Powerscourt Golf Club, County Wicklow is near the town of Enniskerry. (GolfPublisher.com)

Powerscourt Golf Club quickly reveals character

The Powerscourt Golf Club is one of those Irish golf courses that reveals its character on the drive in, before you can even see the bag drop.

You arrive at the club, first through the large, stone gate that sits up the hill from the little town of Enniskerry in County Wicklow. You then pass through a tunnel of pale, stately beech trees, with the land falling away and then rising dramatically to each side.

You half expect a horn to blow, sounding that the fox hunt is on. And in fact, the club sits amidst one of the largest and grandest estates in Ireland. The former castle of the powerful Slazenger family, a mighty industrial family now fallen, can be seen from most of the back nine.

The beauty of Ireland never lets up on this course, and it shows you frequently why you came here to play golf. Powerscourt is set in a rolling valley, so that you are given different looks on every hole of Ireland's green hills, and even some glimpses of the Irish Sea.

April 24, 2006