March 2018
Collins, Ireland 
The Collins club is one of the world's oldest Pitch and Putt courses. The Collins course was laid out in the Irish Army's Camp Field (on the northside of Cork city) in the mid 1940s and opened in September 1945. The club has always had a strong link with the Army through the neighbouring Collins Barracks. This short course, with small greens, affords panoramic views of the city of Cork.
To start, Collins features two relatively short, but not necessarily easy, holes. The Index 5 1st plays over the road and a fiendish bunker in front. The downhill 2nd plays 33 metres across the road and over another testing front sand trap. The 3rd measures just 27 metres but it plays uphill along the Camp Field (army playing pitches) boundary fence. There's a row of bushes to be carried and a bunker to be wary of at the back of the green.
No. 11 is Collins' longest hole at 60 metres but the 46 metre 8th is considered the toughest on the course. A pitch over a cavernous front bunker needs to find a narrow green but the road awaits just three metres over the back.
The 41 metre 12th may be short but the teeshot on this Index 6 test must find a tiny green. The 17th plays 42 metres across the road again and over a bunker to a green that slopes right to left. To close, there's the iconic 54 metres Index 2 18th. The green is larger than most at Collins but there's a yawning front bunker to be cleared and a ditch lurking behind.
Collins has hosted the National Gent's Strokeplay championship of Ireland (in 1995, won by Ireland's 2001 European Team championship wnning captain, Chris Scannell) and the National Over 55s Strokeplay championships of Ireland in 2012, which was contested by former FPPA/FIPPA President Mervyn Cooney. It will be the venue for the 2018 National Ladies Strokeplay championship.
The Collins club has produced many outstanding players at all levels across the decades. Many fine administrators have represented Collins in meeting rooms and on courses around Ireland and throughout the world.
One of the truly great international pioneers, Willie Parker (RIP), was a member of the Collins club. Willie received the International Achievement award at the European Team championships in 2003.
Collins is the home club of one of Ireland's greatest Pitch and Putt players John Walsh, the 2013 World Strokeplay champion.