The Full Irish: Dooks
They're not booing, they're saying Doooooooooks
Fans of No Laying Up’s Tourist Sauce will note that I stole part of the subject line from their episode on Dooks, which in my mind is an homage, not plagiarism, beecause without that episode I might not have ever heard of Dooks Golf Links.
From that title card, you might also guess that Dooks is near Killarney where the craic is VERY high, and indeed we stayed in Killarney the prior night after our adventures at Ballybunion.
After a BIG night in Killarney, we nursed our hangovers over breakfast at Dromhall Lodge, and then drove out through the Ring of Kerry to Dooks.
Heading to Dooks, a few things were clear to me - it was constantly referred to as a hidden gem (which, after awhile, becomes a bit contradictory) and the logo/crest was all-world.
That’s the natterjack toad which is native to this area, and if you think I’m leaving Dooks without a great deal of gear with this toad on it, we don’t know each other very well. (Which is the only time I expected to see the nocturnal toads.)
Founded: 1973, 2003
Designer: Eddie Hackett, Martin Hawtree
Rating:
Top100GolfCourses: 27 (Ireland)
The Irish Golfer: 23 (Ireland)
Golf.com: N/A
Eddie Hackett is a goddamn menace.
The other reputation the course has is being a bit easier than some of the other namebrand courses in the area - Ballybunion, Waterville, etc. - but in preparation for it, this wasn’t something we thought was a guarantee whatsoever. Especially when one factors that this is the 17th round of golf I will have played thus far on this trip. (That hurts to even type.) That turned out to be good advance thinking, because Dooks beat the snot out of most of us.
Dooks seems like the kind of golf course that would have a bigger, brighter reputation if it wasn’t for its tonier neighbors. Just look at that photo above (from the course website, not me) and it’s so stunning one wonders how anything like this could possibly be a hidden gem.
I wish I could describe the drive on the Ring of Kerry well, but you are on a tiny road with a huge body of water on one side, and just what seems like a million acres of undeveloped hills to the other. It’s as pure nature as you can hope to see these days. Just jaw dropping stuff that took me off guard for sure. But when we got to Dooks, and stepped out of the car, we immediately knew we were in for a test.
Why? Because the wind was positively howling. Rob insisted it might not be playable, and certainly hitting “American style” wasn’t gonna work. To score at Dooks that day, you were going to have to play on the ground. (Rob arrived saying - mostly in jest - that he wasn’t going to hit punch/knockdowns, he’d just hit it ‘over the wind.’ While he’s a great golfer, Mother Nature is stronger.)
The other thing we quickly realized is that Dooks is on some impossibly perfect land. How is THIS a hidden gem?
The course itself is rugged in a way that doesn’t feel aggressive, but it BITES. I scored much worse than I did at Bally-freaking-bunion the day prior. (And yes, some of that might be the hangover from Reidys.) Frankly, it took a toll on all of us.
Once again, the land here is bonkers - its kind of nice that the course is NOT a perfectly manicured estate with tons of hotels to cater to it, because it’s absolutely that nice of a spot.
The wind and rain took their toll, and we were fairly wiped after playing what was the shortest course on our rota. Short doesn’t mean easy, and if anyone ever decides which tees to play solely because of the yardage, Dooks should be a clinic on why that’s not always the best metric to use.
After the round, we headed to Waterville for the evening. We stayed and ate at the Smugglers Inn, which was fantastic food and lodging and literally about 50 meters from Waterville Golf course. After dinner, we took a late night walk and got a sneak peek at what lay ahead the next morning.
That’s behind the 18th green and we realized immediately that pin was NOT very nice. (Spoiler alert: I forgot all about this until my approach shot on 18 the next day.)
Waterville is a special place - and uncomfortably close to the water when one thinks about things like climate change. If our tee time had been this day instead of the following, the rain storm would have flooded the car park so much our tee time may have been canceled. That doesn’t bode well for the future, but then, that’s a conversation for another day.