Waterville House & Golf Links

This proud club celebrates its’ vibrant history in every way. Numerous placards, including “Liam’s Ace” dot the course. It has preserved the history of the Mass Hole, where 18th Century Irish Catholics averted a death penalty for worshipping by doing so unseen in the hollow between the 12th tee and green. A statue Payne Stewart, who was made honorary club captain shortly after his deadly plane crash, lies at the confluence of the ninth green and tenth tee. In the cozy halfway house there are pictures and mementos of Stewart. The coolest thing, however, that they’ve kept there is the piano that he was known to play late into the night for members between pints on his visits to Waterville.

As for the course itself, it is a challenging links that with a given wind turns par 4s into par 5s. Tom Fabio’s biggest contribution in the redo was improving the green complexes and in some cases, sites. Previously, they were largely flat and uninteresting.

Ireland, land of legend & mythology. It's said that the grand daughter of Noah (of Ark fame) had set foot here amongst the sand & dunes sometime after the flood. Pretty sure she wasn't scouting locations for links courses but golfers have been invading this area as early as 1889.

This championship course was plotted out by Eddie Hackett in the 70's & in 2006 a few refinements by Tom Fazio has produced one of the best courses in Ireland.

Waterville takes advantage of the landscape to provide a world class challenge. A dramatic design that features dune & fescue lined fairways, strategic bunkering & undulating putting surfaces that could invariably bring out the very best in your game. Waterville may be a bit out of the way but it's definitely worth the extra effort to get there.

Every critic has widely praised Tom Fazio's renovation of Waterville dating back to 2006. He built two new holes and found new spots for several other greens, bringing the dunes and proper angles more into play. Maybe Fazio's influence is the reason that Waterville has more of a resort feel to it than other links. The fairways are forgivingly wide, a trait that makes it popular with higher handicaps and locals alike. You can actually score at Waterville, and even survive a round with a single ball. The par 4s of the second and third holes along the estuary team with the par-3 fourth hole in the dunes for a spectacular early stretch. The final three holes reveal the Atlantic, adding a final crescendo to the round.

Classic links, breeze up and down, sun, rain, breeze, sun, shower, calm, breeze......all played into the game. Perfect.
Very challenging to score well. But if you are off fairway shots are makeable but tough out of heavy grass. If in Ireland, a must play. We played Tralee, Waterville, Ballybunion. Like Charlie's Angels, hard to pick just one...