IRELAND
S
tanding proudly alongside
the veranda of Rosapenna’s
impressive clubhouse or
‘Golf Pavilion’, aiming a drive
towards the far end of the links where
the beautiful sandy bay curves into the
distance, is a fine statue of the
grandfather of golf, Old Tom Morris. It
was Old Tom who was responsible for
the first course to be laid out on this
superb stretch of golfing terrain and it’s
after him that a course comprising nine
of his original holes is named.
Much has changed since the early
1890s when Old Tom first visited
Rosapenna to survey an untouched,
rugged swathe of linksland. Now the
Rosapenna Hotel and Golf Resort, set
on the beautiful north coast of County
Donegal by the village of Downings on
Sheephaven Bay, is one of the very
best golfing ‘play and stay’ destinations
in Ireland. With two marvellous links
golf courses, an excellent hotel and
plentiful off-course activities, all in a
simply glorious setting, this is a
wonderfully secluded and visually
stunning spot.
The Old Tom Morris links may be
viewed as the second course at
Rosapenna, but it’s a stand-out track in
its own right, delivering a tremendous
blend of modern and traditional
seaside golfing architecture.
The course starts away from the
seaside and the glimmering beach, but
even a few hundred yards back from the
shoreline the ground is sandy and fi rm.
Although the undulating fairways on
this course are relatively narrow, the
rough isn’t overly punishing – a
contrast to the Sandy Hills links, which
we will come to later. Often on Tom
Morris, you will find your ball off the
mown surfaces and particularly wide
shots can even find adjacent fairways.
The layout opens with a testing par 4
asking for an accurate tee shot
between shallow dunes, then a solid
approach to a sloping green.
After a strong par 3 on the 2nd hole,
which is cleverly protected by a bunkerfront left and a large mound to the right,
the course steadily makes its way
southward, turning back after the
challenging 6th – probably the
toughest hole on the front nine with its
pinched-in fairway and amphitheatre
green sloping hard from left to right.
Three more good holes bring you
back to the Golf Pavilion and you
wander around it to play the back nine,
closer to the shore and on the other
side of the Sandy Hills layout.
The holes on the back nine – Tom
Morris originals with input from both
Harry Vardon and James Braid – have
quite a different feel to those on the
front side, and it’s fair to say it’s the
superior half. These are true, traditional
links holes and, with the rolling
sandhills on one side and the sprawling
beach and azure waters of
Sheephaven Bay on the other, it’s a
truly spectacular setting for golf.
The back nine is a good old-
fashioned out-and-back loop, with
holes 10 to 14 forging south and theThe 3rd hole on
the Sandy Hills links