Palmer North

Few addresses in Irish golf carry the weight of Straffan. The K Club, which is where Palmer North lives, became the defining stage for European golf when it hosted the 2006 Ryder Cup — one of the most celebrated editions of the match in the modern era, with Europe routing the United States on home soil. Arnold Palmer himself designed both courses here, and the North course played a central role in that week, giving it a permanent place in the sport's collective memory.

The course unfolds across the Liffey Valley estate in County Kildare, a landscape of mature parkland, the River Liffey weaving through the property, and the kind of grand, unhurried Irish countryside that makes a round feel like more than just golf. Water comes into play with genuine menace on multiple holes, demanding both accuracy and nerve.

This is resort golf at a serious level — beautifully maintained, architecturally ambitious, and steeped in a history that most courses never get close to. Visitors come expecting spectacle and tend to leave having found it.