From Chapter 3:

GOLF COURSE:  Tralee Golf Club

ADDRESS:  West Barrow, Ardfert, Co. Kerry

WEB & PHONE:  www.traleegolfclub.com   (066) 713 6379

STYLE, LENGTH, PRICE:  Links, 6975 yards, par 72, Expensive

AMENITIES:  Wonderful modern clubhouse with changing rooms downstairs and a beautiful lounge/bar upstairs with views onto the course and the sea.  Good food served all day.  Be sure to look in on the Arnold Palmer Room (conference room) when upstairs.  A snack shack next to the changing rooms downstairs allows easy access at the turn.  The pro shop across from the reception desk is fully supplied with all the equipment you need and all the souvenirs you’d want.

COURSE COMMENTS:  The original Tralee 9-hole parkland course at Mounthawk (in town) wasn’t playable in the winter.  In the early 1980s, when the King, Arnold Palmer, came looking for a venue for his first Irish course, the club jumped at the chance.  Palmer and co-designer Ed Seay put together a world-class links course in one of the most scenic locations in the world with views of the mountains of the Dingle Peninsula across the bay and the Atlantic which can be seen from every hole on the course.  With all the water around the course, Tralee has no water crossings.  Several holes play alongside the beach cliffs, notably 2, 3, 8, 15, 16, and 17.  Tralee doesn’t need water crossing because there plenty of other challenges on the course.  Tralee will test all level of golfers with typical links golf problems of tight lies, tough rough, blind shots, and elevation changes.  Fifty-five bunkers will demand accurate shot-making to avoid.  If you do find yourself in the sand, you’ll need all your skill to get out of the often penal traps and fairway pot bunkers.  Hitting out backwards will be your best option in some cases.  The greens are fast and some are undulating, but none too severe.  The biggest challenge, though, will be the wind which blows almost every day.  If the wind is light, be thankful and enjoy the gift Mother Nature has given you.  If the wind is up, be ready to face one of the fairest stern tests of golf you’ll encounter.  If the gale is blowing, as it was on the May afternoon we played, tie your hat on and have a go anyway.  Even in 25 mph or higher winds, Tralee GC is a playable, fair course.

                From the first to the eighteenth, Tralee GC provides quality golf on an immaculately groomed course.  Number two, The Cuilin , is a long (596-yard) par 5 dogleg right which plays along the sea cliffs overlooking the beach, which was used in the filming of David Lean’s movie “Ryan’s Daughter.”  It’s too long for even big hitters to try to cut the corner.  The green next to the cliffs is protected by three bunkers left and a drop to beach on the right.  All of the par 3s at Tralee are strong, but The Castle (named for a nearby Tudor gun turret), the 194-yard third, is backed much of the time by hay bales to keep sea water from splashing onto the green--functional, but not aesthetically pleasing.  The sixth at 427 yards is another sharp dogleg left to right.  Here a drive of 250 yards will reach the corner of a very mounded fairway.  No bunkers are needed to protect the green which slopes to the left.  The Creek [I have no idea why it’s called that; there’s no creek on the hole.] is the eighth hole and another dogleg.  This time the dogleg is left along the beach (which is OB) with a narrow fairway snaking 399 yards to the green which is long and narrow and needs no bunkers to guard it.  Six, seven, and eight are known as Palmer’s Loop.  The eleventh is another long par 5.  Palmer’s Peak is 583 yards uphill with a blind second shot.  Stay right off the tee to avoid the two bunkers at the inside of the left bend.  Play through the gap in the dunes and try to stay center left.  The green is visible from the top of the hill, as are the two bunkers on the left of the green.  If the wind is against you, figure the hole is a par 6!   When you finish the tough eleventh, you reach the 458-yard par 4 monster.  The twelfth, the toughest hole on the course, begins with a semi-blind tee shot--the green is visible in the distance, but the landing area for your drive isn’t.  The green is tucked to the left of the fairway with dunes on the right and a deep gully left and fronting.  Whether on your second or third shot, the severely sloped green is a hard target to find.  The par 3, 159-yard thirteenth is both beautiful and intimidating.  The hole is called Brokers Hollow because your tee shot must carry the hollow all the way to the green.  Any ball short will imbed in the steep, rough covered, depression wall over which you hit.  With a steep rough covered dune behind the green, the hole has no bailout area.  If you manage to find the green, the swales will prove a challenge to putt.  The seventeenth, which again plays along side a “Ryan’s Daughter” film beach, is a demanding hole whether played from the championship or members’ tee.  This 361-yard par 4 is a dogleg right with a landing area which can seem narrow in the wind.  Three bunkers are in play for decent drives, and the green is two-tiered and will seem small.  The finishing hole at Tralee is a gorgeous 486-yard par 5 playing slightly uphill towards the picturesque clubhouse.  The hole is named The Goat’s Hole, but should be called “Bunker Hell” for the thirteen bunkers in play.  They can be avoided, but you must be very accurate or very lucky.  The tiered green has five small, but nasty bunkers around it.

                Tralee Golf Club is a course everyone wants to play, so be sure to book well in advance.  The weather in this part of the country can be particularly fickle, and our day at Tralee is one of the best arguments for self-guided touring rather than with a golf group.  We drove out to the club from our B&B to try to change a morning tee time to afternoon because the weather was supposed to be better later.  It was no problem to change to a 2:00 PM start.  We watched, though, a group of Americans putting on their wet weather gear in order to brave heavy rains and 25 mph winds on one of the toughest courses in Ireland.  The 16 person group had no other options because their bus would be back to pick them up after the round to shuffle them off to their next destination.  After a leisurely morning visit to the Famine Museum and Blennerville Windmill [see Attractions], we returned to the golf course for lunch.  As we ate we watched the bedraggled, soaked tour group return to the clubhouse just about the time the clouds started to break up.  Anne and I played in a stronger than normal (we asked) wind, but we were dry our entire round (and I’ve got the pictures to prove it).

                Course architect Arnold Palmer said of his work at Tralee, “I designed the first nine, but surely God designed the back nine.”  Tralee Golf Club, with a layout by the King and the Almighty, is indeed one of the premier golf destinations in the world. 

COMMENTS FROM THE FORWARD TEES:  A real challenge that requires shot strategy, but it’s worth the effort.  Tralee, like other Arnold Palmer designed courses I’ve played, are designed well for women.  Par 3s are short, but complex.  Par 5s are very long and will play even longer if the wind is against you. My experience at Tralee, at times both frustrating and exhilarating, was rewarding.  I can hardly wait to try it again.