St. Anne's

Without going into the full details about the reason for my anxiety it was essentially the result of a cancelled sailing, a 5am puncture and then another subsequent missed ferry!

Regardless, I had made it to the first tee with just enough daylight for 18 holes and it was now time to breathe!

St. Anne's is around a 30 minute drive (15 on the day I visited!!) from Dublin Ferry Port and is very convenient for an initial or final round when travelling to Ireland.

Located next door to Royal Dublin Golf Club, on Bull Island Nature Reserve, the location is wonderful and although the course doesn't quite contain the subtleties or class of it's neighbour there is plenty of fine golf to keep you interested throughout the round.

I would sum up St. Anne's as solid if unspectacular and I mean that in a positive manner. The course is relatively flat, particularly the fairways, with low dunes bordering the majority of them and plenty of width, especially with the winter rough down.

The course comes alive with the approach shots into the greens and their surrounds are very impressive. This is where St. Anne's really excels.

For a course that celebrated its Centenary last year there is a quite modern feel to some of the green complexes and you will certainly be asked many questions on your recovery shots from around 50-yards in. The putting surfaces were absolutely superb for mid-March with a beautiful roll and trueness to them.

Par is 72 and the maximum yardage is 6,706 from the blue tees. With fast running fairways it plays shorter than that though and the ground game is very much in force.

St. Anne's does get a little repetitive off the tee (and a bit up and down) and the parallel drainage ditches that come into play on quite a few holes were not to my liking but otherwise there is little to pick fault with.

The best of the course, in my opinion, is seen towards the end of the round with the closing stretch the most memorable. In fact from the 12th onwards there is some very good stuff and the final four are particularly noteworthy.

On the front-nine the seventh is the pick of the bunch. It is brutal in length but the approach to a nestled green is superb.

In truth there isn't a poor hole on the course and I would firmly advise any golfer to pay a visit.

I forked out what I would class as quite a hefty green-fee (110 Euros) for a round here - certainly compared to other venues I played on the same trip - but there was very limited visitor availability and the course looked to be jam-packed so who can blame them for maximising visitor revenue.

If you can get a deal I would go for it.