Rosapenna - Old Tom Morris Links

Overview: The Old Tom Morris Links is the historic course at Rosapenna on the shores of Sheephaven Bay. Old Tom Morris laid out the 18-hole links in 1893, and the present par-71 course plays to about 7,000 yards through dunes, sandy ground, and coastal wind. Later work by Harry Vardon, James Braid, and Harry Colt has become part of its long architectural story, but the course remains rooted in the natural lines of the original peninsula. The result is a traditional links test with changing lies, firm running surfaces, and views across Donegal's coast.

History: Rosapenna's golf history began when Lord Leitrim brought Old Tom Morris from St Andrews to lay out the first links. The course opened for play in 1893 and was subsequently modified by other major figures, including Harry Vardon, James Braid, and Harry Colt. The resort later added Pat Ruddy's Sandy Hills and Tom Doak's St Patrick's Links, making the property a rare meeting point of nineteenth-century, modern, and contemporary links architecture.

Did You Know? Rosapenna preserves a direct architectural connection with St Andrews. Old Tom Morris, known as the Grand Old Man of Golf, travelled from Scotland to create the original links, and the course still carries his name more than a century later.