Fota Island Golf Club

Regular Irish Open venue Fota Island offers some of the best and most challenging golf in Ireland.

The enchanting dew-drenched Fota Island is home to 27 holes, a golf academy and a five star resort. 

The course rises and falls through avenues of tall trees while the old estate walls give the course a sense of maturity that belies its 1993 origins. 

Host to three Irish Opens, expect the bells and whistles that come with a ‘big’ course.

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Fota Island’s Deerpark course was designed by former British amateur champion Peter McEvoy and former Irish Ryder Cup player Christy O’Connor in 1993, before Canadian Jeff Howes toughened the layout in 1998 in readiness for the 2001 and 2002 Irish Opens. 

From the opening par 4 of the par-71 layout you notice the generosity of the fairways and light rough, but, as Rory McIlroy proved in missing the cut when the Irish Open returned here in 2014, it is a real challenge. 

The front nine is where you’ll make your score on a course that seems far more mature than its 22 years. The par-3 3rd is an early highlight, water surrounding a tricky green which has a bunker to catch anything long. 

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A new tee box has significantly increased the drama at the par-4 6th. From next to the harbour your tee shot must carry 200 yards to clear water and a sea wall to leave a short approach to an elevated green, protected by deep traps. 

Water is a regular feature, specially on the back nine, which begins with Deerpark’s best hole. The par 5 sweeps down through trees, turning left to leave an approach to a green cut into water. 

It takes until the 15th to find a hole without water, but the dog-leg par 4 is instead protected by a bank of bunkers, limiting the amount of corner you can cut. The par-3 17th can play up to 222 yards with trees and sand punishing anything wayward, but it’s the par-5 18th that provides the real late danger. Trees protect both sides of the fairway, with water surrounding a multi-tiered green that can make even a three-putt feel like a good result. 

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• Course has: Bar
• Course has: Buggy Hire
• Course has: Driving Range
• Course does not have: Practice Green
• Course has: Pro Shop
• Course has: Restaurant
• Course has: Trolley Hire
• Course does not have: Dress Code
• Course has: Club Hire
• Course does not have: Handicap