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GeographyIn order to give those unfamiliar with Ireland an idea of where everything is we have used the four provinces, Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught as our areas. This was an historic division of Ireland and, although it may not coincide with current political demarcation, (Ulster includes Northern Ireland which is part of the UK and three counties of the Republic of Ireland), it works well enough for more important things than politics, like provincial rugby. It also works well for the less geographically gifted corresponding, as it does, to top, bottom, left and right.CoursesWe are not trying to tell you every course in Ireland is a masterpiece of design to be followed by a gastronomic tour de force in the clubhouse. You are our customer: not the golf club so we try to provide an honest assessment of courses and hotels and to classify them in a useful way.Ireland has a wonderful range of golf courses: from classic links buffeted by the Atlantic like Ballybunion, Lahinch or Royal Portrush to sumptuous parkland around stately homes, often converted to luxurious hotels, like the K Club, Mount Juliet or Nuremore. There are great links courses in little Donegal villages where a round costs next to nothing and even the most expensive courses are much cheaper than in North America and often a lot less than in Scotland too. We have classified courses as links or inland although some of the inland courses are parkland beside the sea. The true links course, though, has its architecture cheifly determined by nature, not too hilly, fairways groomed by salt spray and wind and greens, with links grass, slow in rain but lightning fast as they dry out. Many courses describe themselves as Championship Courses, or championship status, often because they are particularly long. We have tried to be more rigorous: unless a recognised championship has been played over the course it is not included (and a recognised competition doesn't include the Gaelic football team's annual fourball). Easy and difficult to play are somewhat subjective and you may be less than pleased with the easy classification after losing your third ball of the round. We have based this partly on standard scratch score and partly on gathered opinion. The same applies to easy and difficult walking (which also depends on how much of your golf is played on the fairway and how much in the woods and bunkers). "Easy walking" does try to identify courses suited to the physically infirm. HotelsWe have categorised accommodation by price (cheap, moderate, expensive rather than a more pretentious economy, standard and deluxe) which often bears no relation to service. A small flexible hotel willing to prepare breakfast at an inhospitable hour is going to be of more use to golfers than one with a jacuzzi in every room. We rely a great deal on your experiences and feedback for our hotel information. | |||||||
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