Ireland Forever : A hundred thousand welcomes—and the best links golf in the world

Golf Digest, August, 2002 by David Davies

It is probable that there is no country in the world with a higher proportion of great golf courses to available acreage than Ireland. It is certain that there is no country in the world that offers the golfer a greater welcome. "Cead Mile Failte"--a hundred thousand welcomes--is Ireland's motto, and for once it is born of fact, of experience, of ancient tradition, not of a public-relations man's pen. It is not an accident that the path beaten to Ballybunion in the late '80s by Tom Watson has been followed to that wonderful golf course and many others by Tiger Woods, Mark O'Meara, David Duval, Phil Mickelson and that honorary Irishman, the late Payne Stewart. They went not just to prepare themselves on links for the British Open, but to experience great, natural golf and, afterward, the craic, a term for which there exists no single word in English. It means the telling of terrible truths, of great lies, of having a good time, of reminiscences--all done with friends you may have known for years, or hours or even minutes, preferably while sharing a drink or two or three. Peter Dobereiner, late of these pages, used to say the craic was responsible for more late arrivals than the whole of Europe's air-traffic controllers put together.

Stewart, a great enthusiast of the craic, used to dive into the Butler Arms Hotel at Waterville and emerge many harmonious hours later, blinking and saying, "The great thing about Ireland is, it's always daylight." (Well, it was when he went in, and it was as he came out.)

Ireland isn't just a place of great golf courses, it is full of great places to play golf, and the two aren't necessarily synonymous. In fact, when it comes to Irish golf there are too many "musts," and only a proportion of them possibly could be played in one visit. Therefore, it's necessary to impose limitations, and the most obvious is to stick to what the country does best, namely links golf, the finest form of the game.

It's best not to try to "do" Ireland. Aside from the fact that having played some of these courses once, you will want to play them again--immediately and to the detriment of your schedule--there is the small matter of the Tractor Factor. Anyone who has driven an Irish road will know immediately what this is, and anyone who has not, and is proposing a holiday involving car travel, needs urgently to know.

No country in the civilized world has the variety and vintages and variations thereon of tractor than does Ireland. And you can depend on three things: (1) they will be going very slowly; (2) they will be in front of you; and (3) the driver will see nothing at all wrong with either of these propositions. It is one of the great unsolved contradictions in life that a people so universally helpful, friendly and cheerful should turn into churls when at the wheel of a tractor.

Knowing this, though, you can calculate the driving time to the next course. First, while remembering that there are no freeways, highways, turnpikes or interstates, estimate the time you think it should take, keeping in mind getting-lost time. Then, double it.

Maybe the best way of playing as many Irish courses as you should is to have three, four or more holidays there, and take the country by areas. This has the twin benefit of allowing you to appreciate the courses you play all the more, while eliminating some of the more desperate cross-country drives. Here are some suggestions, some of them acknowledged "greats," others just great places--the little-known gems that are such a joy.

DUBLIN: LIVELY LINKS

To begin your tour, best to start in the city that remains the heart of Ireland, the city that today is at the lead of the economically resurgent Ireland, the so-called "Celtic Tiger." Dublin is still the sweetly literary city of Jonathan Swift, William Yeats, James Joyce and Seamus Heaney, and while it has been jolted now and again by political and social turmoil, its artistic soul remains solid and thriving. Whether you come for its history, literature, music or art, Dublin is undeniably one of the world's great cities. Appropriately, it is also home to some of the world's great courses, starting with Portmarnock. Given that the 2006 Ryder Cup is going to Ireland, this is the venue at which it should be played. Politics and pound notes dictate otherwise (hence the nouveau K Club will be the host course), which is a shame, because Portmarnock has some mouth-watering match-play holes. Phil Mickelson led the United States to a Walker Cup victory there in 1991, and the Irish Open was first played there in 1927 with future champions such as Bobby Locke, Ben Crenshaw, Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam and Jose Maria Olazabal. Don't miss it.

Next door is Portmarnock Hotel & Golf Links, the natural place for a golfer to stay in Dublin. The course, designed by Langer, is superb, a modern course acquiring ancient values.

Most cities possessing two such courses would be content, but we are not half done. On the way from the city center to Portmarnock there lies Bull Island, site of Royal Dublin. Ballesteros and Langer have claimed Irish Open crowns there. It was during Seve's victory in 1985 that an enterprising local opened a hole in the fence, not just to get in himself but to set up his own "gate" and charge admission to those strolling the sands.