Bellewstown Golf Club
Bellewstown is a new course in Co. Meath, only open four years. It’s right next to the race track there. We arrived and spoke to Daniel, the assistant pro, and got the OK to park overnight. There were no bar facilities at Bellewstown and Daniel recommended the pub in the village, the Bellewstown Inn I think it was. However, we didn’t like the look of it and instead headed for the the Cosy Pub (I think that was its name anyway). In there we had to hang around a bit for Paddy to appear – we were the only customers! – as he had been fixing a leak. So we sat and had a pint and chatted away to Paddy whilst watching some cricket on the TV. Paddy didn’t get the cricket. It was good craic and our thanks to Paddy for an entertaining evening.
The course itself wasn’t too bad. Given its young age it’s pretty wide open but there are lots of new trees planted which should fill things out in due course. We found out from Daniel that the farmers who owned the land just decided to build a course themselves – and they’ve done a very good job! Part of it is set up on a hill so be prepared to set up base camp and strike for the green on the 9th, 10th, 11th and 18th holes. We wondered why they had 30 buggies in their car park – now we know! The upside is that there were some great views to the north with the Mournes clearly visible in the distance. There are some water features around which don’t fully come into play as much as they should. The greens were OK, though there were more sandy than greeny when we played it. The 12th – 15th were up and down along a pretty severe slope – one leg shorter that the other required and pretty much no chance of landing and staying on the fairway. And we didn’t like the way their fairways were cut. The edges were too zig-zaggy and often punished what were perfectly good drives.
Thomas says:
The craic from Paddy set us up well for today’s golf. He said he played a bit himself but just didn’t have the time these days. He’s young, he’ll come back to it.
Not a bad day out at Bellewstown even though I played some horrendously awful shots. Couldn’t get the hang of their greens at all. Everything was either way too short or way too long and I was leaving all of my pitches short as well. I think the sand was putting me off.
There’s nothing really outstanding here but it was an enjoyable round of golf. There were some nice par 3s, particularly the long 17th, 224 yards downhill with a pond on the left. Otherwise it’s a fairly nondescript course which I will probably only remember for the climbing!
Clive says:
Once again we arrived at a fairly new course – there are an awful lot of them in Ireland. We were warmly, if shyly, welcomed by Daniel and then thoroughly welcomed by Paddy in the pub – well he knows a bit about cricket now! We were up early, of course, and had 9 holes completed before we saw anyone else. The course is well maintained and will be fine in a few years time. I agree with Thomas about the fairways – please take note Daniel when you read this and get the greenkeepers to straighten them out. The 4th and 5th were the best of the outward nine – a tricky dogleg followed by a nice par three. The hilly holes are good if you can summon up enough breath to play your shots. (By the way it costs members €400 a year to rent a buggy – wow!)
Presumably in due course there will be a bigger clubhouse (this one is small and wooden – looks good but not big enough). It’s hard to give it marks so to speak but it wasn’t too bad – and it’s pretty long.
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See our photos of Bellewstown.
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