Dooks Golf Club, Glenbeigh, Ireland

Tucked away on the Ring of Kerry near the town of Killorglin is Dooks Golf Club, a delightfully old-fashioned club with a scenic and testing links that is overlooked by far too many visitors to Ireland’s southwest. Barely 6000 yards, you could almost call it “links golf in miniature,” for although it may lack the towering dunes of Ballybunion and Tralee, it calls for all of the bumpy, imaginative shots required by its more famous neighbors, in a setting that is possibly even more sublime at the edge of Dingle Bay. A 9-hole course up until the 1970’s, it was then expanded to 18 holes by a group of world-famous architects (the local members). Actually, it’s hard to imagine that anyone else could have done a better job. Their best move was to leave the green alone on what is now the 13th. The slopes of the green are said to mirror the contours of the distant mountains, and the result is, well, challenging to say the least. One of our favorite holes at Dooks is on the card, but not part of the normal 18 holes. The Secretary calls it “The Spare,” and they put it in play whenever maintenance is done to one of the others. Located between the 11th and 12th, try to squeeze it in without holding up the group behind you! And don’t dare miss the 19th, one of the friendliest in Ireland, a pub in the clubhouse to rival any on the Emerald Isle!