Rosapenna Golf Links (Sandy Hills) - Ireland

Rosapenna Golf Links is located in the far northwest of Ireland's County Donegal, in the open swatch of duneland past the quaint 19th-century village of Carrigart, overlooking Sheephaven Bay. Rosapenna is a fascinating tale of bygone golfing glory and contemporary revival. The original course at Rosapenna was founded by the Earl of Leitrim, who brought Old Tom Morris over from St. Andrews to design the course in 1891, and built a grand resort hotel of Swedish timber. In 1962, the old hotel was destroyed by fire, but in 1980 the 800-acre property was acquired by Frank Casey, whose father had been the headwaiter at the hotel and who had worked there himself as a youngster. Casey hired Pat Ruddy in 1994 to design a brand new links course in the high ridge of untouched dunes above the original course. The splendid new links, opened in 2003 and christened Sandy Hills, bounds through the secluded valleys of the restless dunes, with magnificent views across the arc of the bay to the massive rock face of Horn Head meeting the Atlantic and south to Muckish Mountain and the wild steppes of Donegal. Casey has also built a new, comfortable hotel adjoining the two courses.

Royal Portrush Golf Club - Northern Ireland

Royal Port rush is one of the most historic links in Ireland, unraveling through the shaggy dunes of Northern Ireland's Antrim Coast, not far from the Giant's Causeway, the thousands of stone pillars that form a natural esplanade to the sea. Founded in 1888, Portrush was a fashionable seaside resort drawing droves of golfers by the turn of the century. The present course is the inspired work of the English master Harry Colt in the early 1930s. Portrush is inevitably compared to Royal County Down, the other great links of Northern Ireland, but the temperaments of the courses are quite different. Portrush's narrow, angled fairways ripple through the dunes on the white chalky cliffs high above the Atlantic, while County Down lies at sea level beneath the Mourne Mountains. Instead of the yellow gorse that blankets County Down, Port rush is famous for its thick rough of sea grasses adorned with wildflowers and thickets of sea roses. The champi­onship course at Portrush is named Dunluce after Dunluce Castle, the 16th-century fortress of the warrior chieftain Sorley Boy MacDonnell, its ruined shell tottering on the seaside cliff in view from the course. The Dunluce Course has the distinction of being the only course outside of Scotland and England to have ever hosted the British Open, with Max Faulkner winning the championship there in 1951.