Mount Juliet - Kilkenny - Ireland

History: The Earl of Carrick named the Mount Juliet Estate after his wife Juliet, and she would have been proud. The Estate consists of over 1500 acres of lush riverfront pastureland and now incorporates one of the classiest small hotels in the world. The property also accommodates a horse stud, golf course, residential properties, gardens and trails.

The golf course was designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 1991

Mt Juliet hotel: The Mount Juliet Golf & Spa Hotel is one of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World, and is truly a wonderful place to stay. With first class accommodation, dining and service, your comfort is assured. And if you want to get active you can play golf, ride a horse, have a putt, walk the gardens, cycle, fish the River Nore, shoot clay targets, or take up archery. The stud farm and equestrian centre are world class.

Putting Course: One of the most fun and perhaps unique things to do at Mount Juliet was to play on the putting course set in the gardens of Mount Juliet House. The full 18 hole grass putting green was outrageously good fun with holes surrounded by water. It was both beautiful and challenging..

But sadly the maintenance costs were seen as too much of a burden and the putting green is no more!

Golf Course: Jack Nicklaus has fashioned an American parkland type course in the lush rolling terrain at The Mount Juliet Estate.

The golf course winds through mature trees, around and over lakes, and is strategically bunkered as you would expect from a Nicklaus design.

With multiple tees, the course can cater for all standards of player and has hosted a number of professional events over the years including 3 Irish Opens, an American Express Championship, and Shell's Wonderful World of Golf.

Notable holes include:

- the par 3 third hole, an all water carry to an almost island green in a gorgeous setting

- the short par 4 fourth hole- a very tight drive through a treed valley to a green protruding out into a lake

- hole 10 is a short thinking man's par 5 with a large tree central to the approach- do you go left or right?

- hole 11 is pretty mid length par 3 over water

- hole 13 is a brutish longer par 4 which requires a strong tee shot over a hill and a long approach over water

- hole 18 is a challenging long par 4 finishing hole with a heavily bunkered green and water all the way down the left hand side of the hole

Mount Juliet is one of the great places to stay and play golf. The golf course is very pleasant and has been voted the best inland course in Ireland. Whilst it has some lovely holes, the course overall does not perhaps reach great heights.

Nevertheless it has a beautiful setting, a nice golf course, and is an absolutely world class place to stay.

Peter Wood is the founder of The Travelling Golfer – click the link to read his full review.

Absolutely what a parkland should be - trees well back from playing areas except when they are placed strategically on of near the fairway. Apart from Adare Manor, these are the best greens I have payed on this type of course (like a fast carpet). Very playable if you choose your tees wisely.

Mount Juliet is a good parkland course, part of a beautiful extensive estate with mature trees and general bucolic idyll. Although there are house dotted around they don't intrude much on your game here.

Although its star may have dipped a bit from its glory days hosting WGCs the new owners have been investing in the course and the conditioning has now improved. There is a new driving range area opening this year , but sadly the putting course seems to have been dug up which is a real shame.

The course is not terribly exciting or unique, but is a pleasant stroll. From an Irish point of view, this is one of the best parklands in the country, but if I was coming from abroad I am not sure this would be top of my list. Although there are some interesting holes with a bit of strategy like number 2, 8, 10, and 13, some of the holes are fairly uninspired, like number 6, 9, 12. There is a bit of elevation on the site, but unfortunately you usually walk / down these to the next hole which ends up being flat. Kind of a shame really.

There is plenty of mounding around but it doesn't serve much purpose, I presume it's there to alleviate the flatness of the actual holes but doesn't really work. Despite this, this is still a good parkland track, but does not come close to the character of the big links courses. It does also get quite boggy in the winter.

If you are in the Southeast of Ireland its the course to play along with Carlow in terms of parkland.

Very scenic and well designed golf course with hazards placed strategically off the tee offering plenty of decision making and strategy as well as risk/reward shots. My favourite hole was the par 5 10th- 2 routes to take for 2nd shot fairway sits way out to the left and angles back towards the green for 3rd shot, taking the 2nd shot on requires a high fade over a bunch of mature trees and a large number of pot bunkers waiting to gobble the ball up should it not quite make the carry (I'm a 5 handicap and hit two of my best shots ever drive and high 3 wood to 6 feet then knocked in the putt for eagle so I'll remember it for a while!!) My other favourite hole was the sugnature 4th, short (only a 6 iron off the tee and 9 iron to the green for me) but incredibly tight and intimidating. A thoroughly enjoyable golf course.

I have had the pleasure of playing Mount Juliet in November 2006 and July 2010. It is a lovely lush parkland, very playable but not easy to score so well. Everything works well there. I rate it highly but it is not my favourite parkland, Headfort New is ahead of it, for example. Play it, if you are in the area. CW Jones, Bendigo, Australia

One of the best courses I have played. I am a handicap 16 golfer and have played links courses and also parkland and Mount Juliet is one of the best Parkland courses I have played either here, in the UK or in Europe. The fairways are magnificent and the greens are like carpets. I received a very warm welcome on arrival and thank everyone at Mount Juliet for a great day.

I can’t understand some of the naysayer comments below. I think Mount Juliet is one of the most underrated courses in Ireland and perhaps this IS big Jack’s best European design. Each hole is well thought out and the topography impressive, pleasingly undulating and tree lined. With no weak holes is perhaps deserved of an even higher ranking. Juliet’s bunkering is strong and even bizarre with an unusual walled bunker at the rear of 16. Over water par threes are not only exciting but exacting and the greens are superb and slope every which way. I’d be hard pressed to find a negative point about this course, except perhaps that it’s a breakaway from Irish tradition. The facilities at the resort are a bit special too so put me down as a big all-round fan of Mount Juliet.

A nice course & country club. I made the mistake of flying to dublin & then driving down to mount juliet...a bit tortous & not the most scenic of drives....The course is OK. I love Irish golf but i was dissappointed...if you are going for the country club retreat gleneagles is the better option & the courses around dublin are fantastic. There are so many irish courses that beat this ....portmarnock, k club, druids, old head to name but a few

What a great parkland course. Really perfect conditions. We played on a sunny day in April, it was so much fun altough the scores were not too good. No really weak hole and many great golf-holes. Play this course you won`t be dissapointed.

Great condition but very bland. Very over rated golf course.