Castlebar Golf Club
Date played: 10 April 2007
Weather: Cloudy, breezy, some rain
We arrived at Castlebar at about 3.30pm to a packed car park – we had to park across the road. We found the pro’s booth near the first tee, told our story and grabbed a couple of cards for tomorrow’s competition. The pro there is David McQuillan from Belfast – a friendly northerner! He told is that there were so many cars there as there was Achill Island thing on the go.
After something to eat in the van we had a few pints in the clubhouse which had great views of the 16th and 18th greens. We watched some young boys play the 16th – putting us to shame as always. The bar was busy enough but nowhere near the same craic as there was is Walsh’s the night before! Clive spoke to the Captain just to let him know we were parking overnight, which he said would be fine. They were showing the cricket on TV (Ireland v New Zealand) but they switched it over to some football match we weren’t interested in.
Course condition:
The fairways were in OK condition but they needed cut and it was still clean and place. The greens were very sandy and had been hollow tined recently. Along with the damp weather this made them feel sluggish, but I think they’d be pretty slick in summer conditions. Lots of mature trees and some nice water features.
Clubhouse/facilities:
Smallish looking clubhouse from the outside but the bar was busy and had plenty of space. Basic changing rooms. They have those showers that go off after about a minute and you have to keep pressing the tap to keep the water coming. Very annoying. Plus, the water wasn’t what I would call hot and no way to control the temperature. I’m quite fussy about showers!
Thomas says:
I liked this course. The greens are really nicely shaped and played well, despite the annoying sand. The layout of the course is well worth a mention. Sometimes courses can have an up and down plodding feel. With this one I did not get that impression at all until the 14th which crosses a road for two holes, up and down. But even those holes were nice with well placed trees and shaped fairways. The course seemed well spread out and made good use of the land.
I had a blinding front 9 with 22 points but, true to form, I couldn’t keep that up and came home with just 14 points. Most frustrating.
Score: 7.5/10
Clive says:
I was looking forward to playing Castlebar – it’s about the last course in county Mayo that we had still to play. As usual I slept well and we had breakfast before even the groundsmen appeared – in fact they were working up behind us. I made a mess of some of my putts even managing to miss a couple of times from 12 inches. I thought the track a good test of golf and, although there are 5 par threes, they were all pretty good. I liked the 16th – a par three – which comes up to the clubhouse and the par 5s were varied and tricky enough. Like Thomas I would give Castlebar about a 7.
