A nine-hole links on a narrow neck of land at Stradbally, with the freshwater of Lough Gill on one side and the dunes and surf of Brandon Bay on the other, and Mount Brandon filling the skyline behind. It measures 5,876 yards to a par of 68 over two circuits of the nine, so it is not long. It is positional.
The card tells you how. The first is a flat par five with tall reeds down the whole right-hand side along Lough Gill, an open ditch left, and water on three sides of the green. The second, at 182 metres, the club reckons the hardest shot on the course, a plateau green needing a fairway metal to carry a wide expanse of vicious rough. The third is drivable on a calm day and punishing on any other. The sixth is the one that gives you the mountain and the sea. The seventh is stroke index one and the hardest drive, its green sitting like a pimple on a high plateau. The eighth, the signature hole, runs through high dunes on a rumpled fairway with water snaking down the left. The ninth plays 149 metres over a pond into dunes.
Top100GolfCourses ranks it fifteenth on the island of Ireland and third in County Kerry, and calls it one of the finest nine-hole courses in the country. Being links land at sea level it rarely closes, even in a hard winter.
Visitors are welcome: the club publishes a full visitor tariff and runs a separate public booking portal, so this is not a members-only course. Students pay €25 and €35, juveniles €20 and €30, all year.
The clubhouse has showers, lockers, changing rooms, a putting green, a pro shop, trolley and club hire, and tea and coffee. No bar or full catering is described.
This is exposed links beside the Atlantic, so the wind is the defining condition in any month. Bring a wind layer and waterproofs whatever the forecast says.
The club's full name includes fishing. Ask them directly about it.
How we checked. Fees from the club's own green fees page, read August 2026. Hole descriptions from its hole-by-hole guide. Ranking from Top100GolfCourses. Opening hours and prices on this coast change without notice, so ring before you travel. If anything here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.