Mountbellew Golf Club
Recently moved to 18 holes Mountbellew is a parkland course about 30 miles north east of Galway city. We arrived in the afternoon after attending the Easter service, as we have done for the past 6 or 7 years, at St Nicholas Collegiate Church. It wasn’t an open competition and we tried our best to get a cheaper green fee but the lassie behind the bar was having none of it!
With no one else around to join us we headed off on our own. First impressions weren’t great as the course starts with par 3. The second hole wasn’t bad, a par 4 with a stream across the green, but we rushed it as we were called through. And then some of the new holes started. They weren’t bad all the same but since they were so new the grass on the fairways was still pretty thin which meant that you could see through to the gravel base and it was almost impossible to get a decent lie. Give them a few more years and they should be OK though. The greens were in good shape as well on the new holes, which is more than can be said for the existing ones. They were bumpy and slow and the fairways were hairy – so on the whole a mixed bag.
Thomas says:
I’m not sure that I’ve been fond of any course that starts with a par 3 and Mountbellew is no exception. The course just didn’t grab me and consequently I didn’t play like I wanted to play. Albeit that the new holes were only open a month or so I think it’s too early to be playing them. The grass on the fairways is still way too thin and the greens weren’t mature enough. They were nicely laid out with some interesting doglegs and plenty of water to be thinking about, but it’s still very bare and open. Another one for ticking the box and moving one I think.
Clive says:
I was disappointed that we had to pay our 20 euro green fee – like Thomas said I did try but without success. When we were at Cregmore Catherine had said that Mountbellew had just opened this very weekend – not so but still very recently. We got round the course pretty quickly which is the way we like it.
I very much liked the 3rd and 4th holes which were some of the new ones. The short par 3 5th was a delightful hole where I hit a lovely shot and got a 3. The rest of the new holes were partly on the outward half and more on the inward where there were two long par 5s one after the other.I agree with Thomas that the old course holes were quite poor but I managed to hit a great drive at the 18th and got a 5 only to be outdone by Thomas who got a birdie three. All in all I gave the new holes 7 out of 10 and overall around 6. We’ve now played all the county Galway courses except Galway Bay which isn’t open to non members – very funny!
We then drove on to our favourite place – Portumna where we watched some of the Masters. Easter Day has come and gone again but we felt uplifted as always at St Nicholas’s even although Patrick Towers has now retired – Maureen Ryan was, as ever, brilliant.
See our photos of Mountbellew.
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