BALLYBUNION CASHEN

Ballybunion Golf Club, Cashen Course
Ballybunion,
Co. Kerry,
Ireland.

Course Review

Founded: 1980
Designer: Robert Trent Jones Sr.
Championship Length: 6,194 yards

PAR: 72
SSS (Course Rating): 74
Type: Links

Many consider that Ballybunion Golf Club is all about the Old Course. However nothing could be further from the truth. Designed by legendary course architect, Robert Trent Jones Sr. and opened in 1980, the Cashen Course at Ballybunion is more than entitled to share the same hallowed turf as the Old Course and is a superb test of links golf in every respect. That some consider that the Cashen Course presents a stiffer challenge than the Old Course, speaks volumes for its quality.

The Cashen Course at Ballybunion is set on the same majestic links land as its elder sister. Upon observing the terrain for the first time, Trent Jones commented that this was "the finest piece of links land I have ever seen and perhaps the finest piece of links land in the world". With the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the river on the other, the tumbling, undulating, free flowing design is beauty beyond description in words.

The variation of the terrain here meant that the construction of a golf course would be no easy matter but somehow, making use of its natural features, it has been achieved. In playing the Cashen Course, you will experience 18 spectacular holes, each with its own unique character and challenge. From the moment you tee off at the first until your final drive over a wasteland at the last and thence to a magnificent finish at an elevated green, you will have traversed a wondrous golf course.

There is no more natural a golf hole in the world than the 10th, over an outrageously beautiful stretch of God given terrain, while many consider the 13th to be the most spectacular on the course. From the landing area on the 13th, the most superb site for a green that has ever been conceived will confront you. In short, if you do make the pilgrimage to Ballybunion like the many before you, don't make the mistake of foregoing the opportunity to play the superb Cashen Course.