There are plenty of ways to describe County Sligo Golf Club. History books call it one of the great championship links of Ireland. Golfers who have played it tend to reach for simpler words: incredible, unforgettable, a place they can’t stay away from.
That’s certainly the case for Alissa Kacar, a TV and event host and an overseas member of County Sligo Golf Club, who recently spoke about what keeps drawing her back to Rosses Point. Filmed on the course and outside the clubhouse, her comments touch on the things that tend to come up again and again when members and visitors talk about this club: the history, the golf, and the welcome.
An Incredible Facility With Serious History
Alissa didn’t hold back when describing the club, calling it an incredible facility with so much history behind it. That’s not an exaggeration. Founded in 1894, County Sligo Golf Club is one of the oldest and most respected links courses in Ireland, shaped over more than a century by the land itself, Sligo Bay on one side and Benbulben standing over the course on the other.
For an overseas member, that sense of history is part of the appeal. It’s one thing to play a good golf course. It’s another to play a course that has hosted some of the biggest names in the amateur game and watch that history unfold in front of you, hole by hole.
The Rory McIlroy Connection
No conversation about County Sligo’s history goes very far without Rory McIlroy coming up, and Alissa’s is no exception. She pointed to the club’s connection to McIlroy, whose West of Ireland Championship trophy is proudly on display, a nod to his win at Rosses Point in 2005, when he became the youngest ever winner of the championship at just 15. He returned the following year to defend the title, cementing his place in the club’s history before he went on to become one of the biggest names in world golf.
It’s a story with an extra layer for County Sligo members. Harry Diamond, McIlroy’s long-time caddie and close friend, has his own chapter at the club too, having won the West of Ireland Championship himself at Rosses Point in 2012. For members, that shared history between two of the sport’s most recognisable figures and their own club adds something that few golf courses anywhere can claim.
