though today’s layout was created by American architect Ron Kirby in 2004-05. It is, in short, an absolute blast to play with so many quirks and so much character you may find yourself juggling your itinerary to make room for another visit.
€35 – corballislinks.com
Laytown and Bettystown – Co. Meath (20 minutes south of Co. Louth)
I’ll never forget the day I first played L&B in September 1997. After meeting him in the clubhouse, the club secretary escorted my friends and I to the first tee chatting all the way and generally making us feel like the most important non-members to ever play there. I’ve also heard about the German visitor who arrived at the 18th green to see the Flagge Deutschland flying on the club’s flagpole. I don’t know if this sort of thing happens with every visitor, but it gives you an idea of the sort of club we’re talking about. Anyway, the course, originally laid out in 1909 but later totally rebuilt by club pro RJ Browne, is everything a great links should be – all fescue/marram-covered dunes, firm fairways, hollows, rises, sea views and fun greens.
€95 – landbgolfclub.ie
Northwest
Portsalon – Co. Donegal (75 minutes west of Ballyliffin, 25 minutes east of Rosapenna)
One of the nine clubs that together formed the GUI in 1891, Portsalon was originally designed by Charles Thompson, pro at the County Club (now Royal Portrush). Today’s course, however, is really the result of Pat Ruddy’s phenomenal redesign in 2000 when the former journalist and founder/designer of the European Club built nine new holes and left only five of the originals untouched.
€100 – portsalongolfclub.ie
Dunfanaghy – Co. Donegal (25 minutes west of Rosapenna)
British soldiers are said to have whacked balls here as far back as 1740, but it wasn’t until 1906 that the golf club officially formed. The course was designed by six-time Open champion Harry Vardon (he’d won four of the six when he first visited Donegal) whose narrow routing alongside Killahoey Beach runs from west to east and back again, turning for home at the exquisite 124-yard 9th hole which crosses an arc of beach sand.
€60 – dunfanaghygolfclub.com
Strandhill – Co. Sligo (20 minutes south of Co. Sligo, 45 minutes east of Enniscrone)
Eddie Hackett extended Strandhill’s original nine holes to 18 in 1973 creating a Par 70 of about 6,350 yards (the club’s scorecard uses meters) that is a fabulous follow-up to your morning game at Co. Sligo. Bordered by Cullenamore Beach, Strandhill Beach and the lower slopes of a 1,000 ft limestone hill called Knocknarea, Strandhill is another of those courses that might not appear on your starting itinerary, but which you’ll be so pleased you added along the way.
€100 – strandhillgolfclub.com
Southwest
Castlegregory – Co. Kerry (45 minutes east of Ceann Sibeal, 45 minutes west of Tralee, 60 minutes south of Ballybunion)
It’s likely a fair chunk of your trip to Ireland will be spent in Kerry where legendary links courses seem to proliferate. But after a morning round at Waterville, Tralee, Ballybunion, Ceann Sibeal (Dingle), Dooks or Hog’s Head (Lahinch and Doonbeg are just a little way further north in County Clare), you’ll appreciate the change of pace at Castlegregory, a wonderfully natural links nine-holer bordered by the Atlantic to the north and Lough Gill to the south. Other great nine-hole courses that will fill sunny evenings, when there’s enough light to play until a little after 10pm, include Cruit Island, Spanish Pt, Achill Island, Mulranny and Gweedore.
€40 (for 18 holes) – castlegregorygolflinks.com
Lahinch (Castle) – Co. Clare (adjoining Lahinch)
A number of Ireland’s great clubs have more than one course. Royal County Down has the Annesley and Royal Portrush the Valley. Portmarnock has a third nine called the Yellow while Ballybunion boasts a ‘secondary’ 18 designed by Robert Trent Jones – the Cashen. Co. Sligo’s 36 holes include the Bomore Links, Enniscrone’s the Scurmore Course. Carne has the Kilmore Nine, Castlerock the Bann Nine. With the addition of St. Patrick’s, Rosapenna now has 63 holes while Ballyliffin has 45.
And, in addition to its world-renowned Old Course designed by Alister Mackenzie in 1927, Lahinch offers visitors the Castle Course which occupies flatter ground to the east of its more illustrious sibling. Whether you’re tuning up for, or winding down from, a round on the Old, you’ll enjoy a relaxing saunter round the Castle whose first nine holes were designed by Englishman John Harris and opened in 1963 with the second nine debuting in 1975.
€40 – lahinchgolf.com
(Note: the difference in currency between Northern Ireland and the Republic. As part of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland’s currency is the Pound Sterling – £. The Republic, meanwhile, deals in Euros – €. There isn’t much difference between them – at the time of writing £1 = €1.17).
