The brief: two father-son pairs, five courses, six days. The routing follows the Wild Atlantic Way south from Shannon — Adare Manor on arrival, Lahinch down the Clare coast, then Killarney as the base for Ballybunion, Waterville, and Dooks. It is one of the finest weeks of golf Ireland offers, and the west coast courses are as different from each other as courses get: parkland on a historic estate, then four pure links along the Atlantic, each shaped by a different hand and a different piece of coastline.
Fly into Shannon (SNN). The drive to Adare is twenty-five minutes.
The west of Ireland is not complicated to navigate, but the roads are narrow, the signage is its own system, and a group that has just crossed the Atlantic has better things to do than figure it out. We arrange a dedicated driver and luxury van for the week — airport to Adare, Adare to Lahinch, Lahinch to Killarney, and every transfer through the Ring of Kerry and back. He is with you for all six days, handles the luggage moves between hotels, knows the coastal roads between the courses, and means that no one in the foursome is ever the designated driver. On a father-son trip in particular, that is worth something.
Day 1 — Fly into Shannon · Adare Manor
Adare Manor sits on 840 acres in County Limerick, on the banks of the River Maigue. The hotel is a 19th-century Gothic Revival manor — the kind of stone building that takes a moment to process on arrival. The golf course wraps through the grounds.
Robert Trent Jones Sr. designed the course in 1995, working around the river, the ruins of a 14th-century Franciscan Friary still standing on the estate, and the mature trees that line the fairways. It is parkland, not links — deliberately so. This is the right first round for the trip: technically demanding, visually unlike everything that follows, and a way for the group to settle in before the Atlantic courses begin. The Maigue comes into play on several holes and is not decorative. The course is scheduled to host the 2027 Ryder Cup, which is a reasonable indication of its standing.
Check in, play the afternoon round, and dine at the manor that evening. The Oak Room is the property's principal dining room — a formal, high-ceilinged room overlooking the estate's formal garden. It has the right atmosphere for a first night in Ireland: unhurried, occasion without effort.
Day 2 — Lahinch · Drive to Killarney
Morning checkout. Drive north along the coast to Lahinch in County Clare — approximately one hour from Adare.
Lahinch is called the St. Andrews of Ireland, which undersells it. The Old Course was first laid out by Old Tom Morris in 1894 — he walked the duneland and declared it the finest natural links course he had ever seen. Dr. Alister MacKenzie modified it in 1928. Dr. Martin Hawtree brought it to its current form. The course plays to 7,066 yards from the back tees, with a course rating of 74.7 and a slope of 138.
Two holes require advance knowledge. The 4th — Klondyke — is a par 5 where the approach must be aimed through a saddle in a massive dune ridge to find a green that cannot be seen from the fairway. The 5th — Dell — is a par 3 played over a blind dune to a hidden green. A white stone marker on the crest indicates the pin position. There is no way around either. Old Tom built them, and they stay. The club asks every visiting group to take at least one caddie, and on these two holes in particular, that is less a formality than a practical necessity.
The 15th — Brud's Vision — is the index 1 hole on the card and earns the designation. The 18th, a par 5 finishing back to the clubhouse, runs to 564 yards with the Atlantic visible beyond the green.
Lahinch is hosting the 2026 Walker Cup. The course has been elevated accordingly.
After the round, walk to Lahinch village for a pint before the drive south. The drive to Killarney takes approximately two and a half hours down the N67 and into Kerry — scenic, unhurried, worth doing in the evening light.
Check in at the Aghadoe Heights Hotel & Spa in Killarney. The hotel sits on a ridge above Lough Leane and the Killarney Golf & Fishing Club — the view from the rooms takes in the lakes and the MacGillycuddy's Reeks beyond. It is built for this kind of week: early breakfast from 5am for early tee times, a dedicated drying room for equipment, club and shoe cleaning, and a concierge team that handles tee time logistics across the region's courses. This is the base for the remaining three days.
Day 3 — Ballybunion Old Course
Drive north from Killarney to Ballybunion, approximately one hour.
The Old Course at Ballybunion Golf Club is rated No. 10 on Golf Digest's World's 100 Greatest for 2024/2025 — not among the top courses in Ireland, globally. The club was established in 1893, and the Old Course has been refined on its natural duneland above the Atlantic ever since. The fairways move through and between massive sand dunes on the northwest coast of County Kerry, and the course's character is set by two forces equally: the terrain and the wind. Neither is negotiable.
The stretch of holes along the cliff edge above the sea — from the 11th through to the 14th — produces the most consistently discussed sequence at Ballybunion. The 11th tee sits above the ocean with a cemetery on the left; the 14th is a long par 4 running back along the cliff with the Atlantic directly below the right rough. The layout never lets you forget where you are, which is the point of links golf.
The Cashen Course — Robert Trent Jones's design on the same property — is available if the group wants a second round in the afternoon. Most do not. The Old Course earns the day.
Dinner in Killarney that evening. The Lake Room at the Aghadoe Heights is a proper Irish dinner with views down to the lakes — the right room after a long day on the coast.
Day 4 — Waterville
Drive west from Killarney on the Ring of Kerry. Waterville is approximately one hour through some of the best landscape in Ireland — the road runs between the mountains and the sea around the Iveragh Peninsula.
Waterville Golf Links is laid out on a narrow isthmus of duneland in southwest Kerry, bordered on the west by the Wild Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the Inny River, on the east by the Inny Estuary, and on the south by native bogland. The combination means the course has few parallel holes — each one turns in a different direction, which changes the wind problem on every tee. The original design is Eddie Hackett's. Tom Fazio completed a major renovation and coastal management project, and the course now plays to 7,347 yards from the black tees. Course of the Year 2024 among links courses in Ireland.
The 17th — Mulcahy's Peak — is the hole that defines the back nine. A par 3 played from a high tee to a green set below, with panoramic views of the Atlantic, the Skellig Islands visible on a clear day, and whatever the ocean is doing that morning making the club selection a genuine question. The 18th — O'Grady's Beach — closes with heavy rough left, the ocean right, and a green that gives back anything that misses the right portion of the flag.
There are no blind shots on the course, which is the promise: what you see is what the hole asks.
Lunch at the 1889 Bar & Restaurant in the renovated clubhouse — chef Rob O'Mahony serves fresh seafood with views over the links and Ballinskelligs Bay. Drive back to Killarney for the evening.
An aside: Waterville hosts the World Invitational Father & Son Tournament each August. Playing the course on a regular morning visit is a different experience, but the club takes some particular pride in having built a week around exactly the format of this group.
Day 5 — Dooks
The final round. Dooks Golf Links is thirty-five minutes from Killarney on the south shore of Dingle Bay, between Killorglin and Glenbeigh in west Kerry. It is one of the oldest golf links in Ireland — established in 1889 — and one of the least advertised. Golf writer Tom Coyne, who walked the entire Irish coast for a book, described Dooks as having water on three sides and being a blast, and said flatly not to drive past it. It was voted Ireland's Most Scenic Golf Course in 2020.
The course plays along the bay, with the MacGillycuddy's Reeks — the highest mountain range in Ireland — rising directly behind. The Atlantic frames the western holes. It is a par 70 links, and it plays short relative to the courses earlier in the week, which is the correct way to end: a round that rewards the short game and course management over the power that the first four days rewarded, on a course that gives you something to look at on every hole.
After the round, the afternoon is open. There is a pub in Killorglin or Glenbeigh worth an hour before the drive back. The group has played five courses in five days on the west coast of Ireland. That earns a long evening in Killarney.
Day 6 — Depart Ireland via Shannon
Morning checkout from the Aghadoe Heights. Drive north to Shannon (two hours) for departing flights, or south to Kerry Airport (40 minutes) for European connections. The drive home from Kerry takes the Ring of Kerry back to the N22 — one last look at the mountains and the water before the flight.
Five courses, five different characters, one week. Adare Manor is the only parkland round; everything after it is links golf on the Atlantic coast, each course shaped by a different architect and a different piece of terrain. The father-son format makes the competition easy to run across five days — two pairs, any format, no arrangement needed beyond the tee sheet.
Killarney is the right base for the Kerry courses. Aghadoe Heights is the right hotel. The drive days — particularly the transit through the Ring of Kerry to Waterville — are part of the trip, not logistics to be minimized.
