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.

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Cregmore Park Golf Club

We arrived at Cregmore at about 5pm to be welcomed like long lost friends by Catherine, who we later found out was the owner of the course. Her hospitality was second to none. After speaking in at the clubhouse and then making our tea in the van we spent a good few hours in her company. She plied us with coffee and listened to our stories of the courses we’ve played the people we’ve met. We listened to her stories of how the club came to be, it’s only 18 months old, and their plans for the future improvement of the course and the building of a 60-bedroom hotel.The hotel was part of the original plan for the course but by the sounds of things the weather and the recession put those plans on hold. The temporary clubhouse is a lovely little wooden place, outside and in, and is well kept and friendly. They don’t have alcohol or do food but they do have a wine licence and often bring in caterers for societies or when they know it’s going to be busy.
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Glenlo Abbey (224)

Glenlo Abbey is a 9 hole course on the Clifden Road just out of Galway and is part of a hotel complex. The approach looked quite promising - and fine looking church (presumably the abbey) connected to an old house leading down past a couple of Pullman coaches converted into a restaurant to the clubhouse - a slightly downmarket looking log cabin next to its grander siblings.

We introduced ourselves to the two chaps manning the shop. They were decent enough but didn’t seem to be in the mood for chat, or at least our brand of it, so after paying our green fees (they’re part of Open Fairways so it was just €20 total) we made lunch and then headed to the first tee.

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We’re back!

And we’ve got a new look too. Hope you like it.

Right now things aren’t working quite like I want them to behind the scenes so bear with me as I tweak some things over the next few weeks. (I might even decide to go with a completely new look if the tweaks don’t work out).

I’m giving the photos page a new makeover as well with some nice looking flash-based albums, so you’ll need Adobe Flash Player installed in order to see them. Currently there’s just a test link to an album from Portumna last year but I’ll be putting up loads more in the coming weeks and adding thumbnails.

I’m also planning to:

• add some links to Google maps so you can see exactly where each course is.
• add links to the course’s own web site, if they have one.
• finally start listing all of the courses we’ve played.
• do a little bit of a write up on our home course, Bright Castle.

Our first trip of 2008 is this weekend and we’ll be playing:

• Portumna, Co. Galway (we play it every Easter)
• Glenlo Abbey, Co. Galway and
• Swinford, Co. Mayo.

So keep checking back or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Connemara Isles Golf Club

Date played: 1 May 2004
Weather: Gorgeous!

We arrived at this remote place late on the last day of April 2004. It is located in the Connemara Gaeltacht which means of course that all the signs are in Irish. It was a challenge finding the place in the dark but eventually we saw the golf sign and drove down to the clubhouse, the only one with a thatched roof in the whole of Ireland. Well, we were greeted like long lost friends by four or five slightly drunk Irish speaking gents. As ever, we explained who we were and that we were playing there the next day. All was fine, the Guinness flowed and these dyed-in-the-wool western Irishmen, Tom in particular, could just not get over how much I (with my still slightly Scottish accent) knew about Ireland’s history.

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Dunmore Demesne Golf Club

Date played: 9 April 2007, 8am
Weather: Cloudy, chilly, breezy

We played here by mistake. By that I mean that we intended to play at Ardacong but since that course is out of action we had to come up with Plan B. We looked at our map and found that we had played pretty much everything within striking distance, except Dunmore Demesne.

We arrived the night before and spoke to two of the founding members, Padraig Donlon and his wife Kathleen. They were very welcoming and said that we would have no bother playing the course next day and that it was OK to park overnight. We were glad of that as it was starting to look desperate! We wanted to see the last day of the Masters and they suggested that we head off to Walsh’s - it’s sort of the unofficial clubhouse since the facilities at the course are quite basic.

What a brilliant night’s craic we had in that pub.

Ardacong

Clive had been trying to contact this course but did not have any success. But we thought we give it a shot anyway and turn up on spec.

When we arrived we realised why Clive hadn’t been able to get in touch - the course was closed. It was kind of sad to see the course gone to seed like that. It looked derelict and neglected. But there was a for sale sign and we hope that whoever buys it will bring it back to life so that we can visit it again and play it this time.

Portumna Golf Club

Date played: 7 April 2007, 8.30am
Weather: Misty start, turning into a beautifully clear and sunny day.

Parkland, 18 holes, Par 72

We play Portumna every year around Easter. It’s our favourite course in Ireland. It’s probably not The Best course in Ireland, but we enjoy this one a lot and it’s always great to catch up with Eileen and Phil when we arrive.

We got very lucky with the weather today - the chilly, misty start gave way to a beautiful summer’s day and we were able to play most of the round in our shirt-sleeves. There’s no denying that having good weather enhances your enjoyment of a course. Playing with good partners also helps and Tony and Brendan were great craic.

Portumna is a great course. They have introduced several new holes in the past 4 or 5 years and they have definitely added to the experience. All of the holes are in fantastic condition. Pay attention to the green on the 12th, it’s contours are unique. The signature hole is the 17th - one of the finest par 5s we’ve ever played. A blind tee off (you need a good drive to reach top of the hill) gives way to a beautiful view down the fairway with water on the right all the way up to the green and trees on the left. Pretty, but treacherous.

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