In Volume 1 of The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, Tom Doak published that.

“Most of these courses in Donegal can be fairly described as “remote outposts of golf,” and Portnoo used to be the best of the bunch. Setting off from the unassuming first tee, no one would imagine that the course possesses four of Ireland’s best two-shot holes – the 5^th with its beautiful approach over a sharp little valley, the 8^th and 9^th at land’s end, and the 17^th with its tumbling fairway and odd green guarded by dunes.

Sadly, ten years ago the club decided that the par-69 scorecard was all that kept them from getting rich from visitor green fees, so they set out to strengthen the course by building two out-and-back par-5 holes up in high dunes near the beach, and pasting together some of the older holes to keep as much length as they could. But that pretty stretch of dunes was really only wide enough for one hole, and after the change there are now four par-5’s in a stretch of six holes from the 10^th, three of them playing dead into the summer wind! As my playing companion observed, all they’ve really done is make the course take 45 minutes longer to play.“

Narin & Portnoo Golf Club received a score of 6 out of 10 from Tom Doak and a score of 6 out of 10 from one of his co-authors.