Castle Dargan Golf Club (No. 217)

Castle Dargan bills itself as Golf / Hotel / Wellness.

We’re not fans of golf clubs attached to hotels and such, but since we were impressed with Ballymascanlon and Castle Dargan was designed by Darren Clarke we thought we’d give this one a go as we were going to be in the area.

The course is in Ballygawley not too far from Sligo and is set in some picturesque rolling countryside. We started at our usual time of around 7:30am when none but the greenkeepers were around. We feared for the warranty on our wet gear but thankfully the rain stayed away and it even brightened up towards the end of our round.

First impressions were very good. The first opening 5 or 6 holes were impressive and the greens were in top class condition – fast (but not too fast) and absolutely blemish free. We played from the green tees as we didn’t feel like doing ourselves in today!

The fairways were beautifully shaped but, it has to be said, they looked in a bit of state. Every single one was scarred by drainage ditches covered with sand. We wondered why it was so extensive and subsequently discovered from our chat the David O’Donovan (the manager) after our round that the course has only been opened for a few months and that they should have healed over by the end of the season.

This certainly changed our opinion of the course. For only being a few months old it is in fantastic shape and I think we’ll be back to play here in a year or two when things have settled down and matured.

Thomas says:
I enjoyed playing here, even though I wasn’t troubling my handicap much. The condition of the fairways was a bit of an issue until we discovered the reason and I can see that once all of that has settled it will be a very impressive course. The middle section of the course seemed a bit plain

My favourite holes were the par 3 third – a very short hole requiring an accurate chip over trees – and the 6th – a lovely, shortish par 5 which could tempt the bigger hitters go for glory on the second shot over the water. The 15th is also worth a mention. The green is driveable from the green tees – if you can carry 200+ yards over water and bunker that is! As it turned out I had my drive of the day here ending up just a few yards short on the left side, away from the water.

Final impressions are that there isn’t anything particularly outstanding or memorable about the course but the whole package had enough variety and challenge for golfers of all abilities without being too easy for the low handicappers or too hard for the higher handicappers.

Clive says:
Being in Sligo to visit Lissadell (the home of Constance Markievicz and the Gore-Booths) it seemed a good idea to ‘tick off’ another course – making Castle Dargan our 217th course in Ireland. I didn’t like the hotel complex idea for I think it totally detracts from what a golf club should be – members enjoying golf chat in their clubhouse.

The weather had been poor so we wondered if we would be lucky – as it turned out we were. As ever we had the course to ourselves – we only saw two others playing golf on the course on the 1st hole when we were coming down the 18th! I really liked the first few holes which were near the old castle. At the short par 5 6th (as mentioned by Thomas) my drive wasn’t much good and my second was about 150 yards from the green with a vast expanse of water in between. I took out my 6 iron and the ball sailed over the pond and landed two inches (no kidding and there’s a photo to prove it) from the pin – a birdie 4! My game was then brought down with a bump with a 5 at the next par 3.

The last holes were lovely especially the 18th which had lots of water to bother many golfers and a tricky green position. My impression of Castle Dargan was of a super course for its three months of age. It will be absolutely great in a few years time. The greens are just superb. My lasting memory of this 7 and a half out of ten course (for now – better marks soon!) is of the view coming down the 14th where we saw four different greens all in a line – I don’t think I’ve seen this line up before. So take care you hit for the correct green when you are enjoying this course. I hope the new members of the club will detach themselves from that hotel and enjoy the true spirit of golf – talking about those big drives and all those putts they just missed.