Castle Golf Club - Dublin - Ireland

The course at Castle Golf Club is located in what was the estate of Rathfarnham Castle. A building firm purchased the castle and associated land in 1912 with the intention of developing houses and a golf club. The castle was sold off the following year to the Jesuit Order – and subsequently declared a National Monument by the Irish government in 1987 – but the housing never materialised so the land was made available to the members in 1918.

The celebrated golf architect, Harry S. Colt, updated the design of the six-year old course once it was under the control of the membership and this remained largely unchanged for over 80 years until the Jeff Howes Golf Design team conducted a renovation in 2001/2 to reconstruct all the greens, introduce new fairway bunkers and rebuild a number of tees. In addition, water works were carried out to realign a river and build a lake.

The 6,270-yard, par 70 parkland course is laid out in two loops of nine holes with a sting in the tail – two of the three par fives on the course are played back to back near the end of the round. The demanding finish starts with the 16th, a 529-yard par five continuing the three-shot theme with the 500-yard 17th before concluding with the closing hole, a 411-yard par four. Quite a testing way to end a round of golf.