West Ireland · Ireland · Patrick Murphy / Tom Simpson
Ballybunion Golf Club — Old Course
James Kinloch
Golf Travel Specialist · played this course
Tom Watson called Ballybunion Old the finest seaside golf course he had ever seen. He had a point. The Old Course sits in Kerry dunes on the Atlantic coast with the kind of natural links terrain that cannot be manufactured — it evolved over centuries into something that modern golf architecture simply cannot replicate.
The course plays along clifftops, through dune valleys, and around bunkers that arrived before the rules of golf did. The 11th hole drops from a clifftop tee to a fairway barely visible from the tee box. The 7th hole plays through a graveyard — a real one — which the committee of the club has historically treated as a lateral hazard. These are not gimmicks. This is just what Ballybunion is.
Green fee at £150 is exceptional value for a course of this calibre. Play it twice on any visit. The second round is better.
Signature hole
Par-3 7th, 'The Graveyard', 380 yards (par 4 in the original)
"The tee shot must avoid a real 19th-century graveyard on the right. The second shot plays to a green set above the Atlantic. There is nowhere else in the world quite like it."
Designer
Patrick Murphy / Tom Simpson
Par
71
Yardage
6,593
Green fee
from £150
Best for
Best time to go
April to October. Kerry weather is unpredictable year-round but May to September is most reliable.
Play Ballybunion
James can arrange tee times, transfers, and accommodation around this course. One call is all it takes.
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