The Curse of the Celtic Tiger on Irish Golf

Dunmurry Springs, par three 15th, green to tee

I had a good-natured Twitter spat with someone the other day, regarding the cost of green fees at Ireland's golf courses. He was English and he said that it was time for Ireland's golf courses to 'get their prices right and not rip off (golf tourists) like the past'.

An unfair comment on three fronts:

1. Green fee prices have fallen dramatically in the past four years (frequently by 40-50%)
2. There has ALWAYS been value in Irish golf... if you knew where to look
3. GB green fees are not exactly 'bargains'

'Sadly, damage was done when Eire courses priced us brits out of the market' was one of his comments, implying that golfers from Great Britain turned away from Ireland as a golfing destination when the Celtic Tiger ran rampant. The figures bear it out too, with GB golfing tourist numbers declining after 2008. Even today, when almost every other market is delivering growth, GB numbers remain in the doldrums. It is worth remembering, too, that golfers from GB once made up 66% of all visiting golfers.

So, what next?

Young Irish Golf Courses Evolving

The growth of Irish golf courses exploded between 1990 and 2008. The total number of courses on the island increased by 50% in that period... and only a handful of those were in Northern Ireland. Some of those courses have closed; some have been reborn. Many have struggled; a few have thrived.

The Castlemartyr clubhouse being built in 2008 and
how the wood has 'weathered' today.

Here are some photos showing how four of our courses looked in their early days and how they look today.

Open Weeks 3 - Irish Golf

Some more July Open Weeks to continue the list. This time it's Greystones (my home club) in Co. Wicklow, St. Anne's in Dublin Bay and Dunmurry Springs in Co. Kildare. There are also a couple of events at Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links - where I played today.

Dunmurry Springs - Boards.ie Society Outing

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.

Golf deals - using the new 'bargain' sites

[Photo: the par three 15th at Dunmurry Springs, with views for miles]

Golf is getting it in the neck at the moment. People simply aren't prepare to fork out green fees, especially when they're paying an annual sub at their home club/s. But there are ways to get good deals that don't involve phoning the club and haggling... sign up to the 'deal' websites. These offer special discounts, often on a daily basis, and if you're fast enough you can grab one and feel rather smug.

[Photo: Par three 4th hole at Hollywood Lakes]

The websites that I've come across recently include:

www.livingsocial.com

www.citydeal.ie

www.beddeals.ie

Recent deals offered on golf included:

Dunmurry Springs

Mount Wolseley

Tulfarris

Nuremore

Hollywood Lakes

The deals varied from straight green fees, to green fees with lunch, to green fees and bed & breakfast... but the discounts ranged from 50% - 70%. I booked the Tulfarris deal which was one night's B&B at the hotel, for two people, with free golf. How much? €79 TOTAL, to be taken between May and August. Even if the other person (i.e. my wife) doesn't play golf, it's a bargain... even if it goes against the grain as it's a 'zombie' hotel/course.

[Photo: 18th hole at Nuremore]

And the offers aren't exclusively golf... they cover everything from restaurants to beauty treatments to flying lessons. You never know what might tweak your interest.

Dunmurry Springs

[Photo: the new clubhouse - and a good view of the fescue grasses]

The trials, tribulations and triumphs of Ireland’s new generation of golf clubs continues. That mass of courses built during the late 1990s and early 2000s was always going to be under scrutiny once the pressures of the recession took hold. The Heritage, Moyvalley and New Forest have recently been added to the list of courses in deep trouble, but there are successes too. Concra Wood recently opened its glamorous new clubhouse – to very little fanfare I might add – and Dunmurry Springs has done the same.

When I visited the County Kildare club (www.dunmurrysprings.ie) in early 2008, the club had only been open a couple of years. The clubhouse was a concrete shell and the facilities were located in a stretch of pre-fabs at the back of the parking lot. That said, these facilities were better than some other clubs I visited. But a club can’t operate to its true potential without a clubhouse where golfers can relax before and afterwards.

[Photo: The 3rd green]

The course is well liked by contributors to www.boards.ie and the question ‘has the clubhouse opened yet?’ appeared constantly on threads about it. Now that it has, hopefully more golfers will visit this fine course. It’s a sweet design, by one of my favourite designers (Mel Flanagan), with three tees: two short and one long. I played the short version (white tees 6096 yards) in March 2008, but I plan to go back and play off the back tees later this summer (blue tees: 6757 yards). They are completely different tests of golf, so choose your tees wisely.

They have proper fescue grasses here: if they’re up then getting stuck in the rough will be a nightmare, but if they’re short it’s a relaxing and enjoyable ramble up a gentle hillside (for half a dozen holes or so) with mountain and countryside views for almost the entire round. The club boasts that you can see seven counties from the 6^th green. It’s not hard to see why – it feels like you’re looking into Ireland’s soul – and the view from the 15^th stretches down to the clubhouse, and the mountains beyond, taking you all the way home.

[Photo: the view from the 15th tee takes in the run of holes back to the clubhouse and the distant mountains beyond]

If you want to find out for yourself, I suggest you get up there for their Open Week, between July 22nd and 26th. And, if you want to go the extra step, you can pay €1,000 which buys full membership and the Annual Sub for the rest of the year. It’s worth noting that the club is just 30 miles from the Red Cow roundabout on the M50.

Green fees vary from €25 to €50, but there are Open Singles events every Thursday for €20, which is a price that’s hard to beat.

[Photo: the par three 11th]

Carlow Scratch

Carlow GC is rightly regarded as one of the great inland courses of Ireland. It is old (established in 1899) and it is one of the untouched masterpieces – perhaps the last one. Nearby Mount Juliet is the complete opposite in terms of its evolution and I would recommend that you play both courses close together – it will tell you a lot about what kind of parkland golf you like. While Mount Juliet is a manufactured, relatively relaxed golfing adventure, Carlow is a natural beauty that can squash you in a heartbeat. Take the 2nd hole, for example: at just 270 metres (visitors tee) it should be a simple hole, but my two playing partners stepped onto the tees with irons. There are other short holes, but none is easy, and the long holes are brutish for most amateurs. The 7th is a dogleg of 400 metres over a serious rollercoaster fairway, with the green up high and no sign of the putting surface.

[Photo: The brutal par four 7th, Index 1. Rob made par on both visits]

On Sunday July 5th, the Junior Scratch Cup was

played off the back sticks. It made a difficult course that much harder. Mind you, at €25 for 36 holes of golf AND a meal voucher (a very nice lasagne and chips, thank you) no one was complaining – even when the rain started. On the same day, Woodbrook had their Scratch Cup and were charging €50. No contest for where I wanted to be.

I say in several reviews how a golf course ‘flows over the landscape’; nowhere is that more true than Carlow. It is a great experience and my playing partners would certai

nly have woken up on Monday morning with a smile on their face. Jamie Bolger, Carlow GC, is 16 and plays off 5 (he was 9 last year, so his coach must be doing something right. And that’s his dad, Jimmy Bolger, who’s the Pro at Kilkenny); Rob Fitzpatrick, Dunmurry Springs, is in his 30s and plays off 6. Jamie came 3rd and Rob came 6th. I can guarantee you that neither felt they were in with a shout walking off the 36th hole – even though Jamie had just sunk a birdie putt on the par 5 18th – it was the only birdie of the day, for all of us. Not that there weren’t opportunities – the putts just weren’t dropping.

[Photo: Rob contemplates the renowned par four 8th - all down hill and glorious]

Jamie’s performance was an interesting one. His score on the front 9 was identical on both rounds – with two bogeys on the same holes (7 and 9). It was the back 9 that made the difference. In round one, on the short 10th, he dunked his approach shot into the water and walked away with a double bogey. It rattled him and he finished nine over on the back 9 – for a total of 81 (11 over). It didn’t help that the three guys in front of us were very slow and held us up every hole. They finally let us through – on the 18th green!! It was a four hour 20 minute round.

In the afternoon, assuming we were all out of the running, and escaping the clubhouse before the slow threeball, we raced around and the golf was far more relaxed. As we headed up the 16th fairway we saw the three guys behind us walking to the 13th tee. And no, they didn’t let anybody through. So, Jamie played much better golf, and his birdie on 18 brought him back to his handicap. None of us thought he’d be in with a shout, and Rob blew his chances with a triple bogey seven on the 16th. It’s Index 2, 401 metres, and he got stuffed in trees. He then lost his 3rd shot (in the gorse - left of fairway in the photo) and hit a provisional 180 metres uphill, to three feet (so he was there in five). He decided to look for his first, found it, and made a hash of things to walk off with a seven. And he came 6th.

[Photo: The par four Index 2 16th]

I admired Rob greatly – no matter what went wrong he remained 100% calm. Not one tiny bit of annoyance. That triple bogey would have killed me, and after Jamie put his ball in the water early on he went into a funk for a few holes – it undoubtedly cost him 2nd place. It’s easier said than done, I know, but Tiger’s ‘ten pace’ rule is the only way to succeed in golf. Whatever goes wrong you have to brush it off quickly. Me? I’ll miss a putt from three feet and let it fester for the rest of the round. It’s a curse that many golfers carry, and if that includes you, I suggest Bob Rotella’s book: golf is not a game of perfect. At least it will keep you off the course for an extra couple of days.

Carlow is one of the great adventures of Irish golf – perhaps that’s why Johnny Vaughan, the English broadcaster/DJ/entertainer, calls it the best course in the world.