65 greens, but overall the club sought to achieve consistency in presentation and to ‘harmonise’ the nines. “The back nine occupies such dramatic land that it would never be conceivable to replicate that on the front,” says Webster. Instead, his plan was to give the course a greater impression of continuity and to further instil links characteristics on the front nine. This would include introducing new dunescapes, a preference for individual teeing areas that would sit more lightly on the land, a completely new bunker scheme consisting entirely of revetted hazards, and grass pathways that wind through the dunes. One of the first tasks, however, was to relocate the club’s statue of Arnold Palmer, who now welcomes golfers to the course as they approach the first tee. As Webster set out to work each day he would pass the statue and say ‘Good morning, Mr Palmer, I hope you approve of what we’re doing’. The statue relocation was part of the very first phase of work in 2019 on the opening hole, which now sees golfers walk from the putting green along a pathway into the dunes and emerge at the new teeing areas to a fabulous broad vista of the course, before playing to a fairway that heads directly towards the coastline. It’s a grand entrance and sets the tone for a round that delivers one thrill after another. Over the years since that initial work on the first, every hole on the course has seen significant changes, and some are quite substantially transformed. Of particular note are the second and third and the stretch from seven to eleven. The tees and fairway of the par-five second are now closer to the cliff edge, while new dunes line the entire lefthand side of the hole and wrap behind the green. From there golfers take one of the new grass pathways to the iconic par-three third, where a twelfthcentury medieval tower provides the ideal line of attack to a green that appears to sit on the sea defences. The back tee has always provided a dramatic and complete view of the hole. Moving all the other teeing areas to the shoreline and reshaping the area immediately in front of the tees has made the visual impact equally strong from every teeing location. The sixteenth hole plays among the enormous natural dunes on the north of the site. Left, greens of the seventeenth (foreground), then the first, second and third beyond. The latest work at Tralee has included the accentuation of links characteristics on the front nine Photo: Ian Cronin
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