The tricky par-3 12th at Waterville.

The next day was a long one, and maybe not the most enjoyable for the non-golfer in our group (my wife).  We left Killarney early and drove deep into the Ring of Kerry to Waterville Golf Club, a place that was resurrected in 1973 by a wealthy Irish-American named John A. Mulcahy.  Along with Irish architect Eddie Hackett and 1948 Masters champion Claude Harmon, they built a new course on some very old land and immediately began garnering praise.

We got there and it was raining, with winds howling.  It wasn’t the best day to just be a spectating walker, although my wife was not the only one in the group to be doing so.  The opening holes are almost humble in their nature, relatively flat with a small river running alongside that empties out into an estuary behind the second green.  The third is a dogleg-right par-4 that plays along the estuary, although the fog and rain forced the view to be seen through squinted eyes.

The great tee shot at the par-4 16th at Waterville.

From the back tees, Waterville is wholly modern, reaching 7,378 yards — and playing every inch of it on this day.  The heart of the golf course lies inland, and it can be a punishing sequence of long par-4s and long par-3s.  Predictably, the best is a short par-5, No. 11, measuring 506 yards and playing to a narrow fairway that breaks off at 289 yards, and then plays up through a very small chute to a green that is awkwardly angled on a diagonal.  It’s as easy to make a double-bogey here as it is to make an eagle.

The great par-3 17th at Waterville.

The back nine picks up steam with a stout par-5 at No. 13, but what makes it such a memorable place is the closing three holes. No. 16 is a sweeping 386-yard par-4 with a semi-blind, uphill tee shot.  When you crest the hill, the estuary opens out into the ocean all along the right, and the views are spectacular and you try to navigate a difficult second into a small green surrounded by humps and dells.  The 17th is a 194-yard par-3 that plays over some broken land, with the sea as the background and a brutally deep grass bunker guarding the front-left portion of the elevated green.  The final hole is 594-yard par-5 that plays all along the beach.  There are bunkers staggered left and right, making it a tough drive, tough layup, and tough shot into the well-guarded green.  But that’s exactly the way you want to finish this stern test — earning every bit of glory (or self-loathing) you might receive.

The tee shot at Waterville's closing hole, a long par-5.