Donegal Golf Club (Murvagh), Ireland
Donegal marks the entry to Ireland’s Northwest Passage through a land that’s surely the most desolate and dramatic in all the Isle. A windblown landscape of smoke-blue mountains and forlorn moors that sweep along towering cliffs above the Atlantic, this terrain is so sere and stark, sheep cannot even graze here. Against this rugged […]
Glasson Golf Club, Ireland
The Glasson Golf Club starter asked whether I would mind pairing up with two “society” golfers, Sunday plonkers named Jack and Jimmy who had motored out from Dublin that morning with their itinerant golf gang. For me it was the end of a six-day tour of demanding Irish linksland courses on the coastlines north […]
County Sligo Golf Club (Rosses Point), Ireland
Perhaps more than any other links course, County Sligo Golf Club—or Rosses Point, as it is more commonly known—is infused and inspired by its natural setting. This charmer in the northwest of Ireland is surrounded by the romantic scenery that William Butler Yeats, the greatest of Irish poets, made famous: the semicircle of sea, […]
Ballyliffin Golf Club, Ireland
The Second Coming of Ballybunion? Years ago I subscribed to the New Yorker and it was then that I first became familiar with the name Herbert Warren Wind, the sportswriter. I was attracted not only by the clarity of his writing but by the mellifluosity of his name, which had as good a ring […]
Brora Golf Club, Scotland
In 1995 Peter Thomson and his wife, Mary, made a four-and-a-half-hour drive from their home in St. Andrews to the Scottish Highlands. Intrigued by a glowing recommendation from a former caddie, the five-time British Open winner traveled to the seaside town of Brora to play the eponymous course. Without informing the club in advance […]
Dundonald Links, Scotland
With much of Scotland’s linksland already occupied by some of the greatest venues in golf, few new seaside courses have appeared on the game’s home turf since the early 20th century. That drought was broken in 2000 when the acclaimed Kingsbarns opened on the Fife coast, near St. Andrews. Then, with natives still abuzz […]
Machrie Golf Links, Scotland
You’ve played the country’s Open courses—the Old Course, Carnoustie and Muirfield, Turnberry, Troon and Prestwick. You’ve journeyed to Royal Dornoch, stopping at Nairn en route. You’ve been thrilled at Cruden Bay, battered by Royal Aberdeen and charmed at North Berwick. You’ve ventured to Machrihanish and struck that wondrous opening tee shot across a sliver of […]
Machrihanish Golf Club, Scotland
If you have heard of Machrihanish, you may know that it is situated close to the southern tip of Kintyre, a 40-mile-long peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic off the Ayrshire coast. Its backdrop is mountainous and the seascapes are shatteringly beautiful. You will doubtless know about its opening hole. The par 4 […]
Murcar Links Golf Club, Scotland
If you agree that a golf adventure doesn’t have to begin or end at the links themselves, the drive north along Scotland’s east coast to Murcar Links Golf Club will be part of the fun. True, you can fly into Aberdeen, Murcar’s home, but most American guests will be coming overland from St. Andrews, […]
North Berwick Golf Club, Scotland
The vast majority of golfers, even those natives of the game’s homeland who ought to know better, mention of East Lothian generally brings the knee-jerk response of “Muirfield, magnificent Muirfield.” Yet in historical terms, the present home of the ancient Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers is a Johnny-come-lately upstart on the peerless stretch of […]
