WEST WATERFORD – DG IRELAND TOP100 – 2025
Editor, Kevin Markham
“… for peace comes dropping slow” wrote WB Yeats in The Lake Isle of Innisfree. In terms of Irish golf courses, nowhere does that apply to more than West Waterford. The calm and beauty of the Irish landscape wraps around it like a cloak, the River Brickey quiet and serene on one side, views spilling ever onwards to the Comeragh Mountains on the other.
For Eddie Hackett’s 100th design, just outside Dungarvan, he embraced the tranquil beauty
that the Irish landscape offered and created a peaceful haven for golf.
It is positively languid at times as fairways arc sweetly between the trees, but don’t think it lacks bite: the 3rd is an uphill, left-to-right dogleg which demonstrates how tricky ‘natural’ can be. And the par threes are not to be trifled with.
The back nine descends towards the Brickey and it threatens along the left on three holes (12, 14 and 15), even though it is rarely seen or heard.
This is country golf at its best and it has produced two very talented golfers: Seamus Power and Gary Hurley.
FAVOURITE HOLE
The par-3 4th is one of the signature holes here, a hole drifting
gently uphill and over a winding ditch and pond.
WHAT’S IN THE BAG?
In the quiet surroundings there’s nothing like the sound of
a crushed drive. And there are plenty of opportunities to
swing hard.
For more on Ireland’s TOP golf courses; Destination Golf – Ireland 2025 – Destination Golf