The Complete Guide to Tralee Golf Club

This guide is for the trip captain putting Tralee Golf Club on a Kerry itinerary. It covers the club's move to Barrow and Arnold Palmer, five holes worth knowing, the booking terms that catch visitors out, Banna Strand and Ardfert, hotels around Tralee, and a sample week with Ballybunion and Dooks.

Tralee Golf Club history

Tralee Golf Club was founded on 1 October 1896, on a nine-hole course in the town, and played at Fenit, Oakpark and Mounthawk before it settled on the coast. In 1980 the club decided to buy land at Barrow, about nine miles from Tralee.

Arnold Palmer designed the new links, and it opened for play in October 1984. The club's own pages call it the first course Palmer designed in Europe. Two lines of his are printed on the club's website today. One is "I have never come across a piece of land so ideally suited for the building of a golf course". The other, on the homepage, is the better known: "I may have designed the first nine, but surely God designed the back nine."

The two nines do play differently. The front nine runs out along the bay and the cliffs, past the ruined tower behind the 3rd green, and the club's old hole guide says the 6th, 7th and 8th, known as the Loop, were Palmer's favorite stretch. The back nine climbs into the dunes, and three of its holes, the 12th, 13th and 17th, ask you to carry deep ground to reach the green.

In July 2026 Tralee hosted the Arnold Palmer Cup, the college team match between the United States and an International side. Team International won 30½–29½ over three days, 3 to 5 July.

The holes to know at Tralee

Tralee is a par 72 of about 7,000 yards from the back tees. The club doesn't publish a scorecard on its current website, so the lengths below are the back-tee yardages from its earlier hole-by-hole guide, and the current card may differ by a few yards.

3rd, The Castle

The club calls it the showpiece of the course: a narrow green on a point above the waves, with a ruined castle tower behind it. In the club's words, "the rocks and hungry sea at the right have claimed many a ball", so the miss is left. The wind off the ocean decides the club you hit.

12th, Bracken

A long par 4 that runs downhill, and the hole the club rates the most difficult on the links. Heavy rough lies right and a wall left off the tee. The approach has to carry past a deep chasm on the left to reach a raised green.

13th, Brock's Hollow

A short par 3, slightly uphill, where the ball has to carry all the way over what the club calls an "Irish Grand Canyon". Brock is a local word for a badger. Anything short drops into the hollow, so take enough club.

16th, Shipwreck

A par 3 from an elevated tee above the coast. The club says a ship of the Spanish Armada ran aground here in 1588, which gives the hole its name. Check the wind on the tee before you choose a club.

17th, Ryan's Daughter

The club calls it "probably the most memorable hole". You play from a high tee across a deep gorge to a green set against the mountains. The name comes from David Lean's 1970 film. The club has said scenes were shot on this coast, but that's disputed: the film's own production account puts most of the beach filming at Inch and Coumeenoole, on the Dingle Peninsula.

After the round, the clubhouse bar and restaurant look out over most of the course through a wall of glass, with a balcony for summer days.

Tralee visitor days, fees and caddies

The 2026 visitor season ran from 1 April to 9 October, and the club publishes no rate for dates outside it.

The club hadn't published 2027 fees or season dates when we checked on 23 Oct 2026, so treat the 2026 rates as a guide. The payment terms matter more than the fee:

• Deposit: 50% when you book, non-refundable.
• Balance: due 90 days before play, "regardless of cancellations".
• No refunds for delayed flights, injury or illness, so the club recommends travel insurance. A missed tee time forfeits the whole prepayment.

Caddies are club members, and the club asks you to request them in advance, because it can't guarantee one on the day. In 2026 a senior caddie was €110 for one bag or €160 for two, a junior caddie €70 for one bag, and a forecaddie €160. You pay the caddie yourself, and the club says tips aren't mandatory and are up to you.

Tralee is a walking course. Buggies (carts) are €60 and only for golfers with a medical need, and an electric trolley is €25. The club bans mobile phones on the course and in the clubhouse, and the dress code rules out sleeveless shirts, sneakers, jogging pants and rugby shirts.

Banna Strand and Ardfert

The course sits at the southern end of Banna Strand, and the area's best-known history is within a few miles of the first tee.

Banna Strand

A long Blue Flag beach that runs from Ballyheigue in the north to Barrow Beach, below the golf course, in the south. Discover Ireland puts it about 4 miles (7 km) north of Tralee town. Its dunes are a Special Area of Conservation, and lifeguards patrol it in summer. On Good Friday 1916, Sir Roger Casement came ashore here from a German submarine ahead of the Easter Rising. He was arrested in Kerry and hanged for treason in London that August.

Ardfert Cathedral

Three medieval churches in the village of Ardfert, about 6 miles (10 km) from Tralee on the R551. Heritage Ireland says St Brendan the Navigator was born in the Ardfert area in the sixth century and founded a monastery there. The site is closed for the rest of the 2026 season and reopens in 2027. Adult admission was €5 in 2026.

Where to stay near Tralee Golf Club

Stay in Tralee town if the group wants restaurants and pubs within walking distance in the evening. Stay in Ballybunion if Ballybunion's Old Course is also on the trip, since its weekday-morning tee times are easiest from a bed beside the 1st tee. There are no Kerry hotel pages on golftripbuilder.com yet, so each description here is taken from the hotel's own site.

• Ballygarry Estate Hotel & Spa

  Tralee · a four-star estate hotel run by the McGillicuddy family for three generations, with the Nádúr Spa

• Ballyseede Castle

  Near Tralee · a castle hotel with 45 bedrooms on 30 acres of gardens and woodland

• The Rose Hotel

  Tralee · 4-star and family-run, 161 rooms and a spa, within walking distance of the town center

• Teach de Broc

  Ballybunion · a family-run guesthouse a two-minute walk from the 1st tee of the Old Course

Check the dates of the Rose of Tralee International Festival before you book a room in town. In 2026 it ran from 14 to 18 August, and the 2027 dates hadn't been published when we checked.

Golf courses near Tralee

Ballybunion is 55 minutes north, course to course, and Dooks and Waterville are further south in Kerry. The linked courses each have a page on golftripbuilder.com listing their visitor days, handicap rules and booking route, and Tralee's own course page has the booking steps in brief. The times are by road from Tralee Golf Club.

• 

  Ballybunion

  55 min

  Visitors get Old Course tee times only on weekday mornings, and not on bank holiday Mondays. The season runs from mid-April into early October. A caddie or forecaddie is compulsory for each group, and the club keeps the full fee if you cancel inside six months.

  View Ballybunion →
• 

  Dooks

  1 h 05 min

  Visitor windows on every day of the week in season, and a handicap limit of 54. That makes it the easiest of the Kerry links to put on a Wednesday, when Tralee is closed to visitors.

  View Dooks →
• 

  Waterville

  1 h 45 min

  The club says it's open daily from 1 April to 31 October. Payment is in full at booking and non-refundable, so book it once your dates are fixed.

  View Waterville →
• 

  Lahinch

  2 h 50 min

  Across the Shannon in County Clare. Its Old Course is open to visitors seven days a week in season, with full payment online.

  View Lahinch →

For the Clare end of a west of Ireland trip, start with the complete guide to Lahinch Golf Club. If you'd rather fly into Cork, the Old Head Golf Links guide runs the Kerry links from the south, and the Adare Manor guide covers the Ryder Cup course halfway between Shannon and Kerry.

Your Tralee Golf Trip Starts Here

Two rounds at Tralee, plus Ballybunion and Dooks, from one base in Ballybunion. This six-day sample suits a group that would rather unpack once, and you can swap any day for Waterville or Lahinch.

Every round falls on a visitor day. Tralee gets Monday and Thursday. Ballybunion's Old Course goes on Tuesday, because it takes visitors only on weekday mornings and a Monday tee time can fall on a bank holiday. Dooks fills the Wednesday, when Tralee takes no visitors. Play it between mid-April and early October, when all three courses are open to visitors. The drive times are road-routing estimates without traffic, the same ones the course pages use.