There's been a couple of threads on this course.
Article from the Irisk Independent
http://www.unison.ie/sportsdesk/stories.php3?ca=16&si=1658932'I had a real blast in Ireland'
Sunday July 23rd 2006
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JACK Nicklaus has set the date: St Patrick's Day, 2008. That is to be the official opening of a 36-hole links complex overlooking Sheephaven Bay outside Carrigart, Co Donegal, on a site which the great man has described as "the best piece of ground I have ever worked on."
The timing could hardly be more appropriate, given that St Patrick's has existed, albeit in a fairly rudimentary form, since 1982. And, of course, our national holiday happens to be the birthday of Nicklaus's boyhood idol, the great Bobby Jones.
We were chatting beside the Royal Liverpool clubhouse at Hoylake, where the Bear was paying what could be described as a ceremonial visit, given that he made his farewell at St Andrews last year. And he retained the power to captivate, even when talking of his life on the other side of the ropes.
"I had a real blast in Ireland this week," he said. "I arrived on Tuesday morning and spent 11½ hours on the St Patrick's site. They had to drag me off it. I wanted to keep working. Construction starts on September 30."
"It's fantastic," he went on. "The makings of a wonderful links complex. And I was back there again for five hours on Wednesday." He then paid his last working visit to the course he is designing at Killeen Castle, which is also scheduled for a 2008 opening as The Jack Nicklaus Club. "They've already seeded 12 holes," he said.
Such is his interest in St Patrick's, which is owned by Carrigart hotelier Dermot Walsh, that there have been suggestions he may invest some of his own company's money in the project. "Oh we might," he said in answer to my question. "But I don't get involved in that end of the business", adding that it was a matter for his son, Gary.
Students of golf-course reviews are probably heartily tired by now of reading about so-called hidden gems, but the phrase happens to be perfectly true of St Patrick's. Few people outside Donegal have heard of it, largely because it is relatively new, and for the fact that it is a modest, pay-and-play establishment without a club attached. The main, Magheramagorgan links was designed back in 1982 by the ubiquitous Eddie Hackett. And as was the way of the old master, he made a number of return visits over the years, the last on Hallowe'en 1996, six weeks before he died. By way of remembrance, the 16th became known as 'Hackett's Sod.'
Magheramagorgan could be stretched to 7,108 yards off the back tees. Less-accomplished practitioners, however, have found the neighbouring, 5,822-yard Tra Mor course more to their liking. This was designed by Joanne O'Haire, a former assistant professional at Royal Co Down who worked with Hackett on the main course before being given the chance of taking on her own project. Located on the other side of the bay from Rosapenna and with a glorious backdrop provided by Erigall and Muckish mountains, their setting, in 350 acres, offers ample space for disgruntled practitioners to tint the air blue, without fear of interfering with the play of fellow golfers. But one imagines the entire complex looking vastly different, when the Nicklaus hand is applied.
"I'm enjoying doing these things," he said, while admitting that he will travel about 300,000 miles this year to design projects in his Gulfstream 5 jet, a 50 per cent increase on last year's schedule. "It's also nice that I don't have to worry about how I'm going to play the Open, because I'm not involved any more. I know I can't." But he admitted: "While I don't miss the golf, I miss the competition; I miss the guys and I miss the scene." And beating people, I suggested. "Yeh," he acknowledged, with typical directness.
Then, looking out over the burnt, third fairway, he went on: "That's what I like about the golf over here. It is what it is. If the weather produces a dry golf course, that's the way you play it. That's what I enjoyed about the British Open.
"That's why I came a week ahead of time. To adapt my game. When guys say they can't play a certain course, that it doesn't suit their game . . . that's the biggest bunch of rubbish I've ever heard. The whole idea about the game is to adapt yourself to the course you're playing. That's what's so neat about here."
With that, he headed off for lunch; then for the airport. "And I'll be home for dinner," he concluded. Not unlike July 1986 when, after an exhibition with Seve Ballesteros at Royal Dublin, when he could remark that he had had lunch in Dublin, Ireland and dinner in Dublin, Ohio.