How to Play the Best Golf in County Kerry

The short answer

Kerry's golf is strung along two coasts. To the north, above the mouth of the Shannon, stands Ballybunion, the wild and revered Old Course that many fine judges rate the best links in Ireland, with Tralee a short drive south, Arnold Palmer's first European design set against the Dingle peninsula. To the southwest, deep on the Ring of Kerry, sits Waterville on Ballinskelligs Bay, with the gentler links of Dooks at Glenbeigh and the two parkland championship courses of Killarney by the lakes completing the picture.

The marquee links are members and resort clubs that welcome visitors on set days, and summer dates fill many months ahead, so the trick is to book Ballybunion, Waterville and Tralee first and build everything else around the tee times you secure. Killarney makes the natural base, a lively town with hotels and an airport nearby, an hour or so from each of the great links. Get the big three confirmed and the rest of a Kerry trip falls into place.

How access works, course by course

Ballybunion is the one to plan around. The Old Course, laid out in the dunes above the Atlantic from 1893 and refined by Tom Simpson in the 1930s, is a wild, tumbling links that Tom Watson called one of the finest tests of golf in the world, a par 71 of around 6,800 yards where the back nine runs right along the cliff edge. The club welcomes visitors Monday to Friday from mid April to early October, with indicative 2026 fees of around 400 euros in mid season and 450 in high season. Summer dates fill many months ahead, so book early, bring a handicap certificate, and confirm rates and tee times directly. There is no finer round in Ireland to anchor a trip.

The other two marquee links are close behind. Tralee, half an hour south of Ballybunion, was Arnold Palmer's first design in Europe, opened in 1984, a par 72 of 6,975 yards with a famous, photogenic stretch along the cliffs and beach of the Dingle peninsula, and it takes visitors on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Waterville, out on Ballinskelligs Bay at the far end of the Ring of Kerry, began as an Eddie Hackett and Claude Harmon links and was updated by Tom Fazio in 2006 to realize its full potential, a long, classical par 72 that runs visitor tee times through the season.

The supporting cast completes the trip. Dooks at Glenbeigh is the value links of the county, a charming, natural course with indicative high season fees of around 120 euros, falling to about 80 in the shoulder months, and it is playable all year. Killarney Golf and Fishing Club, by the lakes on the edge of town, offers parkland championship golf on its Killeen and Mahony's Point courses, plus the nine hole Lackabane, with visitors welcome daily by booking and a handicap certificate. Base yourself in Killarney for the hotels, the nightlife and the central position, hire a car, and plan on an hour or so to each of the great links. Play May to September for the firmest turf and longest days, with April and October quieter and better value.