Links land is a geological rarity. Less than 1% of all golf courses in Europe are championship links. Waterville is considered to be amongst the very best of these in a prestigious Golf World Survey. It is one of the oldest Irish Clubs, having been founded in 1897 with the arrival of the trans-Atlantic telegraph cable from the United States. Today Waterville is rated in the top five courses in Ireland and the top twenty links courses in the world. Many of the top professional golfers come to Kerry every year to practice in the week before the British Open. In 1999 none other than Tiger Woods and his good friend Mark O'Meara came to Waterville to get in tune for the British Open. That tournament is always staged on a links course and players find that the challenge of Waterville and the relaxing atmosphere of the Co. Kerry town is the ideal way to prepare for the Open. Such is the quality of Waterville.