Follow The Pros

The Palmer Course at the K-Club needs no introduction having hosted the 2006 Ryder Cup and numerous Irish and European Opens. It was Ireland's first 'resort style' course, built with little expense spared and built for a 'wow factor' that would entice Ireland's elite. Despite the beauty of the surroundings the River Liffey meanders through the course and together with the design make this a difficult challenge with danger lurking everywhere, just ask Thomas Bjorn whom disaster visited on the par-3 eighth, a long par-4 with the Liffey lurking all the way up the left hand side. The pervious 7th is considered the signature hole, a par-5 where the 3rd is played diagonally across the river to the green situated on an island. Quite a few of the holes have large dwellings built along their fairwas - not a feature Irish golfers had encountered before and sufficiently distracting to move this course down our favourites list.

County Louth is a classic links course in the same mould as Portmarnock or Muirfield. On the southern side of the mouth of the River Boyne, the terrain is relatively flat. There are no massively high dunes, just a sufficient number of mini-ranges to add definition to the landscape. Holes 6, 12 & 13 run by the ocean but on a fine day it will not be seen or heard. The routing is unique, going first this way, then that. The layout is gorgeous, with only length added since Gourlay & Simpson resdesigned the original in 1938. There are eighteen proper links holes of the highest quality that flow one after the other and as usual with Gourlay's par-3s catching the eye.

A vast, virtually treeless field on the approach to the 18th century Carton House was what was presented to Colin Montgomerie as a canvas for one of two golf courses to be built on the estate. Drawing inspiration from the links courses of his native Ayshire, Montgomerie crafted a challenging golf course that is very different from normal parkland golf. Bunkering is the key feature - as on links courses the wind challenges every shot to avoid the huge bunkers that line the fairways here and surround mostly elevated greens. The first 16, except for the first three par-3s, are doglegs of varying angles, each requiring careful selection of a line off the tee, invariably the tee-shot is played across a seeming endless and unavoiudable sand trap. The greenside traps are cavernous and mostly several feet below the putting surfaces - this is a tough course to miss greens on. The par-3 17th and par-5 18th, with the River Eye to the right, highlights the homogeneity of the previous holes.

Portmarnock occupies a small peninsula and provides a splendid sense of isolation despite its proximity to Dublin and its suburbs. This is a course with an outstanding history and it has been played by all legends of the game. Portmarnock is simply an outstanding links. Although relatively flat, the low dunes separating the holes provide super definition and the course snakes its way in every direction - it is noted that no two holes at Portmarnock play in the same direction. Although not visible from many places on the links the sea and its breezes are pervasive. At the course's highest points the views across the Irish Sea are spectacular. The course demands accuracy and skill together with a high level of committment, nowhere more than the par-3 fifteenth, where a tee-shot should be aimed out over the beach to allow the wind to bring it back to the green. From first to last Portmarnock presents a true and fair links challenge.