By Margaret Swaine
On my first trip to Ireland I chickened out on my pre-booked golf game. Travelling with a friend who was a beginner golfer, we both got cold feet and it wasn’t just because of the rain. Ireland is known for its famous golf courses and I’d heard players there seriously frown on hackers. At that stage in my life boasting neither a carded handicap nor a score below 100, I feared embarrassment.
In truth many golfers don’t break 100. While I’ve achieved that I’m still no Annika Sorenstam. Thus when a conference in Galway brought me to Ireland again, I went on a post meetings mission in search of Irish links for all skill levels. My side agenda was to locate spots so irresistible that even with my non-golfing husband would be happy.
The Emerald Isle’s a Mecca for golfers with over 440 golf courses. Some like Ballybunion and Portmarnock are on all serious golfers’ hit list but even the Irish have to have courses for the high handicapper. These laid back easier links often fall under the category of ‘hidden gems’.
The first stop in my quest was the beautiful Glenlo Abbey, an historic property on the outskirts of Galway which like many castle and abbey properties in Ireland came with its own private golf course. I’d toured a few pre-conference. Dromoland, close to Shannon airport, recently spent $8 million to redesign their golf course under acclaimed golf architects Ron Kirby and J.B. Carr. The championship course roams through shady woodlands and around feral lakes of the 16th century baronial castle. The practice area available to all guests has the latest in technology and fun challenges like a sand trap recreated to match the 17th “Road Hole” bunker of St. Andrews.
Sister castle, Ashford, has nine holes designed by renown Irish architect Eddie Hackett, set on a gorgeous 350 acre estate with lush gardens by the Lough Corrib lake (Ireland’s second largest). Falconry lessons, archery, clay-pigeon shooting, horseback riding through the countryside, fishing and touring in a jaunting car are other activities. Fine dining tops it off.
Glenlo is less haut monde but no less charming. Rooms look onto the golf course and Lough Corrib or the abbey ruins. The course is a double green nine holer that wouldn’t even intimidate a rank beginner. The twosome hacking in front of me gave credence to that. A 12 bay driving range and the low cost of 15 Euro (about $21) meant it attracted plenty of young local lads.
Dinner was a hoot in the authentic Pullman railcars that overlook the links. The 1927 built Leona, the older of the two cars, was part of the original Orient Express and featured in Agatha Christie’s classic murder movie. After dinner I discovered the Irish penchant for great hotel bathrooms (in the better hotels at least). My tub was so big I could do a breaststroke in it. The heated towel rack was invaluable as a place to dry out wet golfing gear. Fooled by earlier sunshine, I’d forgotten Irish weather is as fickle as fate.
I drove to Clifden the next morning through the rugged landscape of south Connemara. Even locals called the roads treacherous. Narrow and winding with blind corners they were often flanked with stonewalls that left no escape from oncoming buses. After an hour of heart stopping driving I passed Keogh’s pub and Bunowen castle to where the road narrowed to a single lane. This was Ireland’s Highlands of stony fields, barren soil, and in the past poverty and famine. It seemed impossible there was anything at end of this road but Connemara Championship Golf Links suddenly came into view.
The pro Gareth Anthony filled me in on the lay of the land. This was a links course unlike the “link type” ones I’ve played in Canada. True links are up against the ocean on barren sandy grounds that link the sea with more fertile growing fields. Nothing but tough grass grows making good grazing land for sheep (seen wandering onto the afore mentioned roads) and a real good challenge for golfers. This is where rough really is rough. If you should find your ball after landing in it, the grass will grab your swinging club stronger than a giant’s hand.
The roughs and the hard undulating fairways that follow the curves of sand dunes are child’s play compared to the winds howling off the Atlantic. “We call this mild,” said Anthony. “Windy are the days when the flags are blown out of the holes. At least your first time playing a links course you have sunshine. Most have to contend with wind and rain. It throws them off,” he added cheerily. “Imagine fifty mile an hour winds and try to hit a ball forward.”
Off I went. The fairways rose and fell such that the only way I could tell my ball landed was when the seagulls scattered. On one of the holes a crow stole my ball. Yet the scenery and in fact the whole experience while intimidating was awe-inspiring. The Eddie Hackett designed course opened in 1973, was nestled between Twelve Bens Mountain Range and the sea. It’s the most southern of a string of 11 links courses in northwest Ireland that run from Connemara to Royal Port Rush. Green fees are 60 Euros in summer (half that in winter) and you don’t need a handicap certificate. Despite the weather it’s open year round. Even if it rains for six weeks solid the water drains effectively through the sandy soils.
The most beautiful I left for last. Doonbeg, a $150 million development, is the ultimate in lavish country manor style luxury. The five-star property which opened May 2006 includes White Horses spa, fantastic dining and a magnificent course by Greg Norman. Norman visited about 30 times to get the design right keeping the natural layout and the high 500-foot grass covered dunes.
Food was equal to the golf. Dishes created by James Beard award winning American chef Tom Colicchio and executed by top-notch Irish chef Aidan McGrath were light, modern and so refined. Dinner one night was fresh turbot decorated with vanilla foam, chanterelles and fresh broad beans. Vegetables came in their own little copper pots. Desserts such as a hot raspberry pudding with lemon curd and sorbet were masterful.
The rooms both in the main lodge and the outlying buildings were generously oversize with rain showers, fancy Irish linens and fully equipped kitchens. My two bedroom, two level Norman themed suite had both a garden terrace and an upper balcony that overlooked the huge horseshoe shaped beach.
My caddy, Oliver, helped me better my golf when I teed off the next morning with assistant pro Liam Duggan as my playing partner. In traditional fashion the first nine holes headed away from the clubhouse with the ocean crashing on the left while the back nine returned, ocean now to the right. The fairways had been widened since last year’s opening to improve the fun factor for Americans. (Too many were losing balls and doing a six hour round.) The seven-mile walk was invigorating and necessary – only those with a medical certificate can get a cart. The sun came and went with the requisite rain shower at one point. Oliver made the game a pleasure with his knowledge of the bounce of the fairways and the direction for the putts. (All the caddies at Doonbeg are extensively trained on the course before they are allowed to work.)
At any rate one more analyze exhibits with it likewise enhances sexual intercourse for many postmenopausal girls, purchase generic viagra icks.org. Exercise can work wonders buy viagra for women for your erections. There is always a better choice viagra without prescriptions canada for sex pills. But sometime a dull sexual life creates a lot of stress and the condition lowers self-confidence and self-esteem in men that are levitra samples suffering from the condition.
Surfing, horseback riding, cycling, sailing and other activities were available had I the time. Tiny Doonbeg village, the home of four pubs, was ten minutes away. On the cliffs loop I could have driven to the furthest western point in Ireland and found Keatings the last bar before New York. Within an hour were some of Ireland’s great link courses such as Lahinch and Ballybunion. However the place was so captivating I was loath to go anywhere else. In the dining room I watched the sun setting over the Atlantic while the wind roared and waves crashed on Doughmore Beach.
Doonbeg was such a high reaching project, on an isolated spit of land at the end of treacherous roads that locals thought it would never work. As a newly built American funded development I feared I would find it Disneyesque. Instead I had only a petty quibble or two – about the lack of oversize Irish bathtubs for example. Of course it costs to play here (green fees can top 150 Euro in summer) and to stay (accommodations start at over 400 Euro in summer) but what price nirvana?
In the end I was left salivating for more. For more of Doonbeg, more of Ireland and more golf. I’m bringing my husband next spring. He’d love the food, the ocean, the rooms in castles, inns and abbeys, the tubs and the walks. Driving the car will be his adventure. Battling wind and weather on the links can be mine – the easier of the two.
Pack Your Clubs
Ireland Golfing
Air
Air Canada offers direct flights to from Toronto to Shannon airport during the high season as does Air Transat. British Airways offers service via London Heathrow to Shannon.
General Information
Tourism Ireland office in Canada: 2 Bloor St. West, Suite 3403. Phone 1-800-223-6470 www.discoverireland.com
West Ireland Tourism: www.irelandwest.ie
Accommodations
Glenlo Abbey: Bushypark, Galway. 011-353-91-526666, info@glenloabbey.ie, www.glenlo.com
Dromoland Castle: Newmarket-on-Fergus, County Clare. 011-353-61-368144 or 1-800-346-7007, sales@dromoland.ie, www.ashfordcastle.com
Ashford Castle: Cong, County Mayo. Phone 011-353-94-954-6003, or 1-800-346-7007 reservations@ashford.ie, www.ashfordcastle.com
Doonbeg Golf Club: County Clare. Phone 011-353-65-905-5602, reservations@doonbeggolfclub.com, www.doonbeggolfclub.com
Golf Courses
North and West Coast Links represents 11 of Ireland’s finest championship links courses from Connemara to Royal Portrush along north west Ireland’s Atlantic seaboard. Their tee-time reservation service covers these 11 courses and others around the country. wclgolf@iol.ie, https://www.irelandnorthwest.ie/thingstodo/golf-courses/
Connemara Championship Links: www.connemaragolflinks.com Designed by Eddie Hackett, Connemara Golf Links is a 27 hole traditional links course situated between the Twelve Bens Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.
Reservations for golf at Dromoland, Ashford and Glenlo can be made through their central reservations systems.
A free Golfers Guide to Ireland 2007 can be obtained by calling the general Ireland tourism office.
Canadian tour operators offering Irish golf packages include: www.irishtravel.ca, www.merit.ca, www.golfawaytours.com