Ballybunion (Old Course)

The Old Course at Ballybunion Golf Club is both a breathtakingly beautiful links and a splendid test of golf. Famed golf writer Herbert Warren Wind wrote that the course, "revealed itself to be nothing less than the finest seaside course I have ever seen." (The first golf tour bus is said to have arrived three weeks hence.) Tom Watson declared it his favourite course saying, "It is a course on which many golf architects should live and play before they build golf courses." Number Eleven, a stunning 449 yard 4 par, is Watson's choice as the world's best par four.

The course began in 1896 as a nine-hole track of little distinction until it was extended to the present eighteen in 1926. Tom Simpson, the English architect, was commissioned to revise the course in preparation for the 1937 Irish Championship. Supremely impressed by what he found despite the fact that its original designer was a profoundly obscure railroad employee, Simpson did little more than move two greens and add a bunker. Ballybunion remains untouched to this day except for the re-routing which occurred when the clubhouse was moved. The original concrete block clubhouse sat between the fifth green and the sixth tee. Those two holes were originally eighteen and one respectively (and were played that way when the Irish Open was contested at Ballybunion in 2000). You will also note two greens for the seventh hole. The one by the sea is used in summer; the landward green in winter.

Essential to the Old Course's unique character is the fact that its ridges and dunes do not run parallel to the sea as in so many links courses. Rather, they wind and tumble in all manner of direction yielding a most unusual site. After a somewhat ordinary 5 hole beginning, one comes to a great sweep of 13 straight holes in which the sea is ever present and sometimes foreboding on some portion of each hole. Other than the eleventh, selecting the best holes is not unlike attempting to choose the Rockette with the best legs. Nonetheless, it should be noted that any golfer bouncing the ball off an ancient tombstone in the cemetery which adjoins the first hole and still making par is said to have scored a "Lazarus". Anyone achieving level par on the consecutive 3 pars on the homeward side may have performed a similar miracle as well.

Pity then that the remoteness of Ballybunion's location and the limited accommodations in the vicinity preclude this masterpiece from being a regular stop in international competitions. The 2000 Irish Open is the only major professional competition ever staged at Ballybunion. The world and its best golfers deserve better.

The course began in 1896 as a nine-hole track of little distinction until it was extended to the present eighteen in 1926. Tom Simpson, the English architect, was commissioned to revise the course in preparation for the 1937 Irish Championship. Supremely impressed by what he found despite the fact that its original designer was a profoundly obscure railroad employee, Simpson did little more than move two greens and add a bunker. Ballybunion remains untouched to this day except for the re-routing which occurred when the clubhouse was moved. The original concrete block clubhouse sat between the fifth green and the sixth tee. Those two holes were originally eighteen and one respectively (and were played that way when the Irish Open was contested at Ballybunion in 2000). You will also note two greens for the seventh hole. The one by the sea is used in summer; the landward green in winter.

Essential to the Old Course's unique character is the fact that its ridges and dunes do not run parallel to the sea as in so many links courses. Rather, they wind and tumble in all manner of direction yielding a most unusual site. After a somewhat ordinary 5 hole beginning, one comes to a great sweep of 13 straight holes in which the sea is ever present and sometimes foreboding on some portion of each hole. Other than the eleventh, selecting the best holes is not unlike attempting to choose the Rockette with the best legs. Nonetheless, it should be noted that any golfer bouncing the ball off an ancient tombstone in the cemetery which adjoins the first hole and still making par is said to have scored a "Lazarus". Anyone achieving level par on the consecutive 3 pars on the homeward side may have performed a similar miracle as well.

Pity then that the remoteness of Ballybunion's location and the limited accommodations in the vicinity preclude this masterpiece from being a regular stop in international competitions. The 2000 Irish Open is the only major professional competition ever staged at Ballybunion. The world and its best golfers deserve better.

There was a time when we described this course as "an utter abomination that bloody well should be destroyed! Fairways end without notice; holes cross one another with more frequency than a Maypole dance. On the whole, however, I would rather visit my dentist than spend time on these links."

We are delighted to report that this description is no longer remotely valid. The course has been restored to its former luster with the replacement of three holes that were destroyed by the sea. In fact, we find it to be one of the finest "second" courses in the British Isles. Consider playing it before or after your Old Course round.

Independent travellers: The club is located on the coastal road on the southern edge of the village. Take the main street towards the sea and remain on it as it swings to the left. Shortly after you pass the Marine Links Hotel on your left, the course will appear on your right. Continue about a half-mile to the club entrance on your right. As you enter the car park, the magnificent Old Course is to the right and its newer sister to the left. Should you arrive a bit early, the club's driving range is across the road from the courses.

Report to the Secretary's station just inside the main door of the clubhouse and secure your caddie from Maurice in the caddie master's office just behind the first tee of the Old Course. Remind Maurice that you are travelling with Haversham & Baker. There are changing rooms and a bar serving soup and sandwiches on the ground floor. The restaurant is on the upper floor. For a good local lunch or dinner from the sea, try the Marine Links Hotel.