Waterville sits at the far edge of things, on a promontory of County Kerry that pushes out into the Atlantic from one of the southwesternmost points of Ireland, as if it meant to keep going. At high tide the sea closes in on three sides, and the 18th becomes the only way out. The view is enormous. To the northeast stand the Macgillycuddy's Reeks; to the southwest, beautiful Ballinskelligs Bay opens into the ocean. Most golfers arrive by a stretch of the Ring of Kerry, and the drive in may be even lovelier than the links. If someone else is at the wheel, keep your eyes open. If you are driving yourself, choose your moments to let your gaze wander. The village lies on a strip of land between the Atlantic and Lough Currane, one of the most beautiful lakes in Ireland. Its Irish name, An Coireán, means little whirlpool. It is a famous angling centre and historically a holiday town, and today it is the premier coastal tourist centre of South West Kerry. Charlie Chaplin came every year with his family, and the village gave him a statue on the Ring of Kerry. The club named its annual two-day AM-AM after him. Teams from all over Ireland have played it since 1984, and it comes with a certain amount of merriment. Golf here began around 1889 as a modest nine holes on what is now the eastern section of the links. The history that followed was long and winding, with its share of turmoil. In the 1950s the club folded, and the ground waited until Jack Mulcahy, an Irish American, bought it in the late 1960s. Mulcahy brought in his friend Claude Harmon, the 1948 Masters champion, and Eddie Hackett, Ireland's most prolific architect, whether to design a new course or to renovate the old, and in 1973 the "beautiful monster" opened for play. A new ownership group arrived in the 1980s, and from then on the wider world came to know Waterville. American travelers especially have written it onto their bucket lists. Tom Fazio was later commissioned to update the course, and his twenty-first-century work gives it a distinctly modern feel. The location and the climate remain distinctly Irish. The two nines have different characters. The front nine plays across gently undulating, relatively flat ground. The back nine weaves through avenues of tall dunes. There are three outstanding par threes and three excellent par fives, and the par fours are pretty good too. The 11th is a heavenly short par five, its rippling fairway protected on both flanks by towering dunes. The 12th is a long par three over a hollow to a perched green, and it carries more history than any yardage. Catholics once gathered in that hollow to hide from religious persecution. A service is still held on that ground once a year during the club's Father-Son tournament. In the clubhouse hangs a tremendous photograph of a priest riding on the back of a golf cart. The 16th, a par four of 366 yards, was once called "Round the Bend," because it follows the natural curve of the Atlantic coastline. Liam Higgins, the local professional, made a hole-in-one there on his way to a course record of 65. Fittingly, the hole now carries the name "Liam's Ace." Then comes the 17th, "Mulcahy's Peak," an excellent par three played from an elevated tee and named for the founder. The view from up there is simply breathtaking. Its remoteness has kept the big competitions away. Famous golfers find their way here anyway, and they all leave feeling that Waterville is a very special place. Payne Stewart was due to be Honorary Captain in 2000. In October 1999 he died when his private jet crashed in South Dakota. A bronze statue honors him and the bond he shared with this windswept links at the end of the long Kerry road.