Carton House (O’Meara)
The Carton House Resort is all about five star luxury. A grand
hotel is the centrepiece and two golf course sweep away from the
astoundingly alluring 18th century building. The O’Meara course
has those perfect parkland assets familiar to everyone as it rolls
rolling through heavy woodland. And yet the trees stay well back
to give the course an unexpected spaciousness. Off the tee the
big manicured fairways are hugely inviting targets, making this
long course a driver’s delight. There are five par fives, too. Bunkers
threaten along fairways and this threat increases exponentially on
approaches to the immaculately presented greens.
The O’Meara is often lauded for its superb stretch of three holes
down by the River Rye. The two par threes and the par five 15th
squeezed in between are exceptional holes, lost amongst the trees.
Water is ever-present and it’s little wonder they are so memorable.
(The cottage beside the 16th tee was once lived in by Marianne
Faithful.)