Rosapenna Golf Resort (Old Tom Morris Links) – Review and Rating

Translated by AI

The Old Tom Morris Links is the older course at Rosapenna, first planned by Tom Morris in 1891, later modified by James Braid and Harry Vardon, and most recently by Pat Ruddy.

The Old Tom Morris Links thus has a completely new loop, holes 1–9, bringing you back to the clubhouse after 9 holes. The land on the other side is now used for a full-length driving range and a par-3 course. The new routing is a delightful 9-hole loop whose standout feature is that there is always a hazard wherever you might suspect one, and that the landing areas are more open than they look from the tee. The more times you play the loop, the more enjoyable it becomes. After passing the clubhouse at the turn, you head out onto the holes Old Tom designed at the beginning of the 1900s, in what is called “The Valley.” All the holes lie in the valley inside the dunes of the beach ridge facing the sea. That way the course was protected from drifting sand, storms and so on. At the end of the 1800s nothing but manpower was used to design and improve the courses, so it was natural to lay out the holes where the ground was flattest. A few tees up on the beach ridge give fantastic views of the bay, where the Rosapenna hotel sits like a jewel at the water’s edge. The Tom Morris course is the shorter of the two and the average golfer’s favorite.

This page by Bo Sjosten was originally published in Swedish on our sister site Golfjournalen.se. It has been translated by AI.