Brief Review on Captivating course

Because of the fame it has acquired - thanks, partly, to Tom Watson's praise - and because of its onshore gales, many golfers think of Ballybunion as a particularly difficult course. Certainly it is a severe test, especially off the Championship tees, but at 6542 yards, par 71, it is not terribly long and contains five par 3s.

From the time you stand on the 1st tee you are captivated by the character of the place. It isn't everywhere that a graveyard presents the chief hazard off the opening tee - but at Ballybunion a slice is literally buried in the town cemetery.

You must also avoid two mid fairway bunkers, known as Mrs. Simpson's after the wife of the English golf course architect who redesigned the links in 1936. Yet the 1st hole is a comfortable enough par 4 and provides a lovely start to the round.

Ballybunion really gets going at the 6th. A par 4 of only 364 yards, it requires the most precise second shot to stay on the long, narrow green. This is the favorite hole of Tom Watson. He comes back here summer after summer and adores the links: 'It is a course you will always enjoy and never tire of playing... Many golf architects should live and play [here] before they build golf courses. I consider it a true test.'

The great Christy O'Connor snr - 10 times national professional champion -has a more Irish way of describing Ballybunion: 'Anybody who breaks 70 here is playing better than he is able to play.'

Of the back nine, the 11th green is one of the few at Ballybunion that gathers in the approach shot. By now you'll have discovered that more often than not the irons must be struck with precision, otherwise the ball breaks away and leaves you with a deft pitch to salvage par. In Tom Watson's view, this is where the real difficulty of Ballybunion lies.