Bunclody Golf & Fishing Club

Set out on the banks of the River Slaney within the former Hall-Dare estate in County Wexford, the course at Bunclody Golf & Fishing Club is another top-notch 18-hole layout from Jeff Howes, the Canadian-born architect who has recently worked on a number of Irish projects, including Heritage, Fota Island and Gowran Park.

The course routing brings golfers to the water’s edge twice, once on each nine. Holes 1 to 5 are laid out on open, undulating land away from the river before the layout drops down to a narrow flood plain where waste bunkers on hole 6 and 7 help drain a beautiful little plateau section by the flowing waters.

A quartet of par fours from holes 10 to 13 brings golfers back beside the open section that started the round. There’s plenty of room here again until the approach to the 13th green where golfers now head for a thrilling finish into woodland by the river.

The 219-yard par three 14th is a captivating, downhill short hole played into a green engulfed by trees and it’s followed by the 444-yard par four 15th where the hillside drops steeply from the left and a sentinel tree in the fairway has to be avoided off the tee.

Holes 16 and 17 play through tight fairway corridors along the river before an elevator lift takes golfers up the side of an escarpment to the 18th tee, allowing one last lingering look at the river on the ascent before playing the home hole.

With its chic circular clubhouse and jaw-dropping glass-fronted lift at the 17th green, Bunclody could easily be remembered for its modern accoutrements when really it’s the brilliant finishing stretch through the woods and along the river that should live long in the memory.