The European Club may be the best golf course in the world

That title is high praise, but if you combine everything that you get at The European Club -- which is set about an hour's drive south of Dublin, Ireland on the Emerald Isle's more temperate eastern coast -- the boast is likely a reality.

This week Cybergolf.com posted my story on the trip I took to the course last summer. Here's a few paragraphs and photos from the piece:

The European Club

Irish golf course designer Pat Ruddy always wanted to build a course that he could own and operate, but the land for his definitive project had to be special and spacious. Ultimately, he found the property that now contains The European Club after searching the Irish coast in a helicopter and selecting the site over the one in Scotland that would eventually become Donald Trump's much-ballyhooed course near Aberdeen.

"Very few people get to live their golfing dreams, but I have been fortunate to do so," Ruddy said while joining me for a pre-round breakfast during a visit to The European Club in June 2012. "I love golf so much that I had to have a field of my own in which to hit golf balls without interruption or having an angry greenkeeper looking at my divots." 

Ruddy lives and breathes the game, and his passion is illustrated at The European Club. Once he had the 20-hole layout in place and built a modest golf shop and an inviting but understated clubhouse for members and guests, Ruddy added an apartment upstairs with living quarters, a lounge and an expansive library, which he plans to expand into an archive of golf literature. 

It is from this roost that Ruddy wanders out to the course at quiet times and finds ways to enhance The European Club. "The sand is always moving," he confided. "Like an old man looking in a mirror, we do not go a year without finding more wrinkles as fairways rise or fall unceasingly." 

The opening hole at The European Club

In 2006 at the height of the Irish property boom, Ruddy and his family were offered about €40 million for the golf course and adjoining property, but he refused to sell. "We have no hotel and no housing," Ruddy said. "Money is not the driving force. We are here for the golf. It was founded because I wanted a place of my own to play golf, or play at golf, whenever the mood took hold. If it pays for itself then that is a bonus."

The European Club was founded in 1987, opened for play in 1992. It plays to a par of 71 and 7,355 yards from the back set of four tees. If you add on the two extra par-3s that Ruddy just couldn't keep from designing, 20-hole par moves to 77 and the yardage stretches 7,726 from the tips. 

No. 3 at The European Club

The course is a combination of rugged dunes, deep bunkers (101 of them, all lined with railroad ties - or "sleepers," as Ruddy calls them), sea breezes and large, wavy putting surfaces. Add to that fast-running fairways, greens that are receptive to the ground run-up and acres of tall, bordering Marram grass and golden-flowered gorse, the golfer has all he wants and more. 

The course's welcome card, written by Ruddy, gives fair warning about the impending challenge: "We give no apology that the thoughtless and inept player may suffer on our links. It was not created for such players."

For the rest of the story, see here.

What's not said here is the full day of golf fun I experienced. Ruddy met me and fellow golf writer Jason Deegan when we arrived at the club. Once we checked in, he had a quick breakfast with us, then ushered up out to the course for our 20-hole round. After we finished playing , Ruddy was there to meet us again with a piping-hot lunch that was topped with a warm apple tart underneath a scoop of fresh cream.

Irish golf course designer Pat Ruddy, owner and creator of The European Club

Once lunch was done, we were taken to Ruddy's living quarters on the club property and allowed to tour his famous library of 30,000 rare golf books. It was just an amazing day.