| LINKS GOLF IN IRELAND
All around the coastline, they are spread like gems – created by nature and linked together to form a necklace of beauty. Ireland has more links courses than anywhere else in the world, and the attraction of combating sea winds on terrain set admidst towering dunes is one which continues to captivate golfers from all over the globe.
There are just over 150 genuine links courses in the world, and Ireland possesses almost 40 per cent of them. For golfers, the lure of testing skill and talent against courses and weather on an Irish links is irresistible. On most courses, on any given day, it is possible to taste the salt in the sea air; and the experience is one which anyone with any aspirations of conguering this most addictive of sports must enjoy at least once in a lifetime.
Some Irish links courses have been around for over a hundred years. Others are more modern developments, but possess the characteristics to suggest they have been here just as long. Old ar new, an Irish links course will enchant – and, more than likely, emerge as the winner of a contest that will hold you spellbound from the first drive to the last putt.
Many of Ireland’s famous links courses have woven their way into the fabric of the game, their names spoken in awe by thosee who really know their golf. Then infatuation of overseas visitors with Irish links courses is easy to understand. These are courses created in the main by Mother Nature, carved through dunes, with man’s touch only serving to heighten the golfing challenge. It is the ultimate test for any golfer.
The Island of Ireland is blessed with magnificent links courses – from Royal County Down and Royal Portrush in the North, to Ballybunion and Waterville in the South; and from Portmarnock and the European in the East, to Enniscrone and Lahinch in the West. And there are more. Baltray, Tralee, Doonbeg, Ballyliffin, Carne, Portstewart and Rosapenna, one great course after another. If you’re near the coast, you are close to a fine links course. It is just the way it is!
Many of the game’s great players have been enchanted with Irish links courses. Tiger Woods traditionally spends the week before a British Open savouring the delights of Waterville or Royal County Down or any one of a number of other courses. And Tom Watson liked Ballybunion – with its jumbled dunes and rugged setting on clifftops overlooking the Atlantic – so much that he remarked, “it offers some of the finest and most demanding shots into the greens of any course”!
Irish links courses have their own quirks and characteristics. At Ballybunion, it is the positioning of the first tee in close proximiy to a cemetery; and many a pushed tee-shot has ended up amongst the headstones. At Lahinch, there are the holes known as the “Klondyke” and the “Dell”, both of which require blind approach shots over mounds to find the green. They are holes that are a throwback to the pioneering days of course construction when architects simply didn’t have the machinery required for earth moving.
And at Royal County Down, it is the wondrous sight of Slieve Donard serving as a backdrop to a course that will charm the most dicerning of golfer. Then, there are the short holes – Par 3s – whose repute has travelled far and wide. Like “Calamity”, the 14th at Royal Portrush, which simply demands the purest of tee-shots; or the 15th at Portmarnock, a hole that straddles the Irish Sea and once described by Ben Crenshaw, as the “finest Par 3 on earth”.
Everywhere in Ireland there are links – many of them famous, others apparently kept as a secret amongst the Irish – that will enthral and captivate. They are seaside courses that are worth discovering and (even more so) worth returning to. All around the Island, dotted along rugged coastlines, are golf links that feature towering dunes and tumbling fairways and undulating greens. It is golf as it should be testing and exhilarating and unrelenting. It is golf with a uniquely Irish flavour!
NORTHERN IRELAND MADE FOR GOLF!
WELCOME TO THE FASCINATING NORTHERN IRELAND :
THE MAGIC – THE MYSTERY – THE NATURAL HIDDEN GEMS!
The North Coast is truly a golfer’s paradise,
offering a variety of terrains from spectacular Links to delightful Parkland courses.
Portrush born and bred, Graeme Mc Dowell US Open Champion says that
„Northern Ireland is the golf capital of the world“
and the golfers on the North Coast claim that Portrush is the
“Major Golf Capital of the World”. |
