Padraig Harrington Foreword to 18 Greatest Irish Golf Holes

As Ireland’s golf ambassador, I take great pride in our fantastic golf courses, so it is a real treat to see them celebrated in print, to be viewed and read about by golfers all over the world. I began playing at the age of four with my brothers at Stackstown Golf Club, just south of Dublin, which became my ‘playground’. I graduated to play the great links courses of Ireland in my Amateur days, before turning Professional and plying my trade all over the world on some of the very best courses. However, the more experiences I have abroad, the more I appreciate how unique Ireland’s courses are. Not only do we possess some of the best links courses in the world but we also are home to some wonderful inland courses, stretching out from magnificent stately homes into previously private parks and forests, providing a different form of golf in beautiful surroundings. It is also 100 per cent guaranteed that visitors will receive a friendly, uniquely Irish welcome and will always look forward to returning. So, where to begin in selecting the country’s 18 greatest golf holes? That is exactly what the authors of 18 Greatest Irish Golf Holes asked themselves when they set out to produce this book. The answer, of course, is on the ground. In producing this beautiful book the authors spent a year criss-crossing Ireland, from Ballyliffin in the north to Waterville in the south, playing its great courses, hunting out its hidden gems and chasing many a ‘wild goose’ after a late night clubhouse recommendation. The resulting list of 18 holes is stunning. What appeals to me is that it is not just the authors’ selection. The holes were selected by thoughtful consensus as much as anything else. As much time was spent interviewing the club Professionals and members, Greenkeepers, aficionados and golf Architects as on the courses themselves. Time, too, was spent with some of my fellow Tour Professionals, discussing the merits of their preferred holes as the 18 Greatest Irish Golf Holes slowly revealed themselves… All the holes featured are, in one way or another, fabulous. Some of these holes are very difficult: the fifteenth at Portmarnock, one of the best par 3s in the world, with a simple design yet it is one of the most treacherous short holes going. Set against the coastline, in the prevailing right to left wind, many a time I have had to start my tee shot out over the beach. The seventh at The European Club is a fantastic par 4 and perhaps the toughest hole in Irish golf. Even the shortest hole in the book, the slip of a par 3 fourteenth at Doonbeg, where I played the course’s inaugural round with architect Greg Norman, is extremely exacting, so short as to have a hypnotic effect on the golfer and proving that a hole does not need length to be considered great. It is undoubtedly one of Ireland’s very best. All the holes included are unique and I’m sure selected for different reasons: the thirteenth at Adare Manor, set within the towering trees, was always destined to be a golf hole; the par 3 fourteenth at Portrush, aptly named Calamity Corner, sometimes requires a driver just to reach; the sixteenth at the K Club is a great risk/reward hole; with the reachable par 4 tenth at Lough Erne tempting the player to take a driver from the tee to hit the green sitting out in the Lough. Of those selected, the ninth at Royal County Down is perhaps the most photographed hole in Irish golf and without which this book would not be complete. However, as a proud Irishman I want readers to know that Ireland does not have just 18 great golf holes. There are literally hundreds. But there is no doubt that this book captures some real highlights – the newly commissioned photography in this collectable edition is breathtaking. It feels real, pure and unfiltered, rather like the great Irish golf courses themselves. Looking through 18 Greatest Irish Golf Holes you might almost be in Ireland yourself.....

Enjoy,
PH