Rosapenna Old Tom Morris Golf Course

Several of the world’s best golf architects have worked on Rosapenna’s Old Tom Morris Links, so it’s no surprise that it’s one of the best courses in the area.

Here is the roll call of architects to have worked on Rosapenna’s Old Tom links: Old Tom Morris (1893), James Braid and Harry Vardon (1906), Harry Colt (1911).

You don’t need any more words to encourage you to make the trip here do you? Well here is a bit more background and description anyway… 

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Old Tom was a guest of Lord Leitrim in the early 1890s at his nearby estate and while out enjoying the Donegal scenery noticed a stretch of coastline on the edge of Downings Bay that look perfect for golf. He staked out a course – incorporating wide rolling fairways amid the undulating dunes – and that became Rosapenna’s first course.

Old Tom spread the word of this links heaven in St Andrews and it became a place of pilgrimage for golfers at the turn of the century. Vardon and Braid in 1906 added length and more detailed bunkering but left the natural greens untouched. Colt made small revisions to the Old Tom five years later. 

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Then in 2009 the new Strand nine opened to replace the original back nine which played across the main road on a number of holes. These new holes – the front nine – slide between low lying dunes to the east of Rosapenna’s NO.1 course, the Sandy Hills, and fit perfectly  fashioned much like the original Old Tom Morris Valley nine that runs along the beautiful Tramore beach overlooking Sheephaven Bay which have now become the back nine.

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Laid out by Pat Ruddy the new holes have matured beautifully and sit seamlessly alongside the ancient ones. With views across Mulroy Bay, the Strand and Valley nines of the Old Tom extend to almost 7,000 yards and are enjoyed at least as much as the Sandy Hills by visitors.

They epitomise everything we all love about classic links golf.

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