On the Road: Doonbeg Golf Club

“There’s no links without the sea, and there’s no golf without wind,” goes an Irish saying.

So it was during a recent round at Doonbeg Golf Club in County Clare, Ireland. Turns out there’s more than a passing Dallas connection to these highly-regarded links.

Director of Golf Brian Shaw spends nearly every May in Dallas (he’s close friends with Kent Fannin’s family, who are members of the Sports Club and the TPC-Four Seasons Resort in Las Colinas. And it turns out, according to Shaw, that one of the sales directors of the Residences at the Ritz Carlton-Dallas is originally from tiny Doonbeg. The tiny town is also noteworthy because, within its small acreage, you can experience an old Irish village that still feels like the Ireland of yore: One main street, one church…and five pubs.

Oh, and one of the world’s great links golf courses.