Ardglass

The eight-iron shot was tracking. The ball landed just in front of the green, trundled past the bunker, edged towards the pin and disappeared.

I was convinced Podcast Partner had holed in one on the fifth at Ardglass.

He wasn’t so sure, so we videoed the 130-yard walk, which culminated in his delight at fishing the ball from the cup.

Fortunately for him, nobody in the clubhouse took advantage of him opening a tab to celebrate his achievement.

I have never notched an ace, but over the years I have played holes that I thought would be beneath the moment.

That could not be said here. Ardglass is a dramatic seaside links which we played in perfect weather. Few better backdrops could be found.

The day was rightly dominated by the hole-in-one, but we would have had a top time regardless.

Our tasty lunch was in the world’s oldest clubhouse, whose origins date back to a trading warehouse and merchants’ quarters built in 1405.

Towards the end of the 18th century, Charles Fitzgerald, 1st Baron Lecale, transformed it into a grand residential manor.

In 1911, the property became the permanent clubhouse for Ardglass Golf Club, and during the 1927 structural renovations, workers uncovered a small skeleton in a cavity wall, prompting ghost stories about the castle's upper floors.

Within the walls of the historic structure is a practice bay where I smacked a couple of drives into the net before emerging through a gap in the stone wall past the ancient 18th-century cannons and onto the first tee.

The opening hole sets the tone for a round where excitement and variety mean the golfer has a constant, often breathtaking challenge.

The first is uphill with the seaside on the left and a grassed-over crag waiting to gather drives that don’t make the fairway.

I thinned my second into a narrow, perched green tucked inside a dune. Luckily, the ball finished only 20 feet from the flag, and I completed my par.

It was the first of nine, and there should have been more. The conditions were as benign as they could ever be at Ardglass.

The par-three second maintains the wow factor – demanding a crisp shot over 'The Howdles', a rocky chasm carry, up to a slanted green. Slightly long is better than short.

The hits keep coming with the third – a short, curving par-four that lures any drives down the left towards a rocky demise.

The vista of the coast hugging the fairway from the elevated tee of the fourth blew my mind so much that I hooked my ball towards the sea. Incredibly, it found grass amid the rocks, and I conjured a bogey.

I was on a good run, but nothing compared to PP’s glorious ace on the fifth, which will go down in Golf Pilgrim folklore.

After a celebratory drink of Guinness at the gorgeous cottage which doubles as a halfway house, the holes at Ardglass continued to dazzle.

This was especially true of those at the start of the back nine, beginning with the redesigned tenth.

Now a short par-four, the steep downhill hole is set against a backdrop of a seaside village.

The ball was rolling so speedily that I made the apron of the 302-yard green from the tee.

A run of pars continued at the 11th – a mesmerising par-five with water down the right and a steep bank of gorse down the left. A ditch runs across the fairway, demanding clever course management. This hole requires precision placement.

We gasped when we stood on the 12th tee. The views are magnificent, and we were faced with 191 yards directly down to a green framed by the sea. Incredibly, Mrs W, PP and I all parred this fantastic par-three.

So, why isn’t Ardglass in GB & Ireland’s Top 100 or even in all-Ireland’s top 25?

Honestly, I think it has a fair case for a higher ranking, but I am guessing it comes down to the less memorable stretch from 14 to 16.

The latter is a new hole that measured 605 yards from the white tees, was uphill against the breeze, and featured an ancient Lecale estate wall running in front of the green. In our opinion, it didn’t fit with the rest of the course.

However, the new par-three 17th definitely did, with its upturned green over a devilish bunker. My success there left me needing just a par on the 18th for a creditable 80 on the par 70.

Sadly, my drive was not far enough left to avoid hitting the fairway’s slope and dropping down into rough next to the first hole.

My recovery looked fine enough, but I caught one of the bunkers that protect a green sitting above a tricky slope. The final result was a nasty six.

But I had adored Ardglass. I would love to be a member here, though that would surely bump up the cost of celebrating a hole-in-one.