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| Keith drives on the excellent par four 8th |
God has a sense of humour. Who knew! As 20 members of the
Boards Society prepared to play
Dunmurry Springs, he turned on the tap… then
turned it off… then on. All day long he couldn’t help himself. Or maybe he was just
sitting on the weather remote control while watching the Lions play the
Wallabies in Brisbane.
Whatever it was, golfers everywhere were constantly caught
unaware as rain raced in on the wind and sent us all scurrying for our
waterproofs… which had been packed away only minutes before.
It made for a tough day’s golf over the hillsides of Co.
Kildare, but Dunmurry Springs is maturing very nicely indeed and growing into Mel
Flanagan’s design. No amount of wind and rain could hide that fact.
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| Gareth settles in for his tee shot on the short par four 3rd |
David, Gareth, Keith and myself teed off in the rain. With
the wind we were in for a low-scoring round of golf… with the rough up we were in
for an even lower scoring round, and we had all visited the heavy stuff by the time we
walked off the 1st green. It was a pertinent warning and one we mostly ignored. David at least managed to for a while... if only by visiting the bunkers.
Off the forward yellow markers, an iron off the tee should
be sufficient for visitors. It is short enough to be played that way. Only if
you know the course well enough can you risk big drives… something the guys (assisted
by a ‘local’) behind us were using to great effect. On many of the opening nine
holes they had to wait for us to reach the green before teeing off. Let’s just
say that it made us feel rather inadequate.
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| Views over the par three 10th - across the course and to the mountains beyond |
Dunmurry Springs plays as two very different courses
depending on the tees you choose – the back blue tees add 700 yards, taking the
length to 6757 yards and making it a sterner test on a day-to-day basis. In the
wind and rain it was quite stern enough for us. The course has just been re-routed, cutting out a couple of climbs and
reducing the time to play a round by 10 minutes. I’ve always liked climbs,
because they’re usually followed by great views and tempting tee shots
(Dunmurry Springs doesn’t disappoint), but apparently they were discouraging the
50+ year old brigade. The re-routing should make it easier, and the course
still flows very easily with water features appearing at constant intervals and
the stand-out holes (3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15 and 17) well dispersed.
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| David drives it straight into the wind on the par three 15th - it's all carry |
As with most societies, there is a nearest the pin and a
longest drive prize. We were the first group out, so all we had to do was hit a
green and stay on a fairway, and one of us would get our name on the prize
sheet. It turned out that our fourball managed to win both… and it was the
longest drive that proved most entertaining of all. Keith, who would admit to a
poor day off the tee, talked himself into a big drive on the 389 yard 18th and
then managed to deliver. With the hard fairways and wind behind, his drive
almost reached the water, shy of the green. As three of us veered left into the
rough, he kept walking down the middle, a bounce in his step and a smile on his
face. The smile grew as we passed the previous society’s longest drive marker,
which had not one name on it. No one had found the fairway.
As we wrapped things up on the green we watched the group of
big hitters behind us tee off. They clearly had the firepower, but it was the
accuracy that counted most. There’s little doubt that two of the lads –
including the aforementioned local, Ben – would have ended up in the water had
they been straight, but with their tee shots finding the rough, Keith was still
the leader – and so it remained.
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The 18th hole, green to tee (the longest drive marker is
just visible in the middle of the fairway) |
One of the great things about societies is that most people
hang around after for the banter, a drink and to eat some grub. The food and hospitality
at Dunmurry Springs were excellent. It just makes things that much friendlier,
and shows the advantages of joining such groups of like-minded golfers.
The Boards Society has been running for a few years and it has visited some greatcourses (next up is The Heritage). If you don’t have a society near you, or don’t
know of any, why not sign up for Boards.ie?
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