Ballymascanlon

This wasn’t one of our usual trips. We hadn’t really heard of Ballymascanlon before but it was chosen as the venue for my brother’s 40th birthday event by his wife and so off we went there on 2 June to play golf and enjoy the after party. No camper van this time – we decided to push to boat out and stay in the hotel with the rest of the party people.

The course is part of a hotel and leisure complex and as such it is not affiliated with the GUI. It has to be said that staying in a hotel isn’t one of my favourite things to do – bearing that in mind we found the stay to be a pleasant one with a good sized room and plenty of facilities.

But enough about boring hotels – what about the course?

Well, what an excellent course it is! It’s fairly short at just 5471 yards from the yellow tees and a par 68 but it packs an awful lot in. The first few holes are fairly open with a stream cutting across the first fairway and a treacherous tee shot from the second over a pond and through a pretty narrow gap in the trees. The 4th presents the first real challenge with a tee box placed at a precarious angle to the fairway. One of the stand out holes is the 7th – a downhill tee shot with out of bounds on the left and a large pond on the right which comes into play for the big drivers. It’s also very much in play for your second shot to the raised green, as is the stream which cuts across the front of the green which is also protected by several bunkers.

The course was in great condition – the greens were fast and several of them were very much on the slippery side. The fairways were well shaped and contoured and the whole thing was in a great setting and felt very mature. Whilst it’s possibly not on the GUI circuit you would be foolish to miss out on playing this course – and the hotel’s not bad either.

Thomas says:
I loved playing this course. And I was playing fairly decent golf as well. My driving was spot on (mostly). My first and last drives pretty much split the fairway and the despite the occasional wayward ball my driving felt good. Shame the rest of it wasn’t up to the same standard.

I loved the 7th even though I ended up in the water and the 12th green was in a nice position down the hill and beside a river.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable course which you should consider playing any time.

Clive says:
I played with Marianne and Pete – the veritable golf rabbits but they were good company. Marianne sloped off after 9 holes but Pete and I persevered. This was a truly lovely course – I had to pinch myself that it was just one of this big hotels attractions – I just hate hotels. Our hotel camper is just the thing, I can tell you.

I played really good golf and ended up with over 40 points. I drove well and was careful to judge the various obstacles around the course. The two holes I liked were the 4th (as described by Thomas) and the 18th. I watched the others finish and I think they all put their shots into the stream at the front of the green. I was careful not to go in and had a respectable 5.

This is a delightful course and would put many of those GUI ones we’ve played to shame. Get out there and have a go.