In the last few years, Galway has become one of the fastest-growing areas throughout Europe. With the population expanding each year and city-centers growing, escaping for an afternoon on the greens is always a welcome escape. Even better for golf fans, some of the country’s best courses are close by. 

Residents and visitors in Dublin have locations like the Royal Dublin Golf Course, Portmarnock Golf Club, and a unique course at Luttrellstown Castle. Over in Cork, Mahon Golf Course, Cobh Golf Club, and Douglas Golf Club also see large numbers of visitors, as well as play host to major events.

Galway is close behind in terms of quality greens. In fact, the Galway Golf Club hosted the inter-club Cups and Shields week back in 2002. In fact, this club and the neighboring Galway Bay have been featured in the Top 100 rankings throughout the country for the toughness of links and quality of architecture.

Typically, fans are more apt to wager on golf betting odds for events like the Irish PGA Championship or the PGA Irish Club Professional Tournament. But county Galway has stunning courses that are suitable for a range of skill levels. Ready to hit the greens? Here are the top five courses in county Galway, which are ranked according to layout, quality of grounds, and club facilities.

First: Connemara (Ballyconneely)

Located on the Atlantic coastline, the courses at Connemara are some of the most rugged and remote in the region. They’re also some of the most challenging, designed in 1973 by Irish course architect Eddie Hackett. 

Visitors can challenge themselves to the 7,200 yards across 27 holes. Just be sure to keep a lookout for crags and be sure to mind the wind. Without any sand dunes sheltering from the coast, Connemara will push golfers to their limit.

Second: Galway (Blackrock)

While not nearly as challenging as Connemara, Galway Golf Club is one of the most classic and storied courses in the region. In 1926, Scottish golf legend Alister MacKenzie finished designing the 18-hole course. 

Though his origin greens have since been redesigned, there’s plenty of MacKenzie’s original charm in the parkland track, which features tree-lined links. Beyond the course, golfers will enjoy views of the Aran Islands. Here, the emphasis is on ambiance and relaxation.

Third: Portumna

Drawing on both examples above, Portumna combines elements of challenging links and natural wonders. The 18-hole course spreads across a 126-acre property, which overlaps with Coillte, a protected forest. As such, wild deer are regularly seen on the greens. 

Mature trees define the course’s character and add to its unique ambiance, which stretches 7,000 yards from backmarkers. With a tricky 17th-hole and a panoramic view of the forest, Portumna is Galway’s hidden gem—though it may not be for long. Back in 2005, Portumna was awarded the best-presented course in the entire province, which has fostered interest from travelers and locals alike.

Fourth: Galway Bay Resort (Renville)

Just like Connemara, Galway Bay stretches along the coast. Though designed by legend Christy O’Connor Junior, many point out at the course closely resembles American designs, which use larger fairways, mounds, and primly-manicured greens. 

Despite the emphasis on looks, Galway Bay is a challenging course that will require golfers to navigate strong winds and keep endurance in mind. The course stretches 7,100 yards, with historic sites littering the grounds, including an ‘ancient ring fort’ near the 16th tee and stone huts near the 13th.

Keep in mind that, unlike other courses on this list, Galway Bay is a resort. The grounds once housed a large, luxury hotel, which is currently undergoing a major renovation and expansion.

Fifth: Bearna (Corboley)

Despite being built on lands similar to Galway Bay, architect Robert J. Brown successfully transformed Berna into a moorland track. Even better, it has the same stunning views as Galway Bay. Bearna Golf Club has adapted to challenges like water drainage, which means golfers won’t find very many bunkers on these greens. 

In place, there are plenty of other obstacles that will entertain golfers of all skill levels for a full day. The emphasis here is on the natural wonders surrounding Bearna, from the Irish peat bog to the distant islands.

The gaming industry keeps going from strength to strength. The number of people playing games just keeps growing, particularly as older demographics show a greater interest in the medium. 

Part of this is because of the ingenuity and innovation that has come from the gaming industry. Game developers, hardware manufacturers, and third-party companies have all created entirely new ways to play and new genres for gamers to enjoy. 

Of all the biggest gaming innovations from the last decade, these are the biggest. 

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is not a new technology. In fact, it’s not even new to gaming as Nintendo attempted to make a virtual reality console in the mid-1990s. However, the Virtual Boy, as it was named, was ahead of its time and was a huge failure. 

Since the early 2010s, things have begun to change. The technology has caught up to our virtual reality gaming ambitions and computers like Sony, Facebook, and HTC have been developing headsets that offer HD graphics, head tracking, and respectable framerates. 

VR is still an evolving technology, though as it becomes cheaper and easier to use, more gamers are being enticed by the immersive playing experience that it offers. It’s also being used outside of gaming, for things like house building and medicine which will help to make people more comfortable with the technology,

Community Participation

While gaming has traditionally been seen as something that we do on our own, it has very much become a social experience over the last decade or so. Online functionality of games means people from all over the world can come together and play their favourite titles, chat, and challenge each other. 

That’s why the XP functionality is included in both PlayStation and Xbox ecosystems as it helps to show which players are more experienced, leading to friendly rivalries. Most games also include leaderboards in some way or another, showing players how they stack up against others in the world. 

Online casinos have also added community participation to their games. Live dealer games often include a chat functionality where players can discuss the game and other topics with each other. The developers of video slots have taken a different approach by adding different types of jackpots to their games, these work by having every player contributing to them as they spin the reels. The two most common types of jackpot are “daily” and “progressive”, both work in a similar way but as its name suggests, the daily jackpot is guaranteed to hit every day. 

Microtransactions

Microtransactions, which are small but frequent payments, are often made in exchange for in-game items or to unlock new features. They’ve helped to create an entirely new monetisation model for video games. 

Instead of charging a big chunk of cash upfront, free-to-play games cost nothing to download, install or play. If they so choose, users can often keep playing them forever without having to hand over any money.

But if they want to unlock extra features or character customisations, players can choose to pay the publisher a small fee. 

This model has been incredibly popular as it has given developers a way to earn an income from their content for years after creating it, while players like the ability to try out a game for free before they commit to it. 

Battle Royale

There have been several new video game genres that have been created in the last decade, though perhaps none as influential or successful as the battle royale. Named after the 2000 Japanese Battle Royale, the genre pits a group of players against each other in a map with the winner being the one that’s left standing at the end. 

Online multiplayer modes made the modern battle royale popular, as it would be impossible to have 100 players all plugged into a single console or computer at the same time. Some games from the early 2010s, including Minecraft and Arma 2 had battle royale mods developed for them. 

One of these mods directly led to the creation of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, or PUBG. PUBG was the first dedicated battle royale title, but the model has since been replicated by Fortnite, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, and more. 

Today, millions of players compete in these massive battle royale games every day and they’ve become some of the most popular forms of esport on the planet.