Macreddin

The Macreddin golf course is Paul McGinley's inaugural layout as a designer and it’s the main leisure component of a village – developed by brothers Evan, Eoin and Bernard Doyle – which now comprises a 90-room country house hotel, spa, restaurant, pub and shops.

A substantial amount of soil was shifted when fashioning the fairways at Macreddin but the course that resulted from all the earth movement has received much critical acclaim since the first nine opened in 2007, vindicating McGinley’s decision to displace dirt as required.

The front nine sweep eastwards from the clubhouse with fairways following the contours of a wooded valley. The more dramatic back nine grows stronger and tougher – the Ballycreen Brook weaving its way through the fairways – as it heads towards a wonderful four hole finishing stretch.

McGinley is certainly proud of his work at Macreddin, describing it as “a project in which I got more involved than I’d intended (to the detriment of my game). You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, so I was delighted to get the opportunity to work on such a spectacular piece of Irish landscape; with its rolling terrain, meandering brook and mature woodland”.