Tour The World's Newest Top 100 Course: St. Patrick's Links at Rosapenna

COUNTY DONEGAL, Ireland - John Casey and his brother, Frank Jr., stand smiling for the cameras on the first tee of the St. Patrick's Links on a perfect July day. This magic moment has been a decade in the making.

The Casey family, which runs the adjacent Rosapenna Hotel & Golf Resort, first purchased the dunes that held the skeletons of two former links courses in 2012. The brothers and their father waited patiently for six years to start redeveloping the land and made sure to pick the right architect to handle such a sensitive project. It could be, after all, the last links ever built in Ireland.

Now that Tom Doak's St. Patrick's Links has achieved its first World Top 100 rating (No. 55 by one publication), they can feel confident about the success of that 10-year journey. Golfers are flocking to experience the links that debuted in June 2021.

"It's amazing that it's given us that (world-class) stature. That is what the southwest of Ireland had in spades," John Casey says. "They had Lahinch, Ballybunion and Waterville. But (County) Donegal and the northwest, aside from (Royal) Portrush, which is close but not that close, we never really had that trophy course. It is disappointing that Glashedy (at Ballyliffin) and Sandy Hills (at Rosapenna) weren't viewed like that, but we needed that big splash. ... St. Patrick's has definitely elevated Rosapenna and the entire northwest of Ireland."

But was that greatness bestowed too early? There are always critics in today's social media age. Online quibbling about fescue that's too penal and firm greens - both issues that will soften over time - misses the whole point of St. Patrick's Links. The site's grand scale and the depth and height of the towering dunes make it seem like a Yankee Stadium of Irish golf. It just feels bigger and bolder than anything else.

Its dynamic routing, a 6,930-yard par 71, and its wild greens are Doak's calling-card. It is his seventh World Top 100 course, which is more than any other modern architect. His mix of blind shots and epic reveals take the player on a great links adventure. One minute, a golfer might not see a path to safety because of one of the many blind shots through the dunescape. The next, they've emerged from that grassy prison to stand on a glorious elevated tee that overlooks all of northwest Ireland, including Sheephaven Bay.

Despite the incredible width of many fairways, the angle of every shot must be calculated correctly or there's a price to pay. Hidden on the 214-yard fifth is perhaps the largest blown-out bunker in Ireland. Golfers can hardly see it from the tee. The seventh green is completely unseen behind a pronounced fairway ridge. A miss short and right of the ninth green will roll to the bottom of what I'm calling the "pit of despair" well below the putting surface. Although I haven't played every Doak course, the shelf on the 11th green is perhaps the most severe I've seen.

The 16th plays ferociously downhill, but as a 534-yard par 4 (487 yards from the blues), it plays more like a reachable par 5 for most of us. The finishing hole is a typical short par 4 by Doak with car wrecks waiting to happen anywhere, with a fairway that tilts and rolls balls into tricky lies. Bring your best short-game imagination to fully enjoy the day. St. Patrick's Links is open April through October with green fees set at €200 in 2023. Enjoy our photo tour of the world's latest lovable links.