a — Golfing Gems on the Emerald Isle —

Doonbeg Golf Club
Doonbeg, near Kilkee, County Clare, Ireland
                                                                              photo Doonbeg G.C.

Dramatic, seaside links course designed
by Greg Norman, on Ireland’s west coast.

"When I first saw this site I was speechless. I didn’t know
such a piece of property existed anymore. You could take
a lawn mower and cut the fairways."       —Greg Norman

        Doonbeg, set among pristine dunes land that in places climbs almost 100 feet above the sea, parallels 1½ miles of crescent-shaped beach along Doughmore Bay on Ireland’s west coast. The Atlantic is within sight of 16 of 18 holes.

ADDRESS: Doonbeg Golf Club, Doonbeg, County Clare, Ireland.

LOCATION: 25 miles west of Ennis, County Clare, western Ireland, 3 miles north of the village of Doonbeg, among the dunes and cliffs by the Atlantic Ocean.

Directions from Central Ireland: Car 90 minutes west to Ennis, then 40 minutes to Doonbeg.

LENGTH & PAR:
    Championship Tees:   18 holes, 6885 yards, Par 72
    Middle Tees:              18 holes, 6407 yards, Par 72
    Forward Tees:            18 holes, 5894 yards, Par 72

FACILITIES:
    Practice Area
    Driving Range
    Temporary Clubhouse (permanent clubhouse to open in 2004)
    Pro Shop
    Caddies Available (Senior Caddie and Junior Caddie)
    Caddies MUST be reserved in advance
    Trolley Hire (Pull Cart Rental)

VISITORS WELCOME: advance tee-times required.

SPECIAL CLUB RULES:
No golf carts. Pull trolleys and caddies available.
Single golfers and two-balls may be obliged to team up with others from time to time.

Dress Code: Appropriate golfing attire is required. Blue jeans or dungarees are not permitted. Improperly dressed golfers will be asked to change prior to play. Metal spikes are not permitted.

GREENS FEES: Per Round: €185 (approx. US$210)
    Payment: All green fees are paid in full 45 days prior to playing.
    Cancellations must be received in writing, fax, or email 45 days in advance of play date.
    Changes or cancellations within 30 days: no-refund, deposit fortified.

BOOKINGS: (required in advance through the course office; deposits of 10% per person are required.)
    Tel.: +353 (0)65 9055246
    Fax: +353 (0)65 9055247
    e-mail: links@doonbeggolfclub.com
    Web Site: http://www.doonbeggolfclub.com/index.htm

NEAREST HOME AT FIRST LODGINGS: about 2 hours, 15 minutes east of Doonbeg in Central Ireland. See: http://www.homeatfirst.com/centrali.htm

OTHER GOLF COURSES IN THE COUNTY CLARE AREA: Along the west coast of County Clare north of Doonbeg Golf Club are a lovely 9-hole links, Spanish Point, and the famous Lahinch Old Course and its less-appreciated Castle Course. South along the coast is the Kilkee Golf Club. East along the coast of the Shannon Estuary and slightly inland are Kilrush, Ennis, Dromoland Castle, and Shannon Golf Clubs.

THE COURSE AND SOME NOTABLE HOLES:
        Doonbeg has been eyed as prime links golf land for over 100 years when Ireland’s nearby great links course was built at Lahinch. Somehow the land has remained undeveloped and is today as in the 19th century bordered by farms, beach and ocean.                     photo Doonbeg G.C.
        Doonbeg Golf Club is a private club that currently welcomes visitors to its links course. Doonbeg—designed by Greg Norman for Kiawah Development of South Carolina and Landmark National of Maryland, who have previously developed luxury courses in the US—has upscale resort ambitions. Doonbeg plans a luxury hotel, a leisure center, and a village of golf cottages with a pub, restaurant, practice facility, and golf shop. The course currently charges guests greens fees of €185 (about $210), significantly more than do its famous neighbors Ballybunion Old Course (€150) and Lahinch Old Course (€110/$125). Developers have endeavored to make upmarket Doonbeg G.C. be more manicured than typical links courses of the British Isles—an obvious appeal to the American country club golfers they hope to lure.
        The golf course is an isolated coastal property, three miles north of the village of Doonbeg. The course is designed to be exceptionally challenging. Doonbeg recommends the use of caddies for first-timer visitors as Irish golf courses are not customarily well marked, so guessing distances is problematic.
        Construction of Doonbeg was held up by environmental controversy. The sensitive Doonbeg site, with its spectacular natural dune fields is also home to a rare species of microscopic snail. The development group ultimately met code by ensuring snail habitat and by not disturbing the oldest dunes of the links land.
        Open to play only since July, 2002, Doonbeg Golf Club has already garnered international attention, being named by the editors of Golf Digest as its "Best New International Course of 2002".
   photo Doonbeg G.C.
        "Doonbeg looks and plays like it has been there for a hundred years," wrote Ron Whitten, Golf Digest’s architecture editor, in the magazine’s February issue. The par-72, 6,885-yard course features a single loop of nine holes out and nine holes back, weaving through centuries-old dunes that reach nearly 100 feet. "Fairways pitch and roll with every ridge and rumple of the earth. The green contours are also lay-of-the-land and the bunkers are hand-dug, some edged by tall layers of stacked sod, others by shaggy tufts of native grass. The result is a genuine Irish links of unexpected breaks, unanticipated results and undeniable thrills."
        Golf critics who previewed the course wrote extraordinary reviews. Sports Illustrated anointed Doonbeg "Greg Norman's Mona Lisa" and beatified holes 14 and 15 as the best par-3 and par-4 in southwest Ireland.
        Norman seems to agree. About the 15th hole he says, "I have designed the course around the 15th hole, a magnificent par four of 440 yards to a funnel-shaped green surrounded by the highest dunes on the course. Landing a ball on the front edge of the 150-foot-long green, and wondering if it will stop before running off the far end, is far more of a challenge to me than the target golf of hitting behind the flagstick from 187 yards and spinning it back six inches."         Justin MacInnes photo Doonbeg G.C.
        And about the 111-yard 14th, Norman recounts, "When we finally decided to put the green there, I said ‘this is probably going to be comparable to the 7th hole at Pebble Beach.’"
        "This is a course I want to be identified with, one I’ll be able to say with pride, ‘I did that one,’" Norman says. "I’ve said it from day one, I can’t wait to hear what the best players in the world think of Doonbeg."

OTHER ACTIVITIES AND SIGHTS IN THE REGION:
        County Clare is home to two of Ireland's scenic treasures: the Atlantic wall of the Cliffs of Moher and the rocky badlands of The Burren. The folds of the coast protect numerous fishing villages worth exploring. The old town of Ennis is one of Ireland's most interesting and prettiest county towns. Scattered among the valleys of County Clare are prehistoric monuments and pretty farms. All parts of Clare are readily explored from Home at First's Central Ireland lodgings in eastern County Clare and neighboring County Tipperary.

  photo © HOME AT FIRST

Read more about the region and Home at First’s travel program to: CENTRAL IRELAND

Want to learn about other courses throughout the British Isles
including some of the greatest tests of golf in the world?
See our SCOTLAND, IRELAND, ENGLAND, and WALES Course Guides for more information.