Portsalon Golf Club
We’ve played here a couple of times in the past (last time was in July 2000) but Clive had to the opportunity to play again as part of Bright Castle’s Ulster Fourball team.
Click on to see what he thought.
Update: The team won at Portsalon and are through to the last 16. Well done lads!
Clive says:
I had the chance to play Portsalon again over the weekend 7 and 8 June 2008. Thomas and I last played it on 4 October 1996 and 8 July 2000. That’s a long time ago and the course has changed. Seemingly they bought another 44 acres and extended the course away from the clubhouse. The one hole I really remembered, a short par three across the sea, has gone.
I was on the Bright Castle Ulster 4ball team which was drawn against Portsalon in the third round. We beat them 4 and a half to a half at Bright so all we needed was one more point. The auguries however were not great. We only had 9 men, then Harry Scott injured himself and finally one other member just didn’t bother to turn up. We then had three pairs and a single.
We all played the course on the Saturday evening and I found it very difficult. It was as dry as a bone and the fairways were like hay fields. The greens were rough and tricky to get used to. However there are lots of testing holes especially the ones where you have to hit over a lot of high grass and ‘grubble’ just to reach the fairway. The par threes were quite good and the entire course has a liberal sprinkling of pot bunkers, many of which cunningly funnel a reasonable drive right into them. A few of the inward 9 holes have the impression of more parkland rather than the predominant links course. It’s a pretty long course, too, and I would offer a piece of advice (apart from the usual hit the ball straight!). When teeing off over the nasty rough, high grass and assorted aforementioned ‘grubble’, don’t be afraid to hit the ball. When you might think the ball is running too far, you have more room than you might think. It’s definitely a place where you cannot ever let your guard drop. There are no easy holes. We read lots of articles hanging up in the clubhouse lauding Portsalon as being one of the best 6 courses in Ireland (beside the second best beach in the world, no less!). I’ve played a lot of Irish courses and Portsalon is definitely a very good one but not, in my opinion, as highly graded as just mentioned. It’s a hard test of golf, right enough, but the state of the course, especially after a dry spell, is a bit on the rough side.
By the way, I played terribly on the practice round, losing lots (and I mean lots) of balls. But I was a changed man for the match. My friend, Malachy – one of the nicest guys you could meet on a day’s march – and I, although once 3 down and then 2 down, stood on the 18th tee 1 up. All we needed was a half on the last hole to win. I hit a terrific third shot to 10 feet and one of our opponents had a 20 footer to sink to get his par. He succeeded and I failed, so it was a halved match – and a great game to boot.
