"Landing a ball on the front edge of a 150-foot-long green, and wondering if it will stop before running off the far end [into perdition], is far more of a challenge to me than the target golf of hitting behind the flagstick from 187 yards and spinning it back six inches.

"This is a course I want to be identified with, one I will be able to say with pride - ' I did that one.' I am the luckiest designer in the world... because of the uniqueness of the site." - Greg Norman

Doonbeg Golf Club plays alongside 2 km of beach and classic sand dunes, with the Atlantic visible on 16 of the 18 holes. The par-72 layout features a single loop of nine holes out and nine back. Doonbeg was designed by Greg Norman and is a much talked-about new addition to links golf in Ireland.

The signature hole is the par 3, 14th - only playing 100 yards, it is all carry to a small green surrounded by steep banks and high rough. The bunkers at Doonbeg also deserve special mention with the greenside bunker at the 12th recently making it into Golf Monthly’s “Top 10 Bunkers”!