Photograph courtesy of The European Club, Brittas Bay, Courtesy image
Editorial Review
The European Club
The Atmosphere
“Closed for redevelopment. The former European Club is being reimagined as Brittas Bay Club, with reopening planned for 2027.”
We played The European Club in October 2024. That was Pat Ruddy's original course, not the redesigned course now taking shape. The club is currently closed for redevelopment as Brittas Bay Club, with Kyle Phillips leading the redesign. Its official website announces a planned 2027 reopening, but gives different seasonal timings in different places. We would not build a trip around a specific reopening date without direct confirmation. This photograph shows the former course, not the completed redesign. Closure and reopening guidance checked against brittasbayclub.ie on 8 October 2026.
The long version
Pat Ruddy built twenty holes into the dunes of Brittas Bay because he answered to nobody but himself, and it still shows on every tee.
There is no grand clubhouse at The European Club, no championship pedigree stretching back a century, just a modest building an hour south of Dublin and a course built almost entirely by one man's conviction. Pat Ruddy bought the land at Brittas Bay and shaped a links that answers to no committee, no tradition, and occasionally, it seems, no rulebook at all.
You notice it immediately in the bunkering, some pits cut so deep you disappear into them entirely, and in the routing, twenty holes rather than the traditional eighteen, two extras simply added because Ruddy had the land and the idea. It plays like nothing else in Ireland.
“This is golf without pretension, raw and personal in a way almost nothing else in Ireland manages anymore.”
What the round is actually like
The course sits on genuine duneland along Brittas Bay, and Ruddy's design leans into every natural feature rather than smoothing them into something more conventional. Fairways run hard against dune ridges, greens sit in unexpected hollows, and several bunkers are deep enough to require a proper escape shot rather than a routine splash.
It is idiosyncratic golf in the truest sense, built by a person rather than a committee, and that personal quality comes through in details a corporate design process would never allow: an extra two holes, bunkers with genuine teeth, a routing that follows the land's instinct rather than a standard template.
The holes you will remember
The two bonus holes, rarely played at other clubs of this kind, are consistently rated by regulars among the best on the property, proof that Ruddy's instincts held up even on land he added almost as an afterthought. The bunkering throughout, some of the deepest and most punishing in the country, becomes its own recurring character in the round.
Ruddy himself, well into his career, has been known to appear near the first tee, and meeting the man who built every hole underfoot adds a personal dimension that larger, more institutional clubs simply cannot offer.
Who it suits
This suits golfers who have already played the famous names and want something rawer and more idiosyncratic, or golfers based in Dublin who want a genuine links experience without the multi-hour drive to Kerry or Mayo. Its closeness to the capital, roughly an hour, makes it an easy addition rather than a dedicated trip.
It is not the course for someone chasing photographs of iconic Irish scenery. It is the course for someone who wants to understand what one determined individual can build when nobody tells them no.
What we would not pretend
The deep bunkering and unconventional twenty-hole routing will frustrate golfers who prefer a more standard, predictable test. This is a course with strong personality, and personality, by definition, is not for everyone.
How we would use it
We use The European Club as a Dublin-adjacent day, an hour south along the Wicklow coast, easily paired with a scenic drive through the Wicklow Mountains on the way back for golfers who do not have time for the longer western links.
Rooms Worth Requesting
What it actually feels like.
Confirm the reopening date and visitor access directly with Brittas Bay Club before making travel arrangements.
Why we recommend it
A space that justifies the journey.
Keep it on the future-trip list, not the current tee sheet. We would choose Portmarnock or Royal Dublin while it is closed.
Experience The
If you understand the feeling of this place, you will naturally want to stay.
Check reopening updatesOne of Ireland's most sought-after courses