If you have been thinking about booking your Irish Golf Vacation and looking at the cost of flights, now is  the time to book, there is great value to be obtained.

Visit the Aer Lingus site for more details

We all like to rate the courses we’ve played (my favourites are Ballyliffen Glashedy [links]  and Mount Juliet [parkland]) and everyone has a different opinion, and thats great as it makes golf such a brilliant participant sport. Backspin put together a “crack team” of judges for the voting panel including Graeme McDowell, Christy O’ Connor Jnr, Ewen Murray and Niall Quinn.

You can find the full list here

Links (top 3)                                                                                                                                

1. Portmarnock

2. Royal County Down

3. Royal Portrush (Dunluce)

Parkland (top 3)

1. Mount Juliet

2. K Club (Palmer)

3. Adare

From the minute you arrive you are greeted with smiling and helpful staff, more than willing to go that extra mile to ensure our stay was memorable. Andrew Phelan (Manager of the Resort) made sure to introduce himself, a nice touch and I’m sure this is par for the course.

When walking the course the one thing that struck me immediately was the amount of mounding , very rarely will you find a level stance and it has a feel of an inland links (similiar to the Montgomerie Course at Carton House)  if there is such a thing! The clubhouse itself is unique and I suppose I can describe it as a wooden box dropped into landscape with one end of the box a large window so you can see all aspects of the course unfold in front of you.

Overall I’d recommend Castlematyr to anyone visiting the area, excellent facilities, great course and a superb hotel.

I came across an interesting chart on the Met Eireann (Meteoroligcal Society of Ireland) that illustrates the extent of the big freeze we’ve experienced in the past 4 weeks.

The loss of revenue when coupled with the relatively poor 2009 has increased the pressure on courses to be more inventive in attracting golfers and maintaining golfers. The Golf Union of Ireland (GUI) has put together a report to stimulate debate and ideas for courses – you can read it here.

Check out the full leaderboard here

It’s McIlroy and McDowell’s first time pairing up at this tournament, in previous years it was usually the reliable Harrington and McGinley, in fact Ireland won this event most recently in 1997. There is no doubt that Irish golf is on the up and McIlroy is spearheading the charge – the young man from Hollywood has taken to his professional career with gusto and last week finished second in the Harry Vardon (European Order of Merit)Tropy to Lee Westwood. His recent announcement that he is to take membership of the PGA tour is exciting and US audiences can expect to see more of this prestigious talent.

A recent question was put to Rory about his favourite golf course in Northern Ireland – he choose Ardglass and I couldn’t disagree. If ever there was a course that deserved the title of “hidden gem” it’s Ardglass. It would be a worthy addition to your golf trip to Ireland and most people would combine Royal County Down into their schedule too.

McIlroy said: “I can’t thank the European Tour enough but I am just in a privileged position where I play wherever I want, and besides I earned enough money in US Tour events to get my card so I have taken out membership.

“I want to become a better player and the best way to develop my game is to be playing more in the States and playing a worldwide schedule.

“I just feel that I will become a better golfer if I also play in America. I will be playing in world class fields with more world ranking points on offer.

“The only way for me to get better is to play alongside better players and on paper at this moment there are 16 better players than me in the world.

“In this game you have to challenge yourself against the best and last Sunday in Shanghai was a great example of how I was able to respond to the challenge.”

You can see more about the Strand Nine here.

While up around that area I would suggest you also play Ballyliffen, Portsalon, Dunfangway and Murvegh links – Donegal really has everything you need for an  great irish golf trip.

The event is held every 5 years and attracts the cream of international golfers – including Tiger Woods and Padraig Harringtion (2005 champion).

Such an event lift’s the spirits of everyone. It’s far too easy to stereotype pro golfers as being too busy to attend these events so it is refreshing to see so many huge international players commit to playing at Adare Manor in July 2010.

Entry to the event is €50 for the two days with U16s entering for free. It’s a great way of getting to see great golfers in a relaxing atmosphere – well worth a visit. You can find out more details about the pro-am here

Another interesting point to note is the change in date, its moving to end of July and will take in the an Irish Bank Holiday. Killarney will be the place to be and is a great setting. The town itself is geared towards golf and will cater superbly for the expected large crowd.