Portarlington Golf Club - Ireland

Portarlington Golf Club celebrated its centenary in 2008 and the club's par 71 course – measuring 6,496 yards from the back markers – was doubled in size to an 18-hole layout by Eddie Hackett in the 1990s.

Laid out in two returning nines, the tree-lined fairways are routed over a relatively tight parcel of land – so constricted is the site, in fact, that golfers drive across the 18th fairway at both the 10th and 13th holes.

The landscape is rather flat but far from boring, with the River Barrow adding interest when it appears to the right of the fairway at the par four 16th and the par three 17th holes.

For many, the best hole on the scorecard is the 391-yard, par four 14th which doglegs sharply to the right, past a huge old oak tree in the middle of the fairway, to a well-bunkered, pear-shaped green.