The Ground
The ground moves, and the course has to move with it
Ammophila arenaria. Planted, fenced, thatched with brush, and still the cheapest sea defence anybody has.
Photo: Anna Romanova / Pexels
A site about Ireland's links courses, the championships they hold and the ground they sit on.
Ammophila arenaria. Planted, fenced, thatched with brush, and still the cheapest sea defence anybody has.
Photo: Anna Romanova / Pexels
Marram, fescue, blowouts, erosion rates and the maintenance problem nobody on the Atlantic coast has solved.
Marram holds a dune together with a root system that goes down further than the grass stands up. Cut the toe away and the face slumps; the hole above it goes with it.
The coastal roster, from Portrush round to Kinsale
Twelve courses with a documented architectural and championship record, taken one at a time: who drew the ground, who changed it, and what it has held.
The pins, north to south
Old Tom Morris to Martin Hawtree: the named hands that drew and redrew Irish links ground, and what the restoration-over-redesign turn means now.
The rollback announced for 2028, the distance data behind it, and what a shorter ball does to a game played on ground that has always been meant to run.
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