Green fees: Philip Reidon how the "value for money" concept has extended even to top courses here, such as American Express championship venue Mount Juliet

Sure, as a special treat, and especially if someone else is paying, isn't it nice once in a while to be spoilt and play a course that the millionaires frequent without a care in the world? For the most part, a dose of reality has set in and the dire soundings of those involved in the golf tourism industry of recent years about Ireland pricing itself out of the market sounded a warning bell that has been heeded, with many of the country's top - and most expensive - courses putting a halt to year-on-year price increases.

However, there is a flipside to the coin: golf need not always be expensive! In Ireland, in fact, we are lucky to have a variety of courses - both links and parkland - that, while not likely to stage a European Tour event or anything like it, offer superb tests, and the possibility of playing a round of golf for €40 or less.

And many of these courses offer a seriously good test of a player's shotmaking and, perhaps more importantly, don't have you walking off the 18th green as if you've just gone 18 rounds with Mike Tyson.

If you look, you will find value for your hard-earned euro. Some innovative clubs, like Blainroe, for example, have instigated special rates - "dawn" and "sunset" - for those playing golf early and late, giving green fees for €35, significantly less than the regular green fee.

This is an initiative that has caught on in other clubs, among them Hollywood Lakes in north county Dublin where such "early bird" or "late bird" rates are almost half the price.

It seems there is a new awareness among many clubs that to survive and be healthy, more value for money needs to be on offer. For instance, that wonderfully old links at Narin and Portnoo outside Ardara in Co Donegal has come up with a "weekly green fee pass" for €150 which offers tremendous value for holidaymakers, while Edenmore Country House in Craigavon has an adult day pass available for £25 (€38).

Indeed, the "value for money" concept has extended to some of the country's very top courses with Mount Juliet, a two-time venue for the American Express championship, won by Tiger Woods and Ernie Els when it was staged there, is included in a Three-Club Golfing Pass that also includes Waterford Castle and Faithlegg where you can purchase a pass that allows you to play all three courses for €175.

This idea of clubs hooking up with each other has caught on in recent years. In Wicklow, for instance, it is possible to get a Five-Club pass for €165 that includes rounds at Bray, Charlesland, Delgany, Glen of the Downs and Greystones, while the Three-Club pass for €159 includes rounds at Druids Heath, Tulfarris and Woodenbridge.

If you seek, you will find. One of the best value for money offers is the so-called "Suir Valley Experience" where, for €60, you can play Cahir Park, Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir, while another version gives the travelling golfer rounds at Rosslare, St Helen's Bay and Seafield for €95.

At the more expensive end of the pass concept is the one that offers rounds over the Smurfit Course at The K Club, PGA National at Palmerstown House and the Montgomerie Course at Carton House for €300 which, nevertheless, when taken against the stand-alone green fees at the respective courses, offers good value for those who want to indulge themselves.

The bottom line, though, is that while many aspects of golf in Ireland may be on the pricey side, there is also good quality and good value for money if you look for it.

Ten of the best:

Courses for 40 and under

Abbeyleix, Co Laois

€25 Midweek

€30 Weekends

This Mel Flanagan-designed course is not the longest in the world, but it doesn't need to be: it provides an excellent test - especially on approach shots to the greens, which are traditional soil-based and have served the test of time - without the need to overpower off the tee.

An unusual start of back-to-back par fives actually eases a player into the round on this course, which has many mature trees on its rolling terrain.

Watch for - The index one eighth hole, a par four of 406 yards.

Blainroe, Co Wicklow

€35 Dawn Rate (before 9am)

€35 Sunset Rate (after 5.30pm)

The Hawtree family name is one that has left its imprint on courses all over continental Europe, as well as in Britain and Ireland. So it was that Martin Hawtree was brought in to upgrade the work of his father Fred when Blainroe decided to modernise the course.

His design philosophy is, he puts it, "unashamedly rooted in the history and traditions of the game." Blainroe is a fine parkland course located atop 70 feet high cliffs overlooking the Irish Sea. Rounds cost €50 midweek and €70 at weekends, but a special "dawn" and "sunset" rates of €35 are particularly attractive.

Watch for - The par three 15th, a tiger of a hole that plays over 220 yards off the back stakes (downhill, thankfully) to a green guarded by water.

Coollattin, Shillelagh, Co Wicklow

€35 Midweek

€45 Weekends

You may have to take the high road and the low road to get to this course located near Shillelagh in the Wicklow mountains, but it is very much worth the journey. Once something of a hidden gem as a nine-hole course, it is now an 18-hole course - designed by Peter McEvoy - that is wonderfully located and wonderfully maintained.

Watch for - The par three 12th hole, an absolute gem of a hole that is located in an old walled garden. The tee shot is played to a green surrounded by bunkers and based on the Postage Stamp at Troon. By the way, if your tee shot goes over the wall, you're out of bounds!

Edenmore, Craigavon, Co Armagh

£18 (€27) Midweek

£24 (€36) Weekends

Day pass £25 (€38) midweek; £35 (€48 weekend)

This course is a delight, designed to provide an enjoyable experience without ever believing that you need to hit the ball off the tee like John Daly or have worked out in the gym. It has undergone some alterations in the last few years, which has only served to increase its appeal. It has three par threes on the homeward run - the 11th, 14th and 17th - and a shortish, dogleg par four to finish.

Watch for - The par four second hole, probably the toughest on the course (measuring and playing all of its 426 yards).

Esker Hills, Tullamore, Co Offaly

€35 Midweek

€45 Weekends

First things first, you will enjoy this course more if you take a golf buggy (for hire, at €25) or an electric trolley (for hire, €7). Although physically demanding, this golf course - designed by Christy O'Connor Jnr and built on the glacial remains of the drumlins known as Esker Riada, from which the course gets its name - has some magnificent holes. The fact it was constructed on the sand and gravel remains of the Ice Age's glaciers means it has great drainage.

Watch for - The first tee-shot, on the tough dogleg par five that sucks you in to a course that will test and enthral until you reach the 19th!

Hollystown,  Mulhuddart, Co Dublin

€30 Midweek

€40 Weekends

This 27-hole facility offers fine golf at excellent prices. The original layout was done by Eddie Hackett, but course superintendent Joe Bedford has been responsible for major improvements, including a €1.7 million revamp in recent years that included toughening the nine holes on the Red Course, particularly the eighth hole where new bunkering and a creek makes for a tough test.

Watch for - The par three seventh hole on the "Red" Course, which plays some 234 yards off the back tee.

Hollywood Lakes, Ballyboughal, Co Dublin

€35 Midweek (Monday-Thursday)

€40 Fridays

Early Bird: €20 Monday-Friday (before 10am)

Year on year, this parkland course in north county Dublin gets better and better. It has matured well, and significant revamping in recent years are now bearing fruit with 25 new bunkers, seven tees and six water features, all part of the upgrade that has been carried out. It was once famous for having the longest par five in the country, but the par threes will probably most stay in your memory.

Watch for - The break on the greens, which - deceptively - break towards the city!

Millicent, Clane, Co Kildare

€27 Midweek (before 11am)

€32 Midweek (after 11am)

This course is something of a baby, having only opened in 2001. But it has matured nicely and is immaculately maintained. One of the course's features is the giant, shamrock-shaped bunkering that gives it distinction but the tougher hazards are the river Liffey and the internal lakes. All the greens are constructed to USGA specification.

Watch for - The par three 17th, described by course designer Tommy Halpin as "the flagship hole, 198 yards from the back tee with a carry over water to a small green and bunkers to the rear."

Narin & Portnoo, Co Donegal

€40 Midweek

Old-fashioned, with a meandering route that works its way through magnificent dunes, Narin and Portnoo is one of those gems worth the journey to discover. This is a course that will test, and leave ever-lasting memories. It requires you to draw around sharp doglegs, and to hit pure shots to narrow fairways defined by the natural sand hills and equally pure shots to raised greens. This is links as it used to be, raw and beautiful.

Watch for - The par four 10th, a wild, downhill hole that runs out to the north Atlantic.

Portumna, Co Galway

€30 Midweek

€35 Saturdays

Slowly, yet surely, this beautiful course has emerged from is "hidden gem" status. It is a rare treat, offering some wonderful golf holes in a setting that is fairly unique. The sylvan setting is one that will certainly relax the mind, but this is a course that also requires full concentration. It is deceptively long, and will test your shot-making skills. But it is a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Watch for - The par threes: the course opens and closes with short holes.