Destination Golf Ireland 2020 * | Page 85

Ballybunion (Old) Sitting majestically on the Co. Kerry coastline, Ballybunion offers 36 holes of intrigue and brilliance. The Old course is revered but it wasn’t until Tom Watson’s rapturous endorsement rang around the world that the links became a bucket-list destination. Ballybunion has been basking in that glory ever since. And with good reason. Every shot on these hallowed fairways and sublime, new greens (2016) is links golf in its purest form. This is as natural a course as you could hope to find. Greens sit on high plateaus and in dells, fairways cascade between heaving shoulders and dunes squeeze greens like over-zealous bodyguards. Ballybunion builds from a (relatively) calm start and then just explodes on the back nine to produce drama at every turn: few golfers will forget holes such as 11, 15 and 17… world beaters, every one. www.ballybuniongolfclub.com 83