Rosapenna - The Best Place to Play Golf in Ireland
A scratch cup, a national park and three courses for the exploring golfer
Over the years I’d heard a few stories about this place in a remote part of Donegal on Ireland’s north west tip.
There was something about the name of it that I liked. Rosapenna. It’s almost like a cross between Irish and Spanish. It just sounded cool.
Maybe that’s just me.
Last year I made the voyage for the very first time. Every year since 2005 Rosapenna has hosted a scratch cup. Well actually, they host 2 scratch cups on the same day. One of them has names on the trophy such as a 16 year old Rory McIlroy who won the inaugural Rosapenna Scratch Cup in 2005.
That particular event is for the elite amateurs of the country of which I certainly am not.
The other scratch cup is for lads like me. 4 or 5 handicaps who aren’t at that level but want to feel like a tour pro for a day.
A scratch cup is a tournament that pits you against players of a similar level to you. For the top dogs, they play against each other. For us 4 or 5 handicaps, we play in our own category.
It’s probably my favourite type of tournament. You against a field of other players all around the same level - strokes, stress and pride on the line.
Certain scratch cups are in higher demand than others and Rosapenna is in demand so last year I made it a big goal of mine to get into their Junior scratch cup.
I didn’t qualify initially, my handicap was 5.3 and was too high. I was a reserve but a couple of days out from the tournament I was sitting at my desk at work and saw the notification pop up in my Gmail from Rosapenna.
“A spot has opened up for you if you want it?”
I’m in.
I stopped doing whatever task I was supposed to be doing in work and looked up AirBnBs in the area. Two days later I was on the road bound for Rosapenna, Donegal.
It was April, the skies were blue, The Masters was on the following week and as I drove across the country that Friday evening listening to podcasts about the Masters I was giddy with excitement.
Winter was over and golf season was here.
As I neared Carrigart, the town I was staying in, I drove through winding roads of Glenveagh National Park and as I turned a corner the view of Lough Salt opened up to my left. Holy shit, I thought to myself. How have I never been here before? Glenveagh National Park on the way to Rosapenna is just incredible. I was in a special part of the world, regardless of the golf.
I checked into my little AirBnB which turned out to be like the Irish version of a motel you see in the States, a roadside house behind a service station.
Some people in my shoes might have popped their head into a little pub in the town. Instead, I took out every club in my bag and cleaned them in my room.
36 holes tomorrow at Rosapenna. I’m not gonna be hungover for this.
Old Tom Morris - Where It All Started
They started playing golf here 130+ years ago when Old Tom Morris came over to this idyllic part of Donegal and laid out a golf course along the water. This original course was everything us golf nerds love about links golf. Golf through the dunes where you can bump and run your way to a score.
This is the course where I started my day in the scratch cup. It was a beautiful, crisp April morning as I shook hands with my 2 playing partners for what would be a 10 hour day in each other’s company.
I was so impressed with this golf course. The front 9 was beautiful but not along the water.
Not yet.
I turned in +1.
You make your way out towards Sheephaven Bay on the back 9 and then on the par 3 14th you’re just hit with this unbelievable view.
I meandered my way around the place in 79 blows - poor back 9 but overall good enough for a 5 handicap. Any day I shoot in the 70s is a good day in my world. I was still feeling giddy.
This is heaven for me - golf at a new course, card in your pocket, blue skies. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world.
We had a quick bowl of soup and a sandwich and I popped into the pro shop to get a strokesaver for round 2 - everyone had said you’ll need one for the 2nd course, Sandy Hills.
I was met in the pro shop by Frank, one of the owners. He shook my hand and welcomed me to Rosapenna.
“You’re going to love Sandy Hills, it’s even better than Old Tom.”
He told me to come back and play the new one, St. Patrick’s, when I can. I took a mental note of that. Oh I’ll be back, don’t you worry.
Sandy Hills - A Level Above
For 100 years, Rosapenna just had one course, The Old Tom Morris Links, but in the early 2000s the Casey family decided to take a risk and build a new course. They brought in Pat Ruddy, one of Ireland’s great golf architects, to lay out the track.
It turns out, this place is a level above the Old Tom. What a golf course.
This is just so cool, I thought to myself.
The 3rd hole is one of the best par 3s in the country. You’re just hit with this view of Sheephaven Bay but then we made our way to the 6th. After hitting a blind tee shot up a hill, we walk up towards the top of that hill and the whole of Sheephaven Bay just opens in front of you.
Holy shit, I say to myself for the 2nd time in 24 hours.
A 10 on the par 5 8th scuppered any chances I had on winning the scratch cup but a level par back 9 meant I shot 82. The joys of being a decent but ultimately mediocre golfer.
79 and 82, not bad for me. Good enough for about 15th place out of about 60 players. I was happy I didn’t make a show of myself but more importantly, this place had imprinted itself into my mind.
I’ll never forget my first day at Rosapenna.
I headed back to my AirBnB that evening thinking, that could be the best place to play golf in Ireland.
Two top courses in the most incredible setting.
And I hadn’t even seen the best one yet.
The Casey Family - Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
Rosapenna has been a golf destination for years but although the two original courses are brilliant, neither are quite in the top 10 in the country. They’re both top 20 or top 30.
So in 2012, the Casey family decided to take another big risk.
There was a 36 hole site about 5 minutes away from the main resort at Rosapenna that had been a failed Jack Nicklaus project. Originally, the plan from Mr. Nicklaus and the others involved had been to build a full 36 hole course, hotel, the works. But the financial crash meant that never fully got off the ground.
The Casey family decided to buy that land. They had their own vision.
The previous owners of this site wanted to build something big and grand but the Caseys had a different take.
I read a book a few years back called 7 Habits of Highly Effective People which is now a pretty famous book, but one of the 7 habits was “keep the main thing the main thing.” Businesses who get distracted with other fluff tend to go belly up. Businesses that relentlessly focus on the main thing are the most successful ones.
They asked themselves, what really matters most with a golf course? What makes people fly across the world to play? Is it the clubhouse? The practice facilities? As much as these things are nice, I don’t think many people will spend thousands of dollars and their time to see a pretty driving range.
The reason people talk about Royal County Down, Cypress Point and Pine Valley is because the golf courses are exceptional. Rosapenna already had a beautiful resort and hotel on the site of the original 2 courses.
This new venture would be all about the golf course.
Frank Casey, one of the sons who was now the director of golf, is a proper player having been an elite amateur golfer in his own right. He’s also travelled the world playing most of the best courses on the planet. He knows what good looks like.
So they went in search of someone who could share their vision. There were rumours that they had opened up talks with Arnold Palmer and his golf course design business but they chose to partner with Tom Doak, arguably the best living golf course designer in the world. Doak is the man behind Tara Iti, Cape Kidnappers, St. Andrew’s Beach and many other top new courses around the world.
As construction got under way, Covid hit. Golf travel halted around the world and there was uncertainty about whether it would lift off again but the lads kept their heads down and worked.
They decided that instead of building 36 mediocre holes, they would build one great course.
18 holes.
In 2021, they opened St. Patrick’s. This course was different to The Old Tom and Sandy Hills, which were more traditional links.
St. Patrick’s is wild, rugged, wide off the tee and had some crazy greens. I’d go as far as to say there are no other golf courses in Ireland that looks like St. Patrick’s.
The Casey’s had spent 9 years on this project but had no idea how it would be received.
The fact that the course opened during Covid kind of turned into a positive - the golf world was starved of news stories so this new Tom Doak course opening up in Ireland grabbed attention.
The course opened and people started visiting. But the question was, how would this be received?
In November 2021, GOLF Magazine published their global rankings of the best courses in the world. Rosapenna St. Patrick’s had only opened 6 months prior. Making the top 100 was not on anyone’s radar - this was the top 100 golf courses in the entire world.
Not only did they make the top 100, they debuted at 55 in the world. The highest entry of any new course in the rankings. Mr. Doak and the Caseys had built something special.
St. Patrick’s Links - The Reveal
I’d gone all the way up to Rosapenna for the first time in April but I had to come back as soon as I could to see St. Patrick’s, so here I was in August. I’d only ever played one Tom Doak course before, which was St. Andrew’s Beach in Melbourne, and it had become one of my favourite courses there alongside Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath. The rankings had suggested St. Patrick’s was better than St. Andrew’s Beach but I needed to see it for myself.
Myself and my mate Joe drove down the long meandering road into St. Patrick’s and jumped out of the car.
“Where’s the clubhouse?” Joe asked.
We looked up and saw a wooden cabin serving as the pro shop.
I smiled. Keep the main thing the main thing.
Joe and I teed off on a beautiful August morning. The first 3 holes were through the dunes, greens were a bit crazy but the course struck me as looking scary while actually being quite forgiving - there was room to miss and the slopes help you, they don’t hinder you.
Then we got to the 4th.
Fuck.
In golf course architecture they call this “the reveal” - a point in the course where you’re meandering along then bang, the view just smacks you in the face. That happened on the 4th where Sheephaven Bay, miles of empty beach and expansive land just opens up in front of you.
The rest of the course is just so fun to play. The fairways are wide so you can just lash the driver and the greens have these massive slopes so when you’re standing on the fairway 150 yards out you can see a slope on the green and think to yourself, if I draw one in from right to left I could use that slope to bring it close to the flag. It’s just such a fun way to play golf.
Tom Doak is not an elite player, he’s not Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus, so he builds golf courses for players like him which just makes sense. The average golfer can get around St. Patrick’s and not feel like the place has kicked lumps out of you.
I love it.
I managed a 76, +5 for the round, and it was one of the most enjoyable rounds of golf I’ve ever played in my life.
Joe and I made our way back to the main resort where I bumped into Frank again.
“Well, what did you think?” he asked me.
“Incredible,” came my response. And I meant it.
Frank then walked us through their thinking. “So many great links courses have greens that repel the ball away from the flag, we wanted you to be able to use the slopes.” It makes for an incredibly fun round of golf.
I’ve since been back to all 3 courses and enjoyed them just as much the 2nd time around. I can’t wait to get back every year for as long as I can.
Get Yourself to Rosapenna
I’ve played a lot of golf courses in my time and driven to Donegal more times than makes sense for a man from Wicklow. I’ll keep doing it for as long as I can.
Rosapenna is a special place. Remote enough that getting there feels like an adventure. Good enough that when you arrive you know immediately the drive was worth it. And with three courses, two of which are top 30 in the country and one of which is top 40 in the entire world, there is genuinely nowhere else like it on the island.
Roam Golf is officially going to be running golf trips from 2027 and Rosapenna is going to be one of our main partners because we love it so much. If you’re keen to play it but don’t want the hassle of organising tee times, accommodation and transport yourself send me an email and we’ll make it happen for you.
Get yourself to Rosapenna. You won’t regret it.
“Not all those who wander are lost” - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Caddie’s Line
Tom Doak is arguably the best living golf course designer in the world. Here are some of his courses worth knowing about if you like this stuff.
I’ve only ever played 2 of his courses but I hope someday to tick all of them off.
The Read
The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, by Tom Doak
Nailed it Conor. Played Sandy Hills first day of our Northern Ireland trip a few years ago, and thought it was delightful but extremely challenging in a 2 club wind. Played Patrick's the next day and just smiled all the way through the round. Unbelievable course, made me a Tom Doak disciple. As my buddy said at the turn: I've got a real problem now....I don't want to play anywhere else.
Its some spot ...need to get back to St Patricks as played it 3 weeks after opening