Cork Golf Club

Cork is certainly one of the most attractive courses in Ireland. It's delightfully situated on Little Island, a tiny peninsula, which juts out into the lovely Lough Mahon, in the estuary of the River Lee. The views across Cork Harbour are quite stunning.

Cork Golf Club was originally established in 1888 and the club had several homes before it finally came to rest on the free-draining limestone of Little Island. Nine holes were originally laid out by the club's inaugural Scottish professional, David Brown, and the famous English architect Tom Dunn.

Alister MacKenzie was approached while he was laying out the course at Muskerry Golf Club in the summer of 1924 to inspect the layout. His suggestions for minor alterations and improvements were implemented straight away.

During the club’s AGM at the Imperial Hotel in Cork on 21 October that year, authorization was given to "expend a sum not exceeding £600" to implement additional MacKenzie plans. His brother Charles MacKenzie and his British Golf Course Construction Company were appointed to carry out the work.

In March the following year, MacKenzie returned to advise on improvements to holes 5-12. He visited the club, spending the whole day on the course, and afterwards met with the committee. The following month, the Cork Examiner reported that work carrying out “elaborate plans of reconstruction” had been in progress for several weeks.

MacKenzie had a great talent for putting nature to the best possible use and he was certainly on top form at Cork. He combined an old quarry and the undulating links-like ground to marvellous effect, but it is the greens that bear MacKenzie's hallmark... large, undulating and, during the height of summer, frighteningly fast. This championship parkland course measures 6,731 yards from the back tees and over the years it's certainly tested the world's very best golfers. In the 1932 Irish Open, Alf Padgham narrowly beat the challenging Henry Cotton.

The opening three holes are fairly gentle and offer up a birdie opportunity or two, but Cork really begins to show its mettle when you reach the river at the 4th, a demanding 455-yard par four. It's a classic risk and reward hole, where your tee shot must carry across rough, dead ground to a distant undulating fairway. The more you cut off, the easier the approach shot to one of Cork's smallest and most challenging greens. In a similar vein, the par five 5th also runs parallel with the river and also requires a long carry off the tee. You need a precise approach shot, because the green is seemingly cut into the side of the river. It's a cracker.

A portrait of Cork's most famous golfing son hangs in clubhouse – 1946 British Amateur Champion, Jimmy Bruen. Bruen's swing was reminiscent of that of today's Jim Furyk. “He had not a very graceful or orthodox swing,” wrote Bernard Darwin in Golf Between Two Wars, “appearing to take the club very much inwards and bring it down with a loop at the top; he was rather a forcing player, but what force there was behind his shots! how consistently he played them and with what a masterful confidence!”

Frank Pennink and Dave Thomas carried out minor course modifications at different times down the years then Martin Hawtree was involved in rebuilding all the tees, refurbishing all the bunkers and adding a new green (the 12th) over a six year period, ending in 2013.