The K Club: Palmer North

The Palmer Course at The K Club (short for Kildare Club) is one of Ireland’s most established professional tournament courses and has been the site of the 2006 Ryder Cup as well as multiple European and Irish Opens. It was designed by Arnold Palmer’s design firm in the early 1990s on a 550-acre site that also encompasses a luxury resort hotel and second Palmer-designed course. The course is American in style with holes that dogleg through groves of hardwoods and shapely Palmer-esque bunkers. Holes seven, eight and 17 play alongside the River Liffey, but the strength of the design are the gambling par 5s that give power players the chance to go low, including the make-or-break 18th with 14 bunkers lurking along the route and a green protruding into a lake.