County Sligo Golf Club

County Sligo Golf Club is one of the best – and most spectacular – golf courses in Ireland.

Ben Bulben – Ireland’s answer to Table Mountain – overlooks County Sligo Golf Club and is a haunting, ever-present background to a round at one of the most spectacular courses in Ireland.

This mass of mudstones and limestone watches your every shot on a course which is affectionately known as Rosses Point and is laid out on a peninsula jutting into the Atlantic two miles north of the town of Sligo.

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The Harry Colt-designed links – it was founded in 1894 but redesigned by the Englishman in 1927 – was in Golf World’s first top 50 ranking in 1988 and has been a fixture in the list ever since.

Rosses Point begins in fairly modest fashion, but even on the first four up-and-down holes – the best (that should perhaps be ‘most appealing’) of which is probably the downhill 483-yard par-5 3rd – the views are truly breathtaking. Indeed, the 2nd might be a nondescript short, uphill two-shotter, but the panorama of Ben Bulben and the Atlantic from this green is memorable.

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The pulse really quickens on the tee of the 5th though, another short par 5 which starts with a drive from the edge of a cliff to a fairway 200ft down below. With Ben Bulben in your eyeline and with any kind of contact guaranteed to get airborne, this might be the most appealing tee shot in British and Irish golf.

That said, its lofty, seaside position inevitably means strong winds vigorously and frequently sweep across Rosses Point – so this elevated drive might gain you 160 yards or 320, depending on the direction of the breeze.

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Turning inland, the 7th is a brilliant stroke index 1 with a cunning stream in front of the green and this begins arguably Rosses Point’s finest stretch, being followed by a left-to-right dog-leg, a cute short hole and then two par 4s in opposing directions – the 10th being one of the esteemed designer Pat Ruddy’s favourite holes in Ireland.

The 12th plays down towards the beach and from here you play for five terrific holes along shore, including Tom Watson’s favourite, the 14th, and culminating in an amphitheatre green on the fine 17th.

Host to the prestigious annual amateur event, the West of Ireland Championship (which Padraig Harrington won twice), Rosses Point finishes rather as it started – but do not let this muted beginning and end detract from the class in between.

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