DG IRELAND 2021 – Macreddin
Editor, Kevin Markham
When you finish playing Macreddin for the first time, you’ll be amazed that you haven’t played here before. How could I have missed such a great course? you’ll wonder. This is Paul McGinley’s only full course design in Ireland, and it stretches up the two sides of the Aughrim Valley.
It is a picture perfect setting, where holes are shaped by gorse and tall pines and sweet, rolling fairways.
Views streak up the hillsides and along the valley, with the occasional deer appraising your play from the woods. There are a couple of walks from green to tee and there are plenty of buggies for those who don’t want to stretch their legs, but this is a fabulously pretty course to walk… let alone play. Stunning holes abound (2, 4, 6, 12, 13, 17) but Macreddin enjoys a rhythm that just builds from the moment you step onto the 1st tee. But be warned: the doglegs will test you all day long. A truly great value course and the Brooklodge Hotel sits next door.
www.macreddingolfclub.com
Favourite Hole: The par four dogleg 12th is most beautiful… and dangerous (Index 1). It crosses the river twice and demands two (or three) of your best shots. It is a thriller, as are the holes that follow.
What’s in the Bag? Accuracy is paramount with so much gorse and so many doglegs