Rough and tumble Donegal Links -- as Irish as they come

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Irish golf is special, that's a fact nobody will dispute and among an inventory of more than 400 layouts are many that are very special. The names may not be immediately recognized and they may not be located in the usual tourist centers of the Emerald Isle, but wander away from the usual path and there are some amazing golf discoveries to be made.

Sole occupant of the Murvagh Peninsula, Donegal Golf Club ranks among the privileged gentry

Everything is on a grander scale at Donegal

Ranked among the Top 50 courses in Britain and Ireland Donegal provides its own brand of golf

Rough and tumble Donegal Golf Club

Donegal - alone with nature on the 8th green

Donegal - the 8th fairway

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If you are looking for the truly unspoiled Ireland, County Donegal is as untamed and natural as you will ever find. Dramatic vistas from coastal roads that run high above the crashing sea, spectacular mountains, scenic glens and moody lakes make this a magical place. There is a rugged, masculine beauty to this northwestern tip of Ireland that immediately gives it a personality entirely of its own - this is rough and tumble County Donegal. It's not surprising that golf here takes on the same tough, no-nonsense character.

Donegal Golf Club, with its spectacular links layout on the Murvagh Peninsula is pure County Donegal from start to finish -- a man's layout with little patience for finesse, ready, willing and able to take on all-comers with fists bared.

Big hitters with an urge to show-off their prowess from the back tees should be prepared for a strong dose of humiliation if they attempt to tackle the full 7,200 yards of one of Ireland's longest courses. But if bravado is your game, you have the wind at your back and St. Patrick is watching over you, give it a try -- just cast all thoughts of par from your mind.

First impressions are that the links at Murvagh have been here for a hundred years. Not so - this sparkler of a course was only laid out in 1973, the work of the late Eddie Hackett, one of Ireland's greatest and most prolific designers and this may be his very best. More recently, Pat Ruddy of Ballyliffin and European Club fame and the Emerald Isle's current master of links design, has been brought in to upgrade and improve some of the greens. The Ruddy touch has only enhanced what was already a links course on the grandest of scales.

The opening hole, a 523-yard par 5, draws the golfer into the astounding beauty that surrounds them with the Blue Stack Mountains of Donegal rising majestically across shimmering Donegal Bay, behind the first green. Enjoy the view and this gentler side of Murvagh while you may -- the real test is yet to come.

The challenge builds rapidly, reaching an early crescendo and a glorious stretch of holes running from the fifth through the eighth, possibly the best succession of holes of any front nine in all Ireland. This is true links golf at its very best -- thin ribbons of fairways running between sand dunes with devious bunkering everywhere and an omnipresent wind gusting in from every direction.

Appropriately called "Valley of Tears," the fifth is a beauty of a par 3 measuring close to 200 yards and played to a raised green. Any shot falling short is automatically sucked back into a collection of hungry bunkers and chances of par fade quickly from the cards.

The seventh is particularly attractive, an almost 400 yard, dogleg left, running along the edge of the bay. In true links style, both tee and approach shots are played blind to a tiered green that is one of the trickiest on the course. The par-5 eighth stands as a testament to Murvagh's length -- a whopping 550 yards down one of the narrowest slivers of a fairway you will ever face. Big hitting just isn't enough and without surgical precision, disaster is inevitable.

The back nine is a full 200 yards shorter than the front; a deceiving detail that leads many into believing this will be easier. Wrong, the back is every bit as demanding and includes the longest hole in Ireland, the 12th that stretches almost 600 yards.

Combining with Murvagh's length and demands for accuracy are the outstanding greens, made all the better by Ruddy's recent fine-tuning. Subtle, with breaks often difficult to detect, they are among the best you will find on any links.

Recently Murvagh was recognized by the Irish Golf Union when it was chosen to host the Irish Amateur Close Championships, its first national event. No doubt there will be many more important championships to follow as word gets out that Donegal Golf Club is the proud owner of one of the country's toughest and most spectacular links.

Add Murvagh to those other Donegal links courses at Rosapenna and Ballyliffin and this northwestern corner of Ireland is inevitably destined to become the new Irish hot-spot for golfers, a tribute long overdue, but already underway. My only word for those playing Murvagh for the first time -- unless you have a sadistic streak in you, play it from the sensible tees. You'll probably have more enjoyment and avoid the heartache that is all but guaranteed for those who insist on playing from the back markers.

Donegal has already jumped into the prestigious position as one of Ireland's top-10 courses. Make sure you play it before it's discovered by the masses. For a few suggestions on how to include County Donegal's mighty links layouts in your Irish golf trip, click here.

©2008 David Brice / Golf International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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