Castlegregory Golf Club

Castlegregory is a 9 hole links course on the north side of the Dingle peninsula. This is the first links course we have played in ages and just when we needed the good weather we’ve been having to continue, it promptly turned. It was a pretty grey morning and by the time we teed off at 13:30 the wind had really picked up and clouds were getting lower and more threatening – not very nice conditions at all.

This is a very nice little course. There’s a testing enough par 5 to start, nicely set along the water. On a good day it could be driveable in two but it would be a brave man who tries even then as the green is very well positioned at the water’s edge. There are some difficult par 3s which have either elevated greens you must hit or you’re in the serious stuff, or there’s a giant pond to carry all the way to the green. There are only a couple of where you would feel truly comfortable taking out your driver.

The fairways and especially the greens were in top class order. The greens were lush looking and played fast and accurate. Not once did I have to repair a stray pitch mark.

We played with a guy called Mark Greer, a member from Tralee with a 6 handicap. He was great craic. We swapped stories the whole way round about courses we’re played in Ireland and abroad and I got the impression that he was just a teensy bit jealous of my 3 day working week and the amount of golf courses we had played! As well as that he played some fantastic golf with a gross 74. Anyone hitting 1 over par on the back 9 on this course and in those conditions deserves to win, so good luck to Mark at the prize giving at Tomasins tonight!

It’s also worth mentioning the Natterjack Toads. There are several ponds around the course which appear to provide perfect condition for the only indiginous toad (so a poster at the club says) in Ireland. We didn’t see any but we did hear them last night – they must be thriving as they were a very noisy bunch.

Thomas says:
I played mostly abysmally today. I can’t seem to concentrate when it’s windy, my 107 shots can testify to that. There a few moments of goodness though – I got a two at the 5th sinking a 15ish footer for the pleasure and at the 8th, after a couple of stray shots, I sank a sweeping 35 footer for a par. It put a grin on my face which got me through the rest of the round!

Despite the bad golf and the bad weather I really enjoyed this course. There are plans to increase it to 18 holes (there’s plenty of land around to expand into) but it’s not clear when they’re going to do that. I’d certainly love to come back and play it again when the 18 are up and running – and maybe by then I’ll be able to give Mark a run for his money!!

Clive says:
I always hate having to wait till the afternoon to play golf – the weather is usually better in the morning. However we had to wait for our tee-off time (we had driven round to Brandon Head in the morning – the views were superb). Cars started to arrive about 12.30 and there seemed quite a few golfers ready to start.

The course is delightful and the par 5 first very tricky – I played cautiously and well enough although I only scored a 7. There are three par threes – all monsters – long drives are needed or you never know where you’ll be – but that’s a links course. Poor Thomas had a 9 at the first par three and then a 2 at the next. What a funny game. Today I didn’t drive well and that means certain trouble – I have a word for links trouble areas – ‘grubble’ – and I found myself there quite a lot. However I did redeem myself on a number of occasions with a super 7 wood shot up to the 8th green and a couple of very decent long putts.

The course looks lush – very green greens in the midst of great fairways – oh for 18 holes here sometime soon. The signature hole to me was the par three ninth – a long shot (and accurate of course) across the natterjacks’ pond. The pond is full of golf balls as well as toads – maybe they eat them and that’s why they are thriving! Today, in the difficult conditions I carded a 103, 29 shots poorer than Mark from Tralee who played with us, but 4 shots better than Thomas – a win for me is quite rare these days.

I give Castlegregory a creditable 8 and a half out of ten. Get down here and play it, the course and the views are all worth it – and you’ll love the dinky little clubhouse. Who needs those posh monstrosities!!