Our Top Irish Links

If you asked me to show you an example of everything I love about a golf course then I’d quite possibly take you for a round at Lahinch.

I can’t imagine many reviews for Royal County Down – one of the world’s great golf courses – beginning with mention of the Annesley Links…. but that is exactly where I’m going to start.

I don’t think I would ever accept the notion that a golf course is perfect – not even The Old Course at St. Andrews – but boy does Royal Portrush come close. Tantalisingly close.

A grand old golf club which is more than just the links and should be a day to be savoured.

When a new golf course debuts so highly in all the various rankings my ears usually prick up pretty quickly and this was especially the case with St. Patrick’s and the lofty positions it received.

The terrain for golf at Ballyliffin – located at the remote tip of the Inishowen Peninsula where mountains, dunes and sea merge together – is the stuff of dreams. Expansive linksland stretches for an eternity on what is a lunar landscape ideal for exceptional golf.

Carne is a free spirit of the golfing world which has 27 holes of adventurous big dune golf. It is vast and mind-blowing with each hole providing the golfer with a puzzle that must be solved. It’s immense fun trying to do so.

County Sligo Golf Club at Rosses Point held the Irish Amateur Open the week prior to my visit and it is understandable why a prestigious venue such as this is deemed worthy of holding a tournament of this ilk.

Enniscrone manages to tread the tricky line between quirk and championship golf perfectly. The blend it creates produces a catalogue of unique, enthralling and funky holes.

The championship Strand course at Portstewart in County Londonderry is one of the finest links in all of Ireland.

The Island, which is not on an island, is a golf course that has an enormous amount of cohesive variety.

There’s lots of eye candy at Trump International Golf Links, Doonbeg and this provides a visual overload at times but importantly the underlying golf is very good and contains lots of strategy.

Waterville provides a fantastic mix of championship golf & more quirky duney fun.

The terrain for golf at Ballyliffin – located at the remote tip of the Inishowen Peninsula where mountains, dunes and sea merge together – is the stuff of dreams. Expansive linksland stretches for an eternity on what is a lunar landscape ideal for exceptional golf.

Founded in 1892 County Louth Golf Club, home of the East of Ireland Amateur Championship, is a pure links golf experience played over a wonderful and sprawling dunescape.

Located on the edge of the picturesque Sheephaven Bay in County Donegal the Rosapenna Resort is a fascinating golf facility tucked away in a corner on the North-West coast of Ireland.

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Castlerock…. simply rocks!

On the mile-long drive along a tree-lined, single-lane track towards Donegal Golf Club one would be forgiven for wondering if there was a links course within 100 miles of the dense woodland you are travelling through.

After reading Pat Ruddy's brilliant welcome, titled "A Primeval Golf Challenge" at the front of the course guide of The European Club I so desperately wanted to fall in love with this golf course and consider it (as touted by the owner and creator) one of the "great golf links of the world".

Dooks is just an absolute joy to play. It’s a golf course that encourages shot making for better players yet is truly playable for all abilities. What more could you desire?

Ever since I was young Narin & Portnoo has held a certain mystique. Maybe it is just the name or the fact it is located on the wild west Atlantic coast of Ireland I’m not sure.

Portmarnock Hotel & Links, not to be confused with the neighbouring 125-year-old Portmarnock Golf Club, is a modern course designed by Bernhard Langer in 1996.

The drive into Royal Dublin Golf Club, over a splendid wooden bridge, sets a fabulous scene for golfing at one of Ireland’s most revered yet underrated golf courses.

The Valley course in its own right is a very fine links and one that makes a fine bedfellow for the Dunluce.

Strandhill Golf Club is a links course that often lives in the shadow of its GB&I Top 100 near neighbour, County Sligo, and that is doing it a real disservice because this befuddling good golf course delivers with a bang and offers great value at the same time.

I arrived at Laytown & Bettystown Golf Club on the back of a morning round at Seapoint and a lap of St. Anne's the day before.

North West Golf Club, a founder member of the Golf Union of Ireland located on the Inishowen Peninsula at Buncrana, is a hugely underrated links course laid out on a narrow and compact tract of land.

The Yellow nine at Portmarnock Golf Club was created by Fred Hawtree in 1971 and plays mostly inside the Red and Blue nines which comprise the ‘Old’ championship course.

Portsalon provides a wonderful mix of high quality links golf in a beautiful part of Ireland.

The Old Tom Morris course, with origins going back to 1893, is a mixed bag with two disjointed nines where you must walk through the car park at the halfway stage (pet hate alert). It is very much is a case of where modern and tradition meet.

There is so much good things happening at Rosslare it is a mystery why it doesn't get talked about amongst more esteemed company.

I can’t imagine many reviews for Royal County Down – one of the world’s great golf courses – beginning with mention of the Annesley Links…. but that is exactly where I’m going to start.

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The remote and rocky landscape at Connemara is both unique and beautiful. It really is a truly stunning location for golf.

Dingle Golf Links, sometimes referred to as Ceann Sibéal Golf Club, is one that is trending in the right direction.

Kirkistown Castle is a true links golf course near Cloughy on the Eastern shore of the Ards Peninsula in Northern Ireland.

I arrived at St. Anne's Golf Club, less than five minutes before my tee-time, in a state of high stress.

Arriving in the car park at Arklow Golf Club on a beautifully warm and sunny Spring afternoon with the sun low in the sky my mouth dropped at the view down below in front of me.

Castlerock also has a superb relief 9-hole layout called the Bann Links, designed by Frank Pennick in 1986.

Corballis Links is a real head-spinner of a golf course around a 30 minute drive north of Dublin.

If there are golf courses in heaven I suspect they will be very much in the spirit of Cruit Island.

Mulranny is simply joyous, a place where you could learn all the lessons of the links.

Gweedore sounds more like a character out of Harry Potter than a small, remote Irish speaking district perched along the Wild Atlantic Way.

Lahinch benefits from having two 18 hole links courses and whilst the Castle is a much inferior version of the Old course it is still worth playing... if you have the time.

I'd previously spied Seapoint Golf Links on a visit to Ireland a couple of years ago when I had teed it up at the excellent and neighbouring Baltray.

Castlegregory is a fantastic little nine hole links course tucked away between the scenic Lough Gill and Brandon Bay at Stradbally in County Kerry.

Dunfanaghy is one of Donegal and Ireland’s lesser known links and home to professional golfer Paul McGinley.

The Links at Rush Golf Club is a wonderful little golf course played over some terrific terrain and is somewhere I'd strongly advise any links-lover to seek out if in the vicinity.

Achill Island is located off the west coast of Ireland in County Mayo and reached by a small bridge. Civilisation doesn’t quite end but it's very remote. Barren and beautiful.

Bundoran is not your typical Irish Links. It is played along the clifftops and has more of a holiday-golf feel to it. The big-wheel that you can see from the first tee gives you an idea of the surrounding area.

Little known Bushfoot golf course at Portballintrae near Bushmills in County Antrim, Northern Ireland is an interesting 9-hole layout in a picturesque location.

The Riverside layout is located adjacent to the Strand (some of the holes and land used to be form part of the main course).

Ireland has its fair share of bonkers nine-hole golf courses and Spanish Point is a case in point.

The nine hole ‘links’ at Sutton Golf Club, just to the north of Dublin, makes a promising start, dips alarmingly in the middle but then finishes extremely strongly.

Buncrana is a brilliantly bonkers nine-hole links golf course at the gateway to the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal with superb views overlooking Loch Swilly.

The Old Course, often referred to as the ‘Town’ course is not actually located at the main Portstewart Golf Club.

The Burrow Links is not a patch on the Old course but caters for a different type of golfer.

The Bomore layout at County Sligo is a nine-hole relief course located a short drive away from the main clubhouse.

The Scurmore nine at Enniscrone is a nine-hole relief course located adjacent to the main course but on flatter ground away from the dunes.

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