Rathcore Golf Club

We almost didn’t play Rathcore on account of the rain that greeted us when we woke up this morning! It was miserable looking but with no other plans for the day we hung around for a while hoping things would clear up later.

While we were waiting a couple of men arrived at the club and headed inside. They turned out to be Austin, the owner, and Paul, the greenkeeper. They were excellent company and gave us a good welcome. The clubhouse is one of the best we’ve seen. Nothing overly grand or fancy, but just right. It’s a circular building in-keeping with the ring fort history of the area. There’s a plush entranceway, with a fireplace, and a great wooden staircase to the bar upstairs where there are some nice views over the course.

Eventually the rain stopped and was replaced by clear skies and bright sunshine. So, wet gear at the ready just in case, we headed off.

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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.

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South Meath Golf Club

Yesterday’s stormy winds continued through the night and this morning it was raining. Things didn’t look promising for a fine day’s golf but once again the blue skies and sunshine showed up right on cue as we arrived at the clubhouse. We signed in and a member who had just turned up, Seamus Cusack, said he’d play with us.

We knew this one wouldn’t be in the same league as the courses we’d played so far and truthfully, compared to those others, South Meath Golf Club isn’t much of course on the surface of it. It’s a young course, the greens aren’t great, has only 16 holes (the 1st doubles up as the 16th and the 15th is also the 18th - moving to 18 holes soon we’re told) and is a bit rough around the edges. But by a long shot this has been the most enjoyable course on this trip, thanks mainly to the great craic we had with Seamus. He was feeling a bit delicate, having been at a wedding yesterday, but that didn’t stop him playing well and keeping us entertained - which more than made up for the Damian debacle yesterday.

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