County Louth Golf Club

About the club

A series of high-profile competitions, such as the 2009 Vagliano Trophy and Men's Amateur Home Internationals, raised the profile of a course that was until recently known mainly to a few keen students of links-style golf. Indeed, Golf World not long ago declared that "County Louth is one of the best kept secrets of Irish golf." Tom Simpson created the original layout in 1938, which makes the most out of the sand dunes that command the landscape. The course's two looping nines are arranged so that none of the holes play in the same direction, apart from the beachfront 12th and 14th. The bunkering is not extensive, but is deployed with great precision so as to penalize wild shots off the tee and ill-considered irons, and the punishing rough likewise calls for care. Renovations have brought the course up to a length of 6249 meters so it remains ready for more tournaments.