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Golf in Ireland
Ireland's oldest golf course dates back to 1881, and with more than 330 quality
layouts, Ireland is second only to Scotland in the amount of golf it can offer
per square mile.
Golfers the world over who are "in the know" have long
sung the praises of Irish golf. Tom Watson, winner of five British Opens, lists
as his favorite Ballybunion," as does the legendary writer Herbert Warren Wind,
who, from an American standpoint, is credited with putting Irish golf on the map.
So what makes Irish golf great? Architecture, perhaps the essence of a golfing
experience, is one appropriate place to begin. Connoisseurs of golf in America
hold such courses as Cypress Point and Pebble Beach in the highest regard because
their designers used the spectacular lay of the land to create a beautiful, challenging,
but fair layout. In Ireland, however, there are many such courses. Of the estimated
150 top-quality links courses in the world, 39 of them are in Ireland. Most of
the leading courses in Ireland were designed by celebrated British architects,
such as Tom Morris, James Braid, Harry Colt, and Alistair Mackenzie, who happened
to have as their raw material a spectacular landscape: Ireland is one of those
remarkable places where mountains and sea meet, so there is no need to manipulate
the land. Nature, the scraggly coast of a links or rolling hills of heather dominate
the courses here, not the other way around.
But the best part of Irish golf is what perhaps makes it most different from golf
anywhere else: simplicity. The game is remarkably unspoiled. Play and enjoy.
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Click on a golf course below for more information:
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