Doonbeg Golf Course
Doonbeg, County Clare
The site at Doonbeg was originally proposed as a golf links in the late 19th century by Scottish Guardsmen stationed in Ireland. They built their golf course at Lahinch instead and so the site lay fallow until Greg Norman was commissioned to design a golf course as the centrepiece of a luxury resort. Norman's somewhat controversial design was badly damaged by a 2014 storm that led to a major course renovation led by Martin Hawtree in 2016, the result of which is a top class links golf course that fully realises the potential of the oceanside location.
Doonbeg Course Description
Battling erosion and unsympathetic planners was a constant issue for the owners. In January 2014 a severe storm demolished the shoreline and took several of Doonbeg's seaside greens with it. It further, and thankfully, took the old 14th hole, for some reason considered the signature hole but in all honesty was a prototype for any silly golf hole anywhere. Enter the Trump organisation who purchased the whole property for a song on the usual pretence of invigorating the local economy and providing shedloads of jobs.
The course lies beside White Strand on the west Clare coast, 20 miles south of Lahinch. The beach is one of Ireland's remotest and beautiful stretches of sand, defining Doughmore Bay with the Atlantic Ocean stretching beyond in every direction. Sand dunes mark the edge of land, high above the beach and the golf course plays out and back towards Carrowmore Point to the north.
The designer himself rates the par-4 15th as the golf hole around which the course is built. A long far-4 through a funnel of dunes to a 150-yard long green.
