Ballyliffin (Glashedy Links)

Overview: Glashedy Links is Ballyliffin Golf Club's modern 18-hole course on the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal. The routing uses a large Atlantic dunescape rather than a heavily engineered resort landscape, with exposed fairways, fast-running ground, deep bunkering and broad, demanding greens. Wind is a constant part of the design, and the course asks players to balance ambition with a realistic line into the putting surfaces. The scale of the dunes gives the round a sense of space, but individual holes remain sharply defined.

History: Ballyliffin's development committee asked Dublin architects Pat Ruddy and Tom Craddock to design a second championship course on land already owned by the club. Construction began on 7 May 1993, seeding followed that September, and Glashedy officially opened on 3 August 1995. The course later hosted the 2018 Irish Open, where Russell Knox won, bringing international tournament attention to a links that had been built for the club's long-term future.

Did You Know? Ballyliffin now has two championship links courses, and the Glashedy name refers to a layout that is younger than the club's Old Links but no less dramatic. The seventh is a particularly memorable example of the duneland setting, dropping from higher ground toward a green beside marshland water. It shows how the course can combine a large natural landscape with a precise target.