Any Irish experience with courses or caddies in SW Ireland?

[Bandonista]

Have the good fortune to be heading to Ireland this June. Looking for feedback on courses in the SW - likes, dislikes, worth a visit, etc. Also, looking for feedback on whether the caddies greatly enhanced your round or not. Thanks.

[temup]

Take a caddie it is worth the experience, you can get not only the course info, but history of the area, and  local knowledge as where to go eat and what to do at night. Old Head had spectacular views, but Waterville was my favorite course in that area that I played.

[Bandonista]

Thanks for the feedback.  What other courses did you play and what did you think of them? Any hidden gems?

[temup]

We played
Adare Manor: it was parkland not links they held the Irish open there for two years
Dooks: a local course interesting
Tralee: nice course I liked it and the Quite Man movie was filmed on the beach below the course
Doodbeg: monster clubhouse sort out of place in the local landscape
Royal County Down: in Northern Ireland second favorite course saw Tom Watson playing with Sandy Tatum old USGA president playing there
Portmarnock: in Dublin was pretty interesting also.
 

[rehorneman]

old head is spectacular. very expensive. it is the pebble beach of ireland as is kingsbarns of Scotland.
waterville is great a must play.tralee was not my favorite but also a must play.
k club, where the Ryder cup was held is very nice but pretty much an American course
my two favorites were potmarnick outside Dublin and the European club. the European club was designed and built by pat ruddy.it is pure golf!! no yardage markers no caddies,you can bring your own caddie but one is not needed.they rent trolleys.small club house where you can get a sandwich and a beer, nothing fancy.this course has 19 holes,an extra par three, fun to play.if possible play this course at least twice.
if your flying to Shannon a must play is ballybunion. tom Watson rates this one of the best courses in the world.
bill Clinton visited ballybunion so the town erected a statue of him, leaning on a golf club ,in the middle of town. they call the statue,SLICK ON A STICK
right now the exchange for a euro is: $1.oo= .76 which is not bad

[jkr]

Lahinch is a must play on any trip to EIRE

[rehorneman]

i forgot about Lahinch. we played it the day we got off the plane! very tough and delightfully quirky. but a must play

[banistr]

Went last April...Doonbeg was by far in the best shape of all the ocurses we played....Bent everthing!!  Old Head was the biggest let down.  For $550 +caddy fees and tip, you would think the treatment there would be top notch...it was far from it.   Tralee was great...and  the two Ballybunion courses was nice as well just in the worse shape of all the courses we played.  We played golf for 11 days...and it was by far my most memorable golf experience.