| Description |
The design intention of the second course at the K Club was to ensure that it was completely different to the North Course. This resulted in what the design team call an 'inland links'. This rather undersells it: there are enough great links courses in Ireland without inventing artificial ones but there is a lot more to it than that. The links layout with dunes makes it both a challenge to players and provides excellent spectator vantage points as was proved with the successful hosting of the European Open in July 2004.
Again in keeping with the links feel, gorse and bracken have been planted 'randomly' around the course, quite different to the formal, cultivated plants on the North Course.
Quite un-links like, though, is the use of lakes, 14 acres of them, particularly in evidence on the closing six holes. Water is also much in evidence on the course's signature hole, the 606 yard par 5 7th, The Quarry. A man made rockface runs along the length of the hole and, to make reaching the green with two long hits harder still, there is a lake and a series of water cascades. From tee to green the hole drops 60 feet. Built with the assistance of a company whose usual clients are Disney and Universal Studios, love it or hate it, it is certainly spectacular. |
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