American designer Tom Fazio's work means Waterville is a links that combines tradition with bold invention, and on barely a single hole does the pace slacken.
Lahinch, the Irish St Andrews, has only in the past few years begun to fulfil its true potential as one of the very best. A raw, rugged and brilliant links.
That this wild, uncompromising links has been in place for years becomes clear after just one look. Ballybunion Old is an essential experience of Irish golf.
For the purist, County Sligo is in a class of its own in the north west and it certainly has a different feel to anywhere else within a hundred miles.
Like Kingsbarns, the golf experience at Trump Ireland Doonbeg is a spectacular, fun layout, on an amazing piece of land. It makes sure you have a good day.
Dramatic, imposing and intimitading, the Arnold Palmer-designed Tralee offers ocean views from every hole, and a world class test from first hole to last.
The drive through County Mayo's peat bogs is worth every last mile because Carne is a course the like of which you will never have seen before.
Enniscrone offers golf on a grand scale, but it is certainly not the case that hole after hole calls for a drive and a wood or long iron to get home.
Connemara is characterised by rocky outcrops, with white stones peeking through coarse grasses, that lead to some terrific green sites.
All you need to know about this brilliant Irish course