If you want to play a winning round of golf, then drink in some classic pubs afterwards, look no further than Dublin, says ANDREW MARSHALL, who offers his mustdo“ pubs and clubs.” Photography by PAUL MARSHALL.
Golf: a sport where grown men and women use several different bent sticks to hit a ball into an area with very short grass surrounding a hole in the ground. Yep, that’ s pretty much the gist of it, and the inhabitants of the Emerald Isle love it – alongside a good drink of course. And where in Ireland is perfect for both? Well, none other than the capital itself.
Just a short drive away from Dublin’ s city centre there are some amazingly high quality courses waiting to be discovered. A few miles north of the city, golfing options include Royal Dublin, Portmarnock Links and the lesser-known St Anne’ s Golf Club. To the west, are top-class parkland tracks like the K Club and Rathsallagh. To the south, quick road connections lead to County Wicklow and championship courses such as Druid’ s Glen and The European Club.
And when it comes to enjoying a pint or two after your round, there’ s no shortage of 19th holes in the city.“ A good puzzle would be to cross Dublin without passing a pub,” wrote James Joyce in Ulysses. Little has changed since Joyce penned his classic novel and Dublin’ s approximately 800 pubs are still the hubs of social life summed up in that famous Irish word, the“ craic.”
So whether you are negotiating one of The European Club’ s long par-4s through the dunes or sampling a few beers in O’ Neill’ s back in Dublin, here are 18-holes of golf clubs and pubs. Enjoy your rounds!
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