The Complete Guide to Ballybunion Golf Club

This guide is for the trip captain fitting Ballybunion Golf Club into a week in the southwest of Ireland. It covers the club's history, five Old Course holes worth knowing, the visitor rules that decide your dates, the rebuilt Watson Cashen Course, the ferry from Lahinch, where to stay, and a six-day route with Lahinch, Dooks and Tralee.

Ballybunion Golf Club history

The club held its first meeting on 18 August 1893, with twelve greens laid out "along the sandhills". James McKenna laid out the first course for the Lartigue Railway Company, whose monorail carried golfers the ten miles from Listowel. That club lapsed in 1898, the present one was formed in 1906, and the course had 18 holes by 1927.

Tom Simpson came in 1936 to prepare the links for the 1937 Irish Amateur Close, assisted by Molly Gourlay, and re-sited the 7th and 13th. The club quotes his verdict that Ballybunion had "terrain that surpasses any course we know for beauty, not excepting Pine Valley." The bunkering in the middle of today's 1st fairway is known as "Mrs Simpson", which the club says members named after Gourlay, wrongly assuming the two were married.

The Americans came after Herbert Warren Wind praised the Old Course in The New Yorker. The club says his article put Ballybunion in the world's top ten and brought "hordes of visitors, very many from the USA". Tom Watson first played here in 1981, oversaw design changes in 1995 and was the club's Millennium Captain in 2000, and the 11th is named Watsons. His best-known line, as the club gives it: "Nobody can call himself a golfer until he has played at Ballybunion; you would think the game originated there!"

Bill Clinton visited as president in 1998, and a statue of him stands in the town. The Irish Open came in 2000. In 2015 the members voted to re-lay all 18 greens and build a new 7th, which coastal erosion had threatened, under the architect Graeme Webster.

The holes to know on the Ballybunion Old Course

The Old Course is a par 71 of 6,739 yards from the Blue tees and 6,383 from the White, according to the club's course page. The hole lengths below come from the club's 2019 scorecard, the newest one it links to. Webster has since rebuilt the 7th and 18th green complexes, so treat single-hole yardages as a guide.

1st, Simpsons

The opening tee shot is the one first-time visitors talk about. An old graveyard sits on the right of the fairway, and it's out of bounds. The head professional's advice is to aim slightly right of the fairway bunkers so you stay clear of it.

7th, Castle Green

A par 4 on the cliff top from tee to green, with out of bounds on the right. The club calls it "one of Ireland's great seaside holes". The green is one of the two Webster has rebuilt.

11th, Watsons

Stroke index 2, and the hole the club's professional calls "one of the best par four's you will play anywhere". With the usual wind off the sea, his line is down the boundary line from the tee, then an approach flown all the way to the green.

15th, Black Rocks

A long par 3 to a two-tier green. Allow for the wind off the sea when you choose the club, and know which tier the flag is on before you hit.

17th, Devils Elbow

The club promises a spectacular view from the tee. Miss the drive left and the huge dune blocks your second shot.

Ballybunion green fees, visitor times and caddies

Visitor tee times on the Old Course are mornings only, Monday to Friday, from mid-April to early October. Weekends and bank holiday Mondays are for members, and the club doesn't publish clock times for the morning window. In 2026 the season ran from 13 April to 2 October. The club hadn't posted its 2027 dates or fees when I checked on 23 Oct 2026.

The other rules a group needs to know:

• Handicaps: 24 or less for men and 36 or less for women. Show your certificate to the starter on the 1st tee.
• Caddies: every group takes at least one caddie or a forecaddie. Request them through the club office in advance, since they aren't guaranteed. The 2026 rate for a senior caddie carrying one bag was €110, or €160 for a double bag, and you pay the caddie directly.
• Walking: buggies aren't allowed on the Old Course. An electric trolley is €25.
• Your group: the club may add golfers to make up a fourball, and non-golfers can't walk the course with you.
• On the course: soft spikes only, no alcohol, and no phone use on the course, the putting greens or in the bars and restaurant. Denim, collarless shirts, cargo shorts and sneakers are all on the club's list of what not to wear.

Paying and cancelling at Ballybunion

The whole green fee is taken when the tee time is confirmed. Card payments are charged in your card's currency, so a US card pays in dollars, and the club isn't responsible for any exchange difference. The Ballybunion course page has the visitor rules in short.

Fix the Ballybunion morning before anything else, build the trip around it, and buy travel insurance before you pay.

The Watson Cashen Course

Ballybunion's second links was designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and opened in the early 1980s (the club gives both 1982 and 1984). Golf Course Architecture reports that Graeme Webster and Tom Watson's design firm rebuilt it over three winters, reworking every hole. It reopened on 4 August 2026 as the Watson Cashen Course.

The club calls the Cashen "more brutal and more unforgiving" than the Old, with higher dunes, deeper valleys and more undulating greens. Buggies are allowed here, at €60.

Confirm two things with the club before you plan around it. Its visitors page says in one place that visitors play the Cashen in the afternoon, and in another in the morning and afternoon. It also published no Cashen-only fee for 2026, only €575 for one round on each course, from 4 August to 2 October. For 36 holes in a day, ask for an afternoon Cashen time when you book the Old.

Getting to Ballybunion

Drive times below are best-case road-routing figures to the town, without traffic.

Shannon is the obvious airport. In summer 2026 it had direct flights to Boston, Chicago and New York, and you clear US immigration and customs there before you fly home. Kerry Airport is closer, but its flights go to Dublin, the UK and Europe.

The Killimer–Tarbert ferry from Lahinch

From Lahinch you can drive round through Limerick, about 2 h 15 min, or take the Shannon Ferries car ferry from Killimer in Clare to Tarbert in Kerry, 26 km from Ballybunion. The crossing takes about 20 minutes, sails every day except Christmas Day and needs no reservation, but arrive 5–10 minutes early. On the current timetable the last boat from Killimer leaves at 21:00 in June, July and August, 20:00 in May and September, and 19:00 from 1 October.

Where to stay in Ballybunion

Stay in Ballybunion itself for a morning tee time. It's a small resort town, with about 1,200 people outside the summer. Listowel and Tralee suit a group that wants a bigger hotel and doesn't mind a drive. golftripbuilder.com doesn't have pages for Kerry hotels yet, so these details come from each property's own website.

• Teach de Broc

  Ballybunion · directly across from the club gates, about two minutes on foot to the Old Course 1st tee by its own account. Restaurant open Monday to Saturday evenings

• The Cliff House Hotel

  Ballybunion · family-run, on Cliff Road in town, with sea-view balcony rooms, a restaurant and a bar

• The Marine

  Ballybunion · room-only sea-view rooms above The Marine Café & Bakery on Sandhill Road, not a full-service hotel

• The Listowel Arms Hotel

  Listowel, 14 km inland · on the town square, run by the O'Callaghan family

• Ballyseede Castle

  Tralee · a 4-star castle hotel with 45 bedrooms on 30 acres

Things to do in Ballybunion besides golf

The town's two main beaches are split by a cliff with the ruin of Ballybunion Castle on top. The Cliff Path, a 1 km loop of about 30 minutes, runs along the cliff tops between them. On the Ladies' Beach, the seaweed baths use heated Atlantic water and seaweed picked daily. They don't publish opening hours, so phone ahead.

In Listowel, 14 km inland, the Lartigue Monorail is a rebuilt stretch of the line that once brought golfers to the links, with a museum; check its timetable before you go. The Kerry Writers' Museum is on the square, and Listowel Writers' Week runs from 2 to 6 June 2027.

Where else to play near Ballybunion

Tralee and Dooks are close enough to play from a Ballybunion base. Lahinch is across the estuary in Clare and Waterville is out on the Ring of Kerry, so both need nights of their own. Each course below links to its own page, with visitor days, handicap limits and booking rules.

• 

  Tralee

  55 min

  Arnold Palmer's first course in Europe, on the coast at Barrow. Visitors play Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 08:00–15:00, with a 50% deposit at booking that isn't refunded.

  View Tralee →
• 

  Dooks

  1 h 15 min

  Visitor windows every day in season and a handicap limit of 54, the most generous in Kerry. Book weekend rounds with the club itself.

  View Dooks →
• 

  Adare Manor

  1 h 10 min

  A parkland course inland in County Limerick, and the 2027 Ryder Cup venue. Hotel guests come first, and its 2027 season is built around the matches.

  View Adare Manor →
• 

  Lahinch

  2 h 15 min

  Open to visitors every day in season, booked online and paid in full. Pair it with Ballybunion by the ferry, and play the two on different days.

  View Lahinch →
• 

  Waterville

  1 h 50 min

  Open every day from 1 April to 31 October, with carts for hire. Payment is taken in full when you book and isn't refunded.

  View Waterville →

For the Clare side of the trip, read the complete guide to Lahinch Golf Club. If the week starts in Cork, the guide to Old Head Golf Links covers Kinsale, and the Adare Manor guide covers the 2027 Ryder Cup venue, 1 h 10 min from Ballybunion.

Your Ballybunion Golf Trip Starts Here

Play Lahinch, Ballybunion, Dooks and Tralee in one week from Shannon. The six days below are a starting point, and every date, course and hotel in them can be swapped.

Each round lands on a day its club takes visitors. Lahinch comes on the first full day, because it takes visitors every day in season, and the evening ferry puts you in Ballybunion for a Tuesday morning on the Old Course. Tralee is closed to visitors on Wednesdays, so Dooks takes that day. Run it between May and September. The drive times come from the road-routing data behind golftripbuilder.com's course pages, so they assume empty roads, and Kerry is slower in July and August.