64 dunes in golf. The long par-five eleventh, ‘Palmer’s Peak’, climbs to the highest point of the course and some of the most impressive views over a distinctive curved spit of dunes to the Atlantic Ocean beyond. The twelfth then tumbles back down the dunes, and is followed by a sensory overload of par threes and relatively short par fours that largely play on top of, rather than within, the high dunes, before the course turns back inland for the closing par five towards the clubhouse. Such was the contrast that Palmer is famously quoted as saying, “I may have designed the first nine, but surely God designed the back nine”. There have been alterations to the course since Palmer and Seay’s original layout was completed. For example, a project overseen by Tom Mackenzie – while he was working for Donald Steel – shortly after the turn of the millennium included reworking of greens to open up more pin locations. Later work completed by Palmer associate Brandon Johnson included a redesign of the par-five ninth. After Palmer’s death in 2016, there would eventually be, as course manager Colm Lawlor describes, “an accumulation of things to change”. The club set out to identify a new golf course architect who had considerable links experience and would be sympathetic to Palmer’s design. Enter Graeme Webster, a Scotsman who had become somewhat accustomed to life in southwest Ireland thanks to his work then – and since – at Ballybunion. He would become part of a project team that included Atlantic Golf Construction, which had already completed a driving range and sixhole short course for Tralee, and golf consultancy Turfgrass. The club was keen to ensure future work was approached in a coordinated and consistent way, as general manager Maurice O’Meara explains: “We were ready to make the appropriate investment to create and execute a proper, coherent masterplan, to be developed from a brief that summarised the wishes of the members.” Those wishes included some requests relating to specific holes or features of the course, such as addressing the drainage performance of several TRALEE GC Photo: Ian Cronin
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