County Louth Golf Club or "Baltray" as it is more affectionately known is situated 4 miles from the historic town of Drogheda at the mouth of the river Boyne. With the river to the south and the Irish Sea to the east, this is Links golf at is very best, with only the muted murmur of a ships engine to break the sounds of nature, as it quietly wends its way up river to the port.

The present course was designed in 1938 by the renowned Tom Simpson. The course is laid out in two loops covering some 190 acres with no two holes running in the same direction. The only exception being the 12th and 13th which run along the sea. It speaks highly for Simpson's design that he saw need to introduce only fifty bunkers in the course's defences the rest was taken care of by the natural terrain.

Rated in Golf Digest's top 100 courses in the world as a "hidden gem". It is one of the top twenty five courses in the British Isles and it is in the top six in the island. Sometimes ferocious and other times benign, it provides competition for all handicaps. In today's language it could well be described as "user friendly".

Just when you think golf in Ireland can't get any better, along comes a venue like Carton House. Set in a walled 1100-acre estate, only 14 miles from Dublin city centre, Carton House offers golfers today a choice of parkland or "inland links" style golf.

The Montgomerie, opened for play in 2003 and presents the golfer with a different challenge to its sister course with its head high pot bunkers, fast running greens and narrow fairways weaving through fields of fescue grasses. The Montgomerie blends a storybook setting with the exciting qualities of links golf. The intelligent bunker complexes demand strategic, shot-making excellence and the ground game is always in play.

Just when you think golf in Ireland can't get any better, along comes a venue like Carton House.

Tucked into a storybook setting - a walled 1100acre estate, only 14 miles from Dublin city centre, Carton House offers golfers today a choice of parkland or "inland links" style golf.

Opened in 2002, The O'Meara is a parkland course, which utilizes the majestic rolling land of the estate as well as the waters of the River Rye. The O’Meara explores the swooping pastures and tiptoes around the ancient specimen trees on this magnificent estate.

Set in 400 acres of gently rolling wooded countryside, right from the off, it is apparent that Druids Glen is something special. Often referred to as the "Augusta of Europe", the course has won high praise from many leading professionals and presents eighteen challenging holes, many of them making impressive use of water hazards. Druids Glen played host to the Irish Open Golf Championship from 1996 to 1999 and was voted European Golf Course of the year in 2000 at the prestigious Hertz International Travel Awards. It's said that every great course produces great champions and Druids Glen is no different, having produced winners of the calibre of Montgomery and Garcia.

In keeping with the tradition of the Druids Glen Resort, the sensational Druids Heath championship course provides a unique and thrilling experience for all golfers. Maintained to tour standards, the golf course is carved from the natural landscape of Ireland's Garden County with rolling fairways, natural rock quarries, lakes, trees, streams, gorse, pot-bunkers and a testing sea breeze. In addition to a warm Irish welcome, golfers will experience breathtaking scenery throughout their round. Druids Heath is simply what golf is all about. This links style heathland course consists of a front nine holes overlooking the Irish Sea and a back nine holes nestling among the Wicklow Mountains.

Opened in 1991 the beautiful and challenging Mount Juliet course has established itself as a premier golfing venue for Top Professionals and leisure golfers worldwide.

Mount Juliet has hosted many major golfing events and welcomed the return of the World's Top 50 golfers to play in the World Golf Championship - American Express Championship in October 2004. The event was a fantastic success with the crowds turning up in their thousands. The holder, Tiger Woods, survived an early injury scare to put up a sterling defence of his title but he and the remainder of the field had to acknowledge the brilliance of South African golfing superstar Ernie Els who finished with a stunning 18 under par total of 270 to edge out Thomas Bjorn on the last green.

Mount Juliet boasts rolling fairways, many featuring water hazards and contoured greens, all superbly blended into the spectacular setting of this famous old Irish Estate.

Lush fairways lead to immaculately manicured greens. Magnificent tress form colonnades of spectacular colour punctuated by picturesque rocky streams and lakes.

The PGA National golf course gives its players a feeling of tradition, excellence and quality. The holes are set amidst thousands of mature trees that boast a variety of colour throughout all four seasons and this combined with impressive bunkering and the exquisite use of water means that this golf course truly is a golfer's paradise.

When you arrive, you soon realise that the PGA National golf course at Palmerstown House has the capability of becoming a great course on the Irish and European golfing map. Every hole has its own individual charm and no two holes are similar.

One of the premium links courses in the country Portmarnock Golf Club is the venue for the Irish Open Championship and is given world championship ranking by many critics. The sandy soil of the Portmarnock peninsula makes it ideal for golf. Now boasting 27 holes, its potential as a golf links was realised in 1894. Within two years of the opening of the 18 hole course, Portmarnock hosted its first tournament, the Irish Open Amateur Championship and has hosted the prestigious Irish Open Championship many times since then and was also host for the Walker Cup. Within the curve of the coastline formed by Howth peninsula, it offers stunning views of Ireland’s Eye and Lambay Island, rising sharply from deep waters. But above all, there is the charm of its delightful turf, the wildness, the solitude of the sandhills and the sea, and the ever-present challenge of the wind.

Designed by Bernhard Langer, the championship links at Portmarnock Hotel covers 180 acres of classic terrain. Widely recognised as one of Ireland’s premier golf resorts the links course takes full advantage of a natural setting. Here, professional and amateur alike can appreciate a links that combines all the charms of a traditional layout with the challenge of the modern game.

"There are very few locations in Europe which could have allowed me the opportunity and landscape to design such a classic championship links I hope all those who play it discover its magic and challenging beauty".

Bernhard Langer

Reflecting the golfing style of its creator, Portmarnock Links is a high-quality golf course that flows naturally through the seaside duneland. A prominent feature is the quality of the many bunkers, deep and penalising but always visible. Indeed the golf course is presented in such a way as to inform you the exact nature of the shot required with an equally clear signal that there is little room for error.

A definite inclusion in the list of great Irish links courses, Royal Dublin is Ireland's second oldest golf club and possesses a history to match. A Scottish banker named John Lumsden pioneered the formation of the club and having been founded in 1885, the Dublin Golf Club as it was then known, was first based in the Phoenix Park but as membership grew, a new home was sought. Following a brief sojourn at Sutton, the club moved to its present home at Bull Island in 1889 and became known as the Royal Dublin Golf Club when it received its Royal designation in 1891.

Renowned for its greens, having played the course prior to the 1998 British Open, Ernie Els insisted that they were "the best links greens I have played in a long time". Different to most links courses, Royal Dublin is laid out almost entirely on flat land but still represents as formidable links test as you are likely to encounter. The layout is in the traditional out and back format so the two nines must be handled quite differently due to the prevailing winds. What can sometimes be a good score in the making is often quite literally blown off course during the return to the clubhouse.

As befits a course of Royal Dublin's stature, it has played host to a wide range of major events over the years, both amateur and professional. The Irish Open was staged at Royal Dublin from 1983 to 1985, being won twice by Seve Ballesteros and by Bernard Langer in 1984. The club has hosted the Irish Amateur Open from 1998 to 2002 and was also the scene of one of the most remarkable finishes ever in the history of the game. During the 1966 Irish Open, Christy O'Connor Sr. stood on the 16th tee of his home course needing three birdies to tie. O'Connor produced an eagle birdie eagle finish, a feat more difficult today as the 18th is now regarded as a par four.