Cill Dara Golf Club
James, who seemed to be the head bar dude, was the lucky recipient of our story when we arrived at the clubhouse last night. We chatted with him for a bit (he used to work at the Curragh) but they were getting ready for a charity presentation night and before long lots of people had arrived and things had to be done. As we were leaving James introduced us briefly to Joe, the President, just to make our overnight stay ‘official’.
Cill Dara is a 9 hole course on the Curragh Plain and we were joined by Sean Kelly, he wasn’t a member but he had played here many times. The weather was very windy but there was no danger of rain and in fact the sun came out for the last few holes. Sean was a great partner to have. He’s a member Castle Barna and has only been playing golf since 2000 – in fact he told us that on his very first ever round of golf he had a hole in one! And he’s played a fair number of courses as well, including some of the posh ones that we think are too expensive (we’re looking at you K Club and Druid’s Glen).
Now, given it’s location, the course is pretty much flat. But there were some great views to he had out over the plain, especially when the horses were out training. There was a very busy train line running along he back of the course as well. They’ve made good use of the space that they have and with their tee positions for the front and back 9s – the 4th is a par 4 and the 13th a par 5; the 5th is a par 5 and the 14th a par 4; the 8th is a par 3 and the 17th a par 4.
The overall condition of the course was pretty good. There are sheep roaming all over the place (I had an audience of about 20 for one of my pitches onto a green). They don’t seem to do any damage to the fairways or greens, though there is plenty of “evidence” that they’ve been around. There were some browned patches on a couple of greens – Sean said that’s caused by the sheep’s wee! The greens themselves were some of the nicest we’ve played lately. Very fast with not very much in the way of slopes or curves.
We were making great time with no hold ups at all, until the 16th. As approached the tee box a buggy appeared out of nowhere and one of the gentlemen proceeded to hit a shot. They were on their outward 9 and it seems that they had lost a ball. There was a bit of delay while that sorted itself out and we moved on. However, the same thing happened on the next hole (a par 3 for them and a par 4 for us). As we were approaching the positions of our drives the same buggy comes back and the same man hits another ball, into the gorse. By this stage we were getting well annoyed with them. However, since they’d just lost another ball the let us play on. Sean was in a bit of bother on the left but me and Clive holed out fairly quickly just to get moving on. Once Sean had finished moved on to the 18th. Clive and I had hit our drives and as Sean was hitting off a boy with a dog appeared from a path on the left half way up the fairway. Sean’s ball landed in the gorse just past where he was walking, so he hit another. As we moved off the tee Clive noticed the boy picking something up and heading back the way he had come. Thinking he had taken our balls Clive gave chase. The boy was an itinerant and Clive discovered him with his family – and retrieved our balls. While this was happening Sean had called through the guys on the buggy, so now we had to wait on them finishing. Very exasperating!
Thomas says:
Great little course. Sean had said that the club had been offered land to make it 18, but they didn’t take it. Which is a shame because an 18 hole course in that location with greens like that would be excellent. I liked the 7th/16th best (despite the hold up on the 16th). It’s a dogleg left, slightly uphill and the green is in a great position quite close to the railway track providing a great view when a train thunders past. It’s drivable for big hitters but I wasn’t wasn’t brave enough to give it a go. Sean was a good laugh – just the kind of person we like to meet for a round of golf.
Clive says:
Nowadays we are picking up the 9 hole courses as we have played a great many of the 18 hole ones. Again it was a friendly little clubhouse with lots of coming and going. What I love about the courses down south (ie in the Republic) is that you always see the captains and lady captains moving around wearing their jackets.
Back to the course – I did like it – the greens were good and I sank a lovely one from off the green during the inward half which gave me a decent bogey instead of a possible 7. You are conscious all the time of the gorse bushes which make lots of shots rather tricky and, as we were playing a stroke competition today, there was no room for error. I only put one ball in the bushes and came off a par three with a 7! Ouch!
I’m glad Thomas mentioned my sprint to catch the thief at the 18th. I suppose (and this is the social worker in me speaking) he only thought he had found the balls – when I originally called to him to ask if he had the balls, he said no but, according to Thomas, fairly hared off to his caravan – looks like guilty to me – I soon got to his little home and confronted the whole family – the wee brother handed over my ball and then I spotted Thomas’ behind the settee. In truth it could only have been me who would have done this – anyone else would have put it down to experience and moved on – but a stroke competition needs the balls to be there – so!!
Of all the 9 hole courses I have played this was up at the top – after all it had been there since 1920 and their new clubhouse since 1986. Fairways were tricky and the greens good and fast. Apart from the farcical episodes with the elderly gents and the cunning little thief, we moved along very well and enjoyed the game. Sean was a laugh and we thoroughly enjoyed playing alongside him. Marks out of ten, a good 7.
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Cill Dara doesn’t have a web site.
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