A Rosapenna for your thoughts....

Rosapenna, a golf resort built on wild dunes land tucked into the Northwest corner of Ireland, has been in the news lately.  In the first instance, we learn from the Perry Golf Blog that Rosapenna was named the Irish Golf Tour Operators Association Resort of the Year.  I know, that and a buck will get you a cup of coffee, but it's worth clicking through just to see the slideshow of spectacular Aidan Bradley photography.  

As the infomercials say, but wait, there's more.... from the Irish Golf Desk we find out that the resort has, at long last, purchased the adjoining St Patricks property, and is on it's way to offering 81 holes of linksy goodness.  Nicklaus had long been associated with the St. Patricks property, but years went by with no activity.  But there's still more, an update to that very IGD piece tells us that none other than Tom Doak is eying the property, and posting about it on Golf Club Atlas forums.  That thread can be found here.

OK, some background for you.  On our 2008 trip to Ireland, Theresa and I made Rosapenna our first stop.  At that point they had 36 holes of golf, nine of which were the original Old Tom Morris holes laid out along the bay.  Those nine were paired with nine indifferent holes on the other side of the road to form one eighteen hole loop.  But the main attraction was and is The Sandy Hills Links, a brawny, top tier links designed by Pat Ruddy, probably the foremost Irish golf architect working today.  Since that time, Ruddy has added an additional nine holes that are now paired with Old Tom's original nine.

Views of the Sandy Hills Links from our 2008 visit.  That would be the bride in the foreground of the top photo.

The other reason for my interest in Rosapenna was closer to home, a flaky former member at Willow Ridge, my home club.  This gentleman, who will remain nameless, was a real estate developer of uncertain reputation, about whom several club members went out of their way to warn me.  He told me at one point that he and partners had acquired the St. Patricks property, going on at length about how he thought Nicklaus was the wrong architect for the project.  Then the story changed, and his group was going to buy the Rosapenna Resort to help the family out because in view of the illness of the principal.  Hard to separate fact from fiction, but Rosapenna seems to be doing fine on its own.

The view from the resort's dining room.  Theresa repeatedly asked me to purchase the little white house for her, and I tried to cut such a deal with our club member when he told me that he was buying the resort.

My one photo of the St. Patricks property from 2008.  It's appeal to top notch architects should be obvious.

My current interest is that Rosapenna is within driving distance of our beloved Ballyliffin, no more than 35-40 miles as the crow flies.  Alas, we won't be traveling by crow, and there are major bodies of water to skirt on those notoriously perilous Irish roads.  But it's exciting to contemplate that we might have 36 new holes of Doakian (or Nicklaus, Ruddy or whoever) built through those dunes when the bride and I at last arrange our Season in Ballyliffin™.

UPDATE: Despite considerable effort, Blogger will not cooperate in the alignment of the top photo in this post.  As we are approaching business hours here at World Headquarters, I will mobilize the entire Unplayable Lies IT Department to solve this vexing problem for our legions of readers.