Balcarrick Golf Club
Balcarrick is an 18 hole course just north of Dublin between Donabate and Malahide – there are three or four other courses in the area. We heard from several people that Corballis, just up the road, is a great course so we’ll definitely try to pick that one up at some point.
This is the first of 5 courses we’re playing on this trip. We had a tee off time of 1:26pm and we set off from home early to get through Dublin in good time, arriving at the course in bright sunshine. The clouds weren’t far behind and they hung around, but only giving us a few minutes of rain at the start.
We played with a Alan Nolan (15) and his son Samuel (24). Samuel had only taken up golf the year before and he was playing pretty well making a couple of very nice pars. Alan had his own business manufacturing roller blinds and it gave him the opportunity to take some time off every couple of weeks for golf. He was impressed with our story though! It was a slow round – we were behind a three-ball who were behind a very S L O W three-ball (two of whom were from South Africa). We caught up with them more than once and in front
The course itself was….nice. Kind of. I think.
That’s sort of its main problem – it’s not memorable. The short par 4 opening hole was not bad with a testy tee shot over water, though even with a sloppily hit 4 iron I still almost made the green. There’s a decent par 5 and a couple of par 3s over water. Other than that it was just flat (with lots of man-made looking mounds dotted about) and wide open. The greens were nice and fast and the rough grass had a sticky quality that we hadn’t encountered before.
Thomas says:
Didn’t really enjoy this course much. I’m really struggling to remember what it was like so it’s not the kind of course that will leave an impression. I did birdie one of the par 5s, but apart from that, nothing much to see here. Move along.
Clive says:
We made nice time to Donabate arriving at a very busy pro shop to sign in. There we met our partners for the day, Alan and his son, Samuel. They were great craic all the way round, praising us when we hit a good shot and commiserating when we fluffed one. Like Thomas, I liked that first hole – I’m glad I didn’t overhit the approach as there was water behind, as well as in front of the green – I made a par! Whilst it is a course which is hard to remember, I do recall a good, though short, par 4 where you either had to go for the green or lay up in front of more water. I did the latter though I messed up my shot over the water. My best hole was the par 3 16th where I reached the green and sank the putt – a 2! I don’t get many of these.
I’ll not be rushing back to Balcarrick but it was not too bad and was well kept. After our round we went to the beach beside a Martello tower and had our meal. Our five day trip had begun.
