Enjoy a Golf Holiday in Ireland

By John Hartley

If you enjoy your golf, you will certainly enjoy a golf holiday in Ireland. If you enjoy friendly, hospitable people, always willing to spend half an hour chatting, you will love a golf holiday in Ireland. On top of that you will play some superb courses, and many have splendid views out to sea or across to low mountains. The great thing about Ireland is that there a lot of golf courses, and visitors are welcome on almost all. Also, the Irish are very informal, so you can often just turn up and play. Mind you, I would recommend phoning in advance to find out whether you can play.
 

Although the Irish are informal, you will find that jeans and tee shirts are not considered suitable dress for golf on many courses. It is common courtesy to wear shirts with collars and Chinos or more normal trousers. Of course, plus fours are fine!

Get out of the plane or ferry and start playing

So where do you play golf on your golf holiday in Ireland? You can arrive at Dublin, Shannon, Cork, Belfast or anywhere in the two countries - Northern Ireland is part of the UK while Eire or the Republic of Ireland is a separate nation - and play good golf quite near. You can also cross the border with the minimum of formalities, and on many roads you will not know you have gone form one country to another.

Many links courses around the long coastline

Most of the courses around the coast are links courses - among the very best you can find anywhere.

The south-west of Ireland is a popular holiday area, and is also good for golf holidays. There are some superb courses, such as Killarney - a must play in my view - Ballybunion, Waterville, a new version of a course that fell out of use, Dooks and Old Head. All great courses,and you will find many lesser-known courses as well - this is true all over Ireland. Over in the south-east there also some great courses, including Rosslare - near where one of the ferries from England docks - St Helen Bay, Carlow, Waterford Castle and Faithlegg.

Further up the east coast are Royal Dublin, the K-Club, which is a very tough track, Mount Juliet, Druids Glen and the great Portmarnock.

Up in Northern Ireland you will find courses such as County Down, Castlerock, Royal Belfast, Bushmills and Malone, while over to the west you can discover courses such as Lahinch, Bearma, Connemara, Carne, Rosses Point, Enniscore and Westport. If you really love playing parkland golf on your golf holiday, you will want to go to the middle of Ireland. Here you will find beautiful courses like Esker Hills, Glasson, Headfort, Mullingar, Nuremore and Slieve Russell.

Not only will you find and enjoy many superb courses in Ireland, but you will also get a lot of fun out being being in such a friendly country, where pubs can be very grand or just a counter in a shop.