The great American golfing guru, Peter Dobereiner has written:
"No player is qualified to write about golf courses until he has been to
Kerry, because he has not experienced the upper range of quality".
The Sunday Telegraph's "Golf Course Guide to Britain & Ireland" states:
"The golf on the west coast of Ireland has now become so popular that the
names of the great courses trip off the tongue as readily as those of
Scotland. Ballybunion, Waterville, Killarney and Tralee has become an
established foursome for the golfing tourist and one that every player
should experience at least once". Please note that all of these topmost
courses are actually in Kerry, not really in the "west" of Ireland as the
guidebook suggests.
The other important thing to remember when directing tourists to golfing
destinations in our soggy climate is playability. Of the above courses,
only Killarney is not a links course. Links courses, as you know, drain
immediately and are therefore effectively immune to our downpours. So
visitors you send to Kerry will always manage to get in their games, not
always the case at other destinations.
"Glenbeigh Cottage" happens to be about exactly in the mid-point between
these four top courses. If you want to play all four of them you'll
probably do less driving from Glenbeigh than from anywhere else. And
Glenbeigh also has Dooks, perhaps the most magic course of the lot and
also a links.