Powerscourt Golf Club (East)

Overview: Powerscourt Golf Club ~ East is the original 18-hole course at the Powerscourt Estate in County Wicklow. Designed by Peter McEvoy, it follows the contours of a mature historic landscape with views toward the Sugarloaf and the estate’s wooded surroundings. Current Irish tourism material lists a par 72 and a championship length of 7,063 yards. The course has a parkland base but a free-draining, heath-like texture and some links-style strategic qualities, making it more nuanced than a simple resort-parkland label.

History: The East course opened in 1996 as the Slazenger Course and was later renamed when the West course was added. Peter McEvoy’s design quickly hosted important events, including the 1998 Irish PGA, won by Pádraig Harrington in a playoff, and the 2001 Irish Seniors Open. Its story is tied to the wider Powerscourt estate, whose house and gardens have a much older history, but the golf course itself is a late twentieth-century addition.

Did You Know? The East course is part of an estate with more than eight centuries of recorded history, yet the golf layout is carefully fitted into the existing contours rather than laid over a blank site. The course’s historic setting and the church-steeple sightlines used in its hole guidance show how the design turns estate landmarks into practical aiming references.