Back today from Ireland, had a blast.
1. Royal County Down....best course we played, unfortunately the greens were in poor condition. One of the assistants in the pro shop told us that they had planned to reseed all the greens in the spring, but the weather played havoc with their plans and they had been trying to fix them ever since. They so far have been unsuccessful. Highlight of the trip for me was getting off the plane at 6AM, driving up to Newcastle, teeing off at 11 and making eagle on number #1 hitting driver, 4 iron and then sinking a 10 footer. It was all downhill golfwise from there. We played this course the first two days of our trip and felt it was the best "golf course" we played even after the courses that follow below.
2. Links at Portmonock....passable "resort" style course, in poor condition. Spent the afternoon at Portmonock watching the European tour event play the 15th hole, one birdie and too many bogies to count, that is one tough hole. This course looked to be in unbelievable condition, looking forward to playing it on our next trip.
3. Old Head....simply the most breathtaking golf course I have ever played. Caught it on a bright sunny, relatively calm day. In excellent condition.
4. Killarney- Killeen Course....beautiful parkland course, in excellent condition, but the greens had just been top dressed.
5. Waterville....best overall experience we had...course was solid throughout, the recent Fazio work was noticeable simply because you didn't notice it. It had rained very heavily that morning so there was some standing water on the first few holes. I shot my best round of the trip on the course.
6. Ballybunion- Cashen Course....in excellent condition, very difficult, but fair if you hit it where you are told.
7. Ballybunion - Old Course....also in excellent conditon, only time it rained (really rained) on the golf course during our 7 days, but it stopped by the time we got to the 4th hole. Great course, with a great variety of holes, especially on the back, the par 3's get continually more difficult to play.
Also, the Teach de Broc hotel next to the course just completed a renovation and is an excellent place to stay. Best breakfast we had during our stay.
8. Doonbeg....of course the most discussed course for our group during our stay. I loved it, but I shot 80 during our morning round which was the low score in our group. Obviously the course needs some work, starting with tiny green on the third or fourth hole, I can't remember right now. I hit it to the front left as advised by our caddy and made par, everyone else attacked the flag and ended up over the green with a very difficult pitch back up the hill. It was the course that required the strokesaver yardage book the most, but rewarded a well placed shot. I personally felt it was on the best piece of property (other than Old Head) of the courses we played and enjoyed it a lot even though my afternoon round was 10 shots worse than my morning round. My partners who played poorly for both rounds felt the course needed a lot of work, I felt that over time, with patience that the course could be up there with Ballybunion, County Down and Waterville.
Aside from the golf I would like to recommend Perry Golf who did an overall excellent job of taking care of us and although we traveled close to 1200 miles and spent 7 nights in 5 hotels, everything was great. The Irish people were very, very pleasant and the food was very, very good. Thanks to all the GCA'er's who provided info, it was very helpful.
Regards,
Jeff