Donabate Golf Club
We made our way up to Donabate and were immediately impressed by the size of their clubhouse. But that has it’s disadvantages as far as we’re concerned as we’re less likely to get talking to some of the locals. Which is exactly what happened here. We asked at the bar (we later found out his name was Robert, he played in one of the three-balls behind us in the competition) if the Captain was here and he directed us to the changing rooms. We met the Captain, John Galvin, and pitched our story. He was a nice enough man but there wasn’t much chat in him and didn’t seem impressed at all about with our story – probably had Captain’s duty on his mind. So, job done and parking accomplished we set about downing a couple of pints. On our own. The bar was pretty busy – looked like there might have been a presentation later.
On the way out we asked Robert who won the Scottish Open and were pleased to hear it was Graeme McDowell. Clive asked him about the cricket scores but he had a bit of difficulty tracking them down on RTE’s web site! One great thing about the bar was the images of the past Captains on the walls – they were all caricatures.
Donabate is a 27 hole parkland course north of Dublin. We played with George, a quiet man who only really said exactly the amount of words he needed to say and no more! Nice guy though and we enjoyed playing with him.
One word describes Donabate – flat. We played the red and yellow courses (there’s also a blue) and one hole just seemed to run into another. They were nice enough holes but the flatness just made it all seem very plain and their efforts at adding humps and bumps were obvious. The greens were again excellent. Despite a light dusting of sand (in preparation for the expected rain the next day) they were pretty damn fast. There isn’t really much else to say. It’s a nice course that plays well but doesn’t have anything terribly memorable. Maybe the blue course is the best one.
Thomas says:
Donabate has nice enough people and a nice enough course but sadly just being nice isn’t memorable enough. I’d have to say I liked the first hole best – because I chipped in for a birdie. The only other hole I really remember was the short par 4 7th (red course). It’s a drivable green but with a large pond on the right to catch anyone with a bit of slice on them. I managed to hit a straight drive for a change and I wasn’t too far away from the green. Got a par out of it.
George was the original Quiet Man who was polite and genuine when you asked him something, but it was hard to keep on thinking of new things to ask him all the time.
For me the overall Donabate experience was middling.
Clive says:
I still like the wee cosy clubhouses best – but most around Dublin are of the posh variety where it is hard to get any craic out of anyone. We were first out – which was just as well for we had two daleks (older gentlemen on fancy single seater buggies) behind us. The 2nd hole is a fine par three with a pond in front and, as Thomas has said, the rest were pretty up and down and flat. However I warmed to the yellow course which was our second nine. There was more character and trickier shots to play. I had a few pars but also a few higher scores! We’ve now played about three courses which are just beside each other. This part of the world has more golf courses than supermarkets so it’s hard to recall them all. All in all it was a fair course in the 6 and a half range. If you want to play two courses a day for a week then go to north Dublin around Donabate and Malahide.
.
See our photos of Donabate.
.
Google Map:
View Larger Map
