PORTMARNOCK
Located on a small peninsula, which extends into the Irish Sea, Portmarnock is surrounded by water on three sides and laid out in serpentine fashion, with no two successive holes playing in the same direction. Unlike many courses in this respect, Portmarnock demands a continual discernment of wind direction.
As one can expect, Portmarnock Golf Club has an interesting history attached. Like The Island, in the early days Portmarnock could only be reached by boat and the bell, which signaled the last boat of the day still hangs at the caddie master's pavilion near the first tee. It was on one such boat trip that W.C. Pickeman, a Scottish insurance broker and his friend George Ross scouted the land as a possible golf links. The seeds of Portmarnock Golf Club had been sown. Within two years, the initial 9 hole layout had been turned into 18 holes and what people may find surprising about the design is that it was done through collaboration between the club's golfers and local professional advisors. British architect, Fred Hawtree added nine extra holes in 1971 but the original 18 holes remain as the championship stretch.
The course has some extraordinary holes including the 5th, regarded as the best on the course by the late Harry Bradshaw, runner up in the 1949 British Open; the 14th, rated by Henry Cotton as the best hole in golf and the 15th, which is regarded by Arnold Palmer as the finest par 3 in the world. Invariably rated as one of Ireland's top three courses, like all the greats, Portmarnock offers a strong and potentially hazardous finish. Of the climax, the celebrated golf writer Bernard Darwin wrote: "I know of no greater finish in the world than that of the last five holes at Portmarnock."
THE EUROPEAN CLUB
The tour finishes at the 1993 built European Club.
The design of the European Club has attempted to modernize the traditional values of links golf and this has been achieved with magnificent results. Blind shots, deemed by many as an archaic feature of links golf, have largely been banished from the agenda at the European Club, with 14 holes offering a complete tee to green vista and the remaining holes providing a clearly visible landing area. Fast running fairways, greens that invite the pitch and run approach and acres of tall, waving grasses and golden flowered gorse are of course, the very essence of links golf and all remain in abundance at the European Club.
At first glance, the European Club presents an awesome challenge, with yawning bunkers and fairways seeming like mere ribbons through the sand hills. Truth is that the links has been designed primarily as a place for real golfers for those who both think and play well. Weaker players are advised to play within the scope of their talents and refrain from undue acts of aggression against a golf course, which takes few prisoners. In short, the handicap golfer must learn to use their handicap stroke to achieve a net par and try not to look at the hole as a potential net birdie. Discipline is rarely more rewarded than at the European Club.
The layout here offers an irregular pattern of pars, with three par 3's and like Royal Birkdale, Turnberry and the Old Course at St. Andrews, only two par 5's. The heart of your round at the European Club is the stretch from holes 7 through 13, which features six substantial par 4's and one bone crunching par 5 of almost 600 yards. Make no mistake that this is a links designed to be great. Growth and time will see the course develop from a great links to one of the world's finest.
