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The 2002 Ladies Irish Open was staged here and in 2005 the Challenge Tour boyos tested their mettle. Nobody murdered it. Nicely balanced with a pleasing tempo is an accurate description but unless they use the forward tees, from where it measures 6,130 yards, par 72, and average hackers will find Mahony’s Point more to their taste.
But whichever course you tackle take a minute here and there to admire the scenery. Then luxuriate in one of the finest clubhouses in Irish golf. Beware, though: they’ll try to lock the door behind you as you enter. The members are welcoming to a fault and the barmen take no prisoners!
You could happily spend several days playing here without wandering further field but the locals, bless ‘em, have come up with an offer that’s difficult to refuse. It’s known as the Kerry Challenge and it entails a round over the new Cashen course at Ballybunion and two at Killarney. You’ll find details opposite.
The first point to be made about the Cashen course is that it’s not a links for hackers or those whose game is off the boil. Even on a relatively calm day, rare for this stretch of Ireland’s Atlantic coast, this is a links to test every aspect of your game, not least character and patience. On a windy day a round here would be exhilarating in extremis, a physical test of strength and stamina. Under such conditions it may, indeed be tougher than the illustrious Old Course next door, where the fairways are marginally wider and the margin for error off the tee is somewhat greater.
‘Tis a wild and improbably beautiful site, a stretch of towering sand dunes, unchanged for countless centuries and blasted by wind that last brushed land in the Americas. It is a spectacular setting that Robert Trent Jones Sr., its architect, described as perhaps the finest piece of links land in the world. His design, completed in 1982, does it full justice and, locals say, it is improving with maturity. See it, play it and you’ll view the members with green eyes.
Trent Jones didn’t engage in large scale earth-moving; it was unnecessary. Seeing the greens and tees for the first time you’ll deduce they were simply waiting for an architect to come along: all they required was an order of play. I won’t attempt a detailed description. Let me say simply that there is not a weak hole, no two are remotely similar, except perhaps in the miserly width of fairways, the tempo is matchless, the routing incomparable.
In a nutshell: it’s a touch less than 7,000 yards from the tiger tees; 6,685 from the middle tees down to 6,299 from the forward blocks, all to par-72. Index holes 2 and 3 are par fives, of which there are five, all awe inspiring. There are also five one shotters, all breathtaking. The remaining holes are simply spectacular.
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