Whistling Straits (Irish)

Author Daniel Wexler comments on the Irish course in his book The American Golf Resort Guide: “seeming even less natural than its sister (which, by definition, is impossible), it is heavily affected by three man-made lakes, particularly on a front nine whose strongest holes include the 489-yard 4th, which doglegs left around massive waste bunkers (and) the 160-yard 6th, played to an island green within the sand.

The back nine runs out to the north where it is initially led by the 208-yard 11th (whose narrow green is pinched between right-side sand and a large, left-side dune), the blind 183-yard 13th (styled after the famed Dell hole at Lahinch), and the 564-yard 14th, where a creek divides the lay-up zone. Particularly given the more limited nature of its site, one of the stronger ‘second’ courses around.”