FANTASY GOLF THE PERFECT IRISH LINKS COURSE:Philip Reid describes the homeward journey consisting of the back nine holes of our dream Irish Links course
WHAT MAKES a great links hole? Is it its difficulty? Or is it the aesthetics? In truth, there are no rules to links design. There is no magic formula. In links golf, where length is not everything, you should in fact expect anything to happen. It is why the bounce of a ball on a firm, fast fairway in the height of summer can sometimes shoot off at right angles into the rough. Or a gorse bush.
It is this unpredictability that makes links golf so special. And, for sure, we in Ireland are blessed with so much variety of great holes that our mission to find the ultimate fantasy links course has left us with a layout that definitely won’t find favour with everyone. Indeed, you may even prefer the backup design – those made up of ‘close calls’ – as much as the real thing.
Be that as it may, the back nine comprises some of the world’s very finest seaside holes. It’s an eclectic combination of all that is great about Irish links courses. Perhaps our task would have been easier if we’d simply mixed and matched holes without insisting that a hole could only qualify in the position it occupied on its home course. Perhaps. Or then, perhaps not.
The back nine as selected has a quirk in that there are no par fivess, rightly or wrongly. That is just how it turned out, for better or worse.
10th Lahinch (Old) 441 Yards Par 4
As the start to a back nine goes, this will test the very best. The key, of course, is to find the fairway which runs between sand hills. Yet, even if you fulfil the first part of this objective, the task gets tougher with an approach shot to a wonderfully positioned and elevated green that has run-offs and bunkers and which is nestled in the dunes.
Close call:10th at Dingle
11th Ballybunion (Old) 453 Yards Par 4
One of the toughest, mesmerising and scenic holes in all of golf, this hole encapsulates all that is great about the Old Course. The tee is set high above a shore that has been battered and bruised by the wild Atlantic and the drive is to a narrow fairway with the sea to the right and dunes down the left. Invariably, the wind accentuates the difficulty. The approach is played to a green partly hidden by sand hills.
Close Call:11th at The European
12th European 459 yards Par 4
The quirk here is that the green measures some 127 yards from front to back. Yet, the journey to the putting surface provides a route ensuring the golfer must negotiate all the hazards associated with links golf. With the Irish Sea on your right off the tee and sand hills down the left, there is the further challenge presented by strategically placed bunkers – yes, with railway sleepers – that ultimately leads to a player requiring skill and touch with the putter in hand.
Close Call:12th at Old Head
13th Royal County Down 444 Yards Par 4
Beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder, but nobody could dispute the sheer magnificence of this very tough par four. The fairway on this dogleg is lined by high dunes, left and right, with the preferred tee shot down the left to open up the green.
A large sand hill blocking the green adds to the challenge for any shots which leak to the right. Even when you reach the green, your work is far from over: the putting surface has some wicked nuances.
Close Call:13th at The Island
14th Royal Portrush 210 Yards Par 3
You stand on the tee box, and the challenge is obvious: if you are to find the green, situated on the far side of the 80-feet deep chasm filled with heather and marram grasses with only a small bail-out area to the front left, then you must hit the shot of your life. This is a wonderful and difficult par three known as ‘Calamity’ that has no room for error off the tee. For that, it is a great – and fearsome – hole.
Close Call:14th at Portmarnock (Old)
15th Portmarnock (Old) 195 Yards Par 3
The beauty of the layout at Portmarnock is that every hole looks as if it is in the right place, and belongs there. None more so that the 15th, a par three that has out-of-bounds down the right (the beach) and wonderfully positioned greenside bunkers, with the deep bunker front left accentuating the challenge for any weak-minded soul considering bailing out. The green is on a raised plateau and, with the wind invariably a factor, anyone finding the putting surface off the tee will make the short walk with a smile.
Close Call: 15th at Enniscrone
16th Waterville 386 Yards Par 4
If relatively short by modern standards, this magnificent par four also demonstrates all that is great about links golf. This hole was revised in Tom Fazio’s makeover of Eddie Hackett’s original masterpiece – the great getting greater – and the fairway, with giant sand hills down the left and the beach to the right, is breathtaking with an approach to be played a raised, exposed green.
Close Call:16th at Ballybunion (Old)
17th Co Sligo 414 Yards Par 4
This hole tends to play greater than its yardage. Accuracy, rather than length, is the priority off the tee – with the fairway running out into some rough terrain – but, really, this magnificent hole is all about the second shot to a wonderfully elevated green set into a natural amphitheatre. The second shot must carry to the green; anything short is liable to run back down into Rosses Point’s own version of the ‘valley of sin’.
Close Call:17th at Tralee
18th The Island 421 Yards Par 4
This very fine finishing hole asks all of the right questions of a player coming towards the end of a round. The drive must be accurate, as the fairway is channelled between imposing sand dunes on either side, and once the first part of the challenge is accomplished, the even harder part awaits: playing the approach to a raised green that is the deepest on the links.
Close Call:18th at Waterville
OUR DREAM LINKS
1st Portstewart (Strand) 427 Yards Par 4
2nd Tralee 596 Yards Par 5
3rd Lahinch (Old) 446 Yards Par 4
4th Royal Co Down 213 Yards Par 3
5th Co Louth 173 Yards Par 3
6th Doonbeg 370 Yards Par 4
7th The European 470 Yards Par 4
8th Donegal 550 Yards Par 5
9th Royal Co Down 486 Yards Par 4
OUT: 3,731 yards PAR: 36
10th Lahinch (Old) 441 Yards Par 4
11th Ballybunion (Old) 453 Yards Par 4
12th European 459 yards Par 4
13th Royal Co Down 444 Yards Par 4
14th Royal Portrush 210 Yards Par 3
15th Portmarnock (Old) 195 Yds Par 3
16th Waterville 386 Yards Par 4
17th Co Sligo 414 Yards Par 4
18th The Island 421 Yards Par 4
IN: 3,423 PAR: 34
TOTAL:7,154 PAR: 70
