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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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. Read more

Ballaghadereen Golf Club

We arrived at Ballaghadereen after a bit of an adventure. By the time we were getting near the town it was around 10pm, dark, windy and it had only just stopped raining. Our map only got us so far and when we thought we were in the general vicinity of the course Clive stopped someone who told us we were miles away from the course and gave us directions out through the north of the town. Not convinced by those directions we then stopped someone outside a pub in the town who sort of pointed us back the way we came. Along that road we stopped a car who said we should follow him for a bit and as we passed the road the golf club was on he would indicate. Which we did and eventually we arrived at Ballaghadereen Golf Club.

It’s a 9 hole parkland course and on the day that we played it three words would sum it up: muddy, wet, flat. I’m guessing the first two aren’t a problem all year round but today there was barely a section of the course that didn’t squelch when you stepped on it. The ball frequently plugged and with practically every shot there was a spray of mud.
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Under (re)construction

Apologies to anyone who has been trying to access the site lately.

I’ve moved to a different host and it has taken a bit of time to get things up and running in the new place.

It’s still not quite there yet so please bear with me while I fix things (and perhaps change the look - again).

Keep checking back over the next few weeks. We’re heading off on our first golfing trip of the year over Easter and should have some new courses to add.

Hilton Templepatrick Golf Club

We didn’t play this course as part of one of our tours. I’ve qualified for a team at work and this is the course where we playing our match against a team from Manchester. So I used this round as a practice round before the match. We played with work colleagues of mine, Alisdair (who’s also on and the team) and Alan (who’s having a hip replaced soon!!)

Hilton Templepatrick is an 18 hole parkland course not far from Belfast International Airport. I’m surprised we hadn’t yet played this course but in a way I’m glad we didn’t Both Alan and Alisdair, who had played it before, said that it looked so much more mature and they noticed a few differences in the layout, particularly at the 10th tee (the Google Map below is not up to date - the upper-right corner is now a driving/practice area and the 10th tee is just beside the pond there).

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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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Turvey Golf Club

We had been to Turvey before but the course was closed due to the bad weather so we didn’t get to play. When we spoke in at the hotel/clubhouse there were two ladies there, one of whom sort of remembered us from last time. We chatted for a few minutes and found out that the electricity will be off in the area the next day so the ESB could repair a pylon, or something and that the bar would be open til 11:30pm. It was still fairly early so we headed into Swords to see a film (The Mist, it was excellent) before returning to Turvey to make our dinner and enjoy a couple of pints.

By the way, when I say hotel it’s not like Mount Wolseley or Druid’s Heath - it’s a much more low-key affair with a comparatively small hotel and a small block of apartments nearby.

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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.

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Druid’s Glen Golf Club

OK, so we didn’t actually play here but it’s a good story.

After our round at Druid’s Heath we got showered and changed. As usual, Clive doesn’t waste any more time than is necessary with that sort of thing so while I was still getting changed he was in the shop talking to the lads.

A huge thank you to Barry Dowling for offering to take us over the Druid’s Glen. He felt that since we’d come all this way it would be awful for us not to see it, so he gave us a whistle-stop tour. He showed the awesomely scary looking 13th, a pretty amazing par 4. And of course the Druid’s Altar which overlooks the famous par 3 12th. Barry gave us a decent tour of the rest of the course, the island green on the 17th, teeing off out of the orchard at the 3rd. He was very knowledgeable about the estate the course was built on so as well as giving us a tour of the course we got a good sense of the history of the place.

Then we got a tour of the clubhouse, which was the Tottenham family’s gentry house on the estate. Fantastic to see around inside. There were a lot of paintings and sketches of famous Irishmen and women and Clive was in his element spotting and naming them all.

Thanks again Barry - as soon as we’ve won the lottery and can afford to play Druid’s Glen, we’ll be in touch.

See our photos of Druid’s Glen.