Discovering What Makes The West of Ireland Special For Golf

It’s a damp Monday night in April and Matt Molloy’s bar in Westport is packed to the rafters.

The Guinness is flowing and a group of musicians are playing Irish traditional tunes to the delight of locals and tourists alike.

Every inch of the walls is covered with photographs and various memorabilia collected over the years, many reflecting on the career of Matt himself, a famed flautist of The Chieftains.

It’s just a typical scene in the West of Ireland, a place where a sense community lives on like no other place you have visited.

We are here in the west country to play golf, but nobody should visit Ireland for sport alone, ignoring what else the country has to offer.

Traditional music is just one of the treats in this part of Ireland. The landscape, particularly around the Ballycroy National Park, is gloriously mysterious.

Westport is a charming heritage market town in County Mayo, and as its name suggests, it sits virtually at the midpoint of the west Irish coastline on the Wild Atlantic Way, a 1,600 mile coastal route stretching from the Inishowen Peninsula in the north to Kinsale in Co Cork.

Westport is most talked about for the story of Croagh Patrick, the nearby holy mountain, home to St Patrick during a 40 day fast in the 7th century, now the site of an annual pilgrimage.

Legends like these are what bring tourists to Ireland, including golfers, who plan their own kind of pilgrimage to be enthralled by some of the best unspoiled golf the world has to offer.

During a whistle-stop tour I played three of the area’s top courses to see what attracts golfing pilgrims from all over the world in their droves.

Enniscrone Golf Club

I’d played the Enniscrone Golf Club course a couple of times some years ago when it was good, but not overly memorable. It started along flat land with two par fives and I remember thinking that it seemed a shame that the huge dune field that ran through the property had not been used to the best advantage.

However. the club knew this long before my visit and eventually in 2000, Donald Steel was commissioned to reroute the course to take best advantage of the terrain that makes for a great natural links. He added six new holes and altered the layout.

What a difference this has made. The course is unrecognisable from its predecessor and is now up there among the best links in Ireland.

The towering dunes come into play from the first hole, a dogleg right where the approach has to be threaded between high sandy mounds either side of the green.

It sets the scene for a memorable round weaving in and out of the rugged, bumpy landscape. Conditioning throughout is excellent and the welcome in the 19th is genuine and heart-warming.

Our pilgrimage continued some miles to the north west of Westport to Bellmullet, a sleepy coastal town that would not be out of place on the Falkland Islands.

Carne Golf Links

Here lies Carne Golf Links perched on a wild, windswept peninsula amid glorious scenery. Out in the sticks indeed, but it is well worth the journey.

Carne has undergone a transformation in recent years, rising from near closure during the pandemic to featuring on everyone's Irish links bucket list.

It features 27 holes which are configured into two loops of 18 played on consecutive days as The Wild Atlantic Dunes and The Hackett courses.

The result of adding the extra nine is an extraordinary success. We played the preferred Wild Atlantic Dunes and it was such a thrill. No weak holes, all offering different challenges such as highly elevated tees on the par 3 7th, narrow weaving fairways such as the 8th, aptly known as The Snake, to the dauntingly long 17th with a perilous run-off to the right of the green.

As the club says on its scorecard, this is "golf at the edge of the earth."

Our journey led us back to the lively market town of Westport en route to the highly convenient Ireland West Airport Knock, which attracted a record number of passengers in 2023. It’s easy to see why, it’s the gateway to Western Ireland for thousands of visitors from the UK and Europe.

Westport Golf Club

Westport Golf Club is a parkland course situated just on the edge of town. It’s easy to dismiss a course of this nature after enjoying the exhilaration of links golf but it would be criminal not to play here.

It has a fine pedigree, being host to a number of prestigious amateur championships and the Smurfit Irish PGA Championship.

After a couple of rather featureless opening holes the course opens up to showcase the glorious scenery of this area with views over Croagh Patrick and Clew Bay.

A pond comes into play on the tricky par 5 7th hole, as the course really begins to bare its teeth and more water lurks with equal menace besides the 8th green.

The back nine is most impressive; challenging yet enjoyable in equal measure with the best holes being the long par 3 14th with great views over the holy mountain in the background and the signature 15th, a par 5 playing over an Atlantic inlet from the tee towards the green in the distance, guarded by severe run-offs either side.

This is a most enjoyable course, and the greens were the best we played on all week.

Verdict

This part of Ireland is among the least visited by golfing tourists yet it encapsulates the very best anybody can want from a golfing trip. Easily accessible via the airport at Knock, the golf is glorious, the land and seascape are simply stunning, and the legendary Irish hospitality is at its best.

For more information, please visit www.Ireland.com/golf.

Our travel partner Golfbreaks offers deals playing Enniscrone and Carne. Check out https://www.golfbreaks.com/en-gb/holidays/ballina/carne-golf-links/ for details.

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