A golf weekend in Kerry

A Kerry weekend is the pilgrimage most Irish golfers keep promising themselves. The catch is geography: it is four-plus hours from Dublin and the courses are spread out — Ballybunion in the north of the county, Tralee twenty minutes on, Waterville the guts of an hour and a half further round the Ring of Kerry. So be realistic. Two courses in a weekend is comfortable; three means a lot of driving. Pick a base that suits the two you most want to play, and treat the road down through the mountains as part of the trip rather than a chore.

If you do one thing in Kerry, play Ballybunion (Old). Tom Watson, who knew a thing or two, called it the best seaside course he had ever seen and spent years tuning up here before Opens. The stretch along the Atlantic from the 7th is why — dunes, cliff edges, the beach below — and the 11th, a 472-yard par four now named “Watson's” after him, is as good a hole as there is in Ireland: the fairway pinched between the ocean on your right and a wall of dunes on your left, played to a green you can barely see. Book it well out for a weekend and give it the whole morning; it is not a course to rush.

Twenty minutes from Ballybunion, Traleeis the easy pairing — Arnold Palmer's first course in Europe, with a front nine on a cliff-and-beach site so cinematic that Ryan's Daughter was filmed on the strand below. It is the sensible logistical choice for a two-course weekend.

Watervilleis the bigger journey and, for many, the bigger reward — a magnificent, remote links out on the Ring where Payne Stewart was made honorary captain for 2000 (he died before he could take it up, and the club keeps a statue of him by the clubhouse). Do not miss the story of the 12th, the “Mass Hole,” played across a hollow where locals worshipped in secret during the Penal Laws. If Waterville is the course you came for, base near it and make it the priority — just know it turns the weekend into more of a drive.

Not every round has to be a €200 championship links. Dooks(about €70), one of the oldest clubs in Ireland beneath the MacGillycuddy's Reeks, is a lovely, honest links to wind down on — its 13th is a proper old-fashioned green that lies exactly where it fell. And out on the Dingle Peninsula, the little nine-times-two at Castlegregory (about €40) is the best-value round in the county and a joy on a calm evening.

Killarney is the crowd-pleaser — the most hotels, the best restaurants and the liveliest nights — but it is an hour from Ballybunion, so it suits a Waterville-and-Dooks weekend better than a north-Kerry one. To be closest to Ballybunion and Tralee, stay in Tralee or Ballybunion village itself. Our full Kerry golf guide has more, and the planner will map the courses and bases against your dates.