Island green: great Ireland golf vacations start here.
Since so many Ireland golf vacations begin in the early morning hours after landing at Dublin Airport, it’s nice to kick things off at a course that avoids a long, jet-lagged drive.
Dublin’s premier track is the famed Portmarnock Golf Club, just ten to 15-minutes from the airport. While it’s certainly the most convenient course to play on a Dublin, Ireland golf vacation, we think there’s an even more enjoyable and dramatic (and less expensive) experience to be had just a few more minutes away.
Though few Americans know about The Island Golf Club, we can hardly call it a “hidden gem” since the seaside links was founded in 1890 and is now serving as Ireland’s British Open qualifying site until 2010.
The Island Golf Club’s holes play through towering, grassy dunes bordered by the Irish Sea, Donabate Beach and the Broadmeadow Estuary, across which you can see the village of Malahide.
A large ridge created in glacial times runs through the center of the property and water is visible on the entire incoming nine. As a result, this is a rare links where the back nine is the highlight, a cymbal-smashing symphony of delights with a high “wow” factor.
The 13th hole, for instance, requires a brave, 190-yard carry to a slender green backed by the estuary. Immediately following is a short par four with just a bowling alley’s width of fairway threaded between the dunes on the left and the whitecaps on the right. If you’re not wide awake after playing these holes, you might want to check if you have a pulse.
Despite the drama, the Island’s terrain rolls gently and the course is a pleasant walk, another reason why it is the ideal course on which to begin a Dublin, Ireland golf vacation.
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