Kilkeel

The small fishing port of Kilkeel lies to the south of the Mourne Mountains on the County Down coastline, close to Carlingford Lough. A couple of miles inland from here, on land owned by the Earl of Kilmorey, a 9-hole course was laid out for the members of Kilkeel Golf Club by Lord Justice Babington, a member of the GUI, back in 1924.

It took almost seventy years before Eddie Hackett expanded the layout to a full 18-hole course and the new fairways were first brought into play in 1993. Today, the course extends to an impressive 6,579 yards from the back tees and it plays to a par of 72, with plenty of doglegged holes laid out across a pleasantly undulating landscape.

The most difficult hole on the course is the left doglegged 14th (stroke index 1), where a pond lurks in front of the green to catch approach shots that fall short of the target. The signature hole follows immediately after this at the 130-yard 15th, with bunkers positioned on three sides of a green that slopes markedly from back to front.