The ultimate Ireland golf trip
Rosses Point
That night we made the slog north to Sligo town, in preparation for a visit to Rosses Point.
For the purist, this Harry Colt design is in a class of its own in the north west and certainly it has a different feel to anywhere else within a hundred miles.
Ruddy, who grew up playing here, has recently returned to make some changes, most notably extending the downhill par-5 3rd by some 50 yards.
There are some seriously classy holes here, beginning with the short 4th, which would not be out of place at Muir eld, as well as some spectacular views of Ben Bulben and more changes of elevation than you might anticipate on an old links.
The hole that first springs to my mind when I think of Rosses Point is the 17th, a true championship-deciding par 4. The drive is straight- forward enough, then the fairway swings left and uphill.
Reaching the heart of the huge green always seems to require one extra club than you allow for, the rising ground sapping distance from your approach.
With that our work on the west coast was done, but not so our tilt as a whole. It was off to Newcastle on the other side of the country for our last hurrah. A night in the luxury of the Slieve Donard Hotel was required, strictly for recuperation purposes you understand. Similarly restorative was the view from our room of the Irish Sea and the Mountains of Mourne.
There is no space here to document my ongoing love affair with Royal County Down, suffice to say that it remains the nest course in the British Isles so far as I am concerned.
And with that the tilt was complete: seven and a half days of golf, several hundred miles, 13 rounds, 234 holes, more than a few pints of Guinness and a boatload of memories.
Given the chance, I’d do it all again tomorrow. Now where’s my passport?
Go Golfing: Pine Cliffs, Algarve
Go Golfing: Costa Navarino, Greece
Go Golfing: Golf courses in Lisbon
Dan Murphy
Dan loves links golf, which doesn't mean he is very good at it. He is a four-handicapper at Alwoodley. A qualified journalist and senior editor with 25 years’ experience, he was the long-time editor of NCG. His passion is golf courses and he is the founding editor of NCG Top 100s course rankings. He loves nothing more than discovering and highlighting courses that are worthy of greater recognition.
