| Classic
Southwest Ireland Golf Exclusive
EARLY SPRING 2009
(April 1-30)
from $4,000
What’s
Included:
• |
Seven nights in majestic seaside and country
settings that will awaken your senses and delight your
soul (twin occupancy): A 5-star hotel and two of Ireland’s
finest deluxe guesthouses. |
• |
Breakfast each morning. |
• |
Six rounds on the most spectacular seaside courses
of County Kerry. |
• |
All local taxes. |
• |
All currency exchange fees to US Dollars. |
• |
Custom trip packet and Scotland and Ireland DVD set. |
• |
Mercedes mini-van with captain’s chairs; private
chauffer, fuel and insurance included. |
• |
Grand sights and wonderful pubs. |
This tour is available subject to the accommodations
and courses being available on the chosen dates. We recommend
that airfares not be booked until all starting times and
accommodations are confirmed.
YOUR ITINERARY
Day 1: Arrive Shannon and
travel to Waterville, Ring of Kerry. Rest of the day to
relax. Overnight Waterville in a 4-star guesthouse.
Day 2: Play Skellig
Bay. Overnight Hidden Links 4-star guesthouse.
Situated on the beautiful Ring of Kerry,
Waterville has long been a Mecca for discerning golfers.
Overlooking the majestic Ballinskelligs Bay and set among
natural megalithic stonework and indigenous bog deal, there
can be few more visually stunning locations for a golf course
than Skellig Ba. The course opened for play in Spring 2006
and has already been rated in Irelands “Top 50”.
Nestled in the shadows of the towering McGillicuddy
Reeks, the golfer has to negotiate the river Fionnglass
for the opening and closing holes but it is the stretch
from six to sixteen that lives in memory long after the
last putt has been sunk. Here the awesome beauty of the
Bay hits you full in the face as you play through holes
framed by over 8000 yards of ancient “famine”
walls. Original standing stones from pre-Christian times
and a fairy fort all add to an unforgettable round as you
experience an unbelievable feeling of another time and place.
Day 3: Play Waterville
. Overnight Hidden Links 4-star guesthouse.
Less than one percent of all the courses
in Ireland and the British Isles are championship links.
Waterville is one of these. It is no wonder that the world’s
best players test their mettle here.
Golf at Waterville is a mystical experience
– the beauty of classic links land, surrounded by
the sea, yet forever challenged and shaped by the elements.
Over 100 years old, Waterville is rated among
the top 5 courses in Ireland and the top 20 links courses
in the world. Links golf combines sand dunes gorse and native
grasses, firm fairways, sod faced bunkers and subtle putting
surfaces all intertwined by the ever changing weather.
Day 4: Play Dooks. Travel
to Killarney. Overnight Muckross Park Hotel (5 star hotel)
Dook Golf Club, owned by its members, was
founded in 1889 and is one of the 5 oldest Links in Ireland,
The charm, the atmosphere and the superb seaside setting
of a truly traditional golf links makes Dooks a golf experience
that has to be experienced at least once in a lifetime.
Originally a 9-hole course, it was laid out
at the end of the 19th century. In 1970s the members designed
and built an extra 9 holes which for many years was considered
a gem. In 2002 the club employed the services of Martin
Hawtree, renowned Golf Links Architect, to revamp the 18
holes. The result has been an unqualified success.
The Course is now nearly 6600 yards from
the back tees, but don’t be over ambitious. The course
from the White tees, which even though short by modern standards,
will test every club in the bag and that’s on a calm
day! If there is even a “gentle” Atlantic breeze.
Dooks is a place where every par feels like a birdie, but
irrespective of the conditions or what you score, the stunning
panoramic views will remain in your mind and make you want
to come back again and again.
Day 5: Play Tralee. Overnight
Muckross Park Hotel.
Tralee Golf Club is proudly basking in the
glow of being voted winners of the Golf Course of the Year
Award by the Irish Golf Tour Operators Association (IGTOA).
Opened in October 1984 Tralee Golf Course
was the first European golf course designed by Arnold Palmer.
When he first saw the area upon which his company was to
build Tralee golf links, he was ecstatic about the possibilities.
“I have never come across a piece of land so ideally
suited for the building of a golf course” he said.
Day 6: Travel to Ballybunion. Play Ballybunion
Cashen. Overnight in Ballybunion, The Tides Guesthouse
or similar.
Designed by Robert Trent Jones, Senior, and
first opened for play in 1982, the Trent-Jones Cashen Course
is Ballybunion’s magnificent new course, located among
amazingly high sand dunes at the mouth of the River Cashen.
To say the course looks natural in its setting is to do
it an injustice. The course flows with the land and uses
the natural contours to full potential. This is a dateless
golf course which after playing makes you ask yourself if
you’ve ever played amid quite such surroundings.
Rated in the top 100 by Golf Magazine, the vast majority
of Cashen’s green positions have been copied by many
new course designers. Spectacular and supremely challenging,
what can never be copied is the majestic landscape and fresh
sea air that is distinctly part of the Ballybunion experience.
Day 7: Play Ballybunion Old.
Overnight in Ballybunion.
Located on the Shannon estuary, it is a true
seaside links course, virtually treeless and a course of
sharp contours throughout. There appears to be no man- made
influence. It looks like a course laid out on land back
in the 10th century.There is a wild look to the place the
long grass covering the dunes that pitch and roll throughout
the course making it very intimidating. Yet the course is
eminently fair. While there would appear to be a lot of
blind shots, there aren’t. Even where there are blind
shots, you are given a good idea where you must hit the
ball.
“Having played the Old Course in Ballybunion
many times since my first visit in 1981, I am now of the
opinion it is one of the best and most beautiful tests of
links golf anywhere in the world.” Tom Watson - Millennium
Ballybunion Captain and 5 time British Open Winner
Day 8: Depart Shannon.
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