Mullingar Golf Club is located in County Westmeath, the midlands of Ireland, somewhere between Dublin and Sligo. The course is ideally set on lush rolling hills and it’s one of the country’s elder clubs, which was founded in 1894. 

It took Mullingar Golf Club 40 years and five moves before finally settling on its existing site at Belvedere and they then commissioned the great James Braid to design it. It opened for play in 1935. 

Braid originally laid Mullingar out as a championship course and, in the 1950s and 60s, the club was rewarded as three times host to the Irish Professional Championship. It’s still a stiff test, measuring 6,458 yards, but it’s not long enough to tax today’s big hitting professionals. However, having said that, Mullingar still tests the very best golfers in the annual Mullingar Scratch Cup, which has attracted some of the best Irish and overseas amateur golfers over the years – Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington are a couple of big names who once held the trophy. 

With fine turf, Mullingar is a delightful walk in the park and the course has a fine collection of one-shot holes. The 2^nd is the pick of the bunch and it comes too early in the round for some of us. Measuring 189 yards from the back elevated tee, it’s an exacting par three where many golfers will take a bogey or worse.