It's anything but modest, it’s a mammoth golf course.

Set down the coast from the Rosapenna resort you enter St Patrick’s via a dusty track and are greeted with a modest starters hut where you collect your bits and bobs... beyond is anything but modest, it’s a mammoth golf course!

Tom Doak designed an 18-hole course across a 36-hole plot and you can see the vastness of the land as soon as you get to the tee box on 3 which plays alongside the coastline. After a fairly raucous night in nearby Rathmullan, I needed big fairways and a breeze to kick my hangover, I got both and thanked my lucky stars I wasn’t playing Sandy Hills as St Patrick’s is far more forgiving, especially off the tee.

That’s not to say you can flick it round, far from it. We played from the ‘Slate’ tees at 6,490 which felt like a fair test, especially with some blind approach shots into the huge undulating green complexes that gave me the fear on lag putts more than once!

The stand-out hole from the group was the 14th, not only as a golf hole but the views from every part of this hole and up the top of the adjacent green at 15 are magnificent. The pin positions on the day were questionable though, they were set on slopes so severe it felt like scenes from Happy Gilmore at times.

We all loved our time here and with age, this course is going to mature into an absolute beauty. I’d love to get back if anything just to enjoy the Harbour Bar which is down the road in Downings and a must for anyone visiting Rosapenna!