Top 10 Golf Course Photos of the Year

The famous 'bath tub' green on Cruden Bay's 14th

In no particular order…

1. Waterville

A trip to the south west took me to Waterville and Killarney for articles for Irish Golfer Magazine. It was early in the year and snow capped the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks above

The Magnificent Six

Swans causing slow play at Rathfarnham... tsk!

It’s not often you get to visit six Irish golf courses in a day… the fact I was trying to make it to seven is beside the point… but needs must. And visiting Ireland’s finest is hardly a hardship. A 550 km tour from Wexford-Dublin-Baltray-Mullingar-Kinnegad-Dublin-Wexford.

Here are some photos from the tour:

Golf News... Episode 3

Portsalon's 12th green from the left hand side.
The club celebrates 125 years in 2016.

There are several events going on at Irish golf clubs in the next month or two, and new figures show the ups and downs of Irish tourism and Irish golf.

Esker Hills

When you have a superstar like Shane Lowry as your golden boy, why wouldn’t you take advantage? Esker Hills are running a four day

The Moyvalley and New Forest 'All Your Money Back'

Mount Juliet started the If-Rory-McIlroy-Wins-The-Masters rush, with an offer of refunding all fourball green fees for those who enter their Major Series, between March 16th and the opening day of the Masters at Augusta (click here for details).

Now Moyvalley Golf Club in Co. Kildare, designed by the great Darren Clark, and New Forest Golf Club in Co. Westmeath, have upped the ante with a money back offer on your membership fee...

... so, join either golf club between Friday March 30th and Friday April 6th and if Rory wins you get your membership fee back... that's €850. Follow the above link for the contact details if you're interested in joining.

The golf clubs are pitching it as "possibly the best golf offer anywhere in Ireland." Hard to disagree with that sentiment at the moment!

New Forest/Moyvalley - 6 green fees for €126

[Photo: View across the Moyvalley golf course]

There are lots of offers doing the rounds at the moment, trying to tempt Irish golfers to play the multitude of venues that make up our 350-odd golfing playgrounds. The offer from New Forest & Moyvalley is one of the more interesting ones.

The two courses are related, being built by the same folk and opened for play in 2006. But other than being parkland in name, they are very different courses: Moyvalley is an open, rolling landscape that has a links-like flow; and New Forest fits into the more classic parkland vibe with streams, ponds and plenty of trees. They both present interesting tests of golf with quality greens... which one you prefer will depend on what you like about a course.

[Photo: The lush look of New Forest]

And now there's an easy way to find out, for €21 a head... The deal costs €126, which buys you six rounds of golf, split between the two courses in whichever way you choose. You'll also get a bacon roll and hot drink with each round which, based on our 'coldest summer' in years, should warm you up.

The offer is open until the 17th of August and rounds must be played by 31st October. The rounds can be used in whichever way you want.

Here's the link to the deal is http://www.golfdublin.com/deals.html

A couple of recent articles

From the Drogheda Independent, Gerry Kelly is the radio presenter at LMFM who interviewed me a few weeks ago, and also writes a weekly column in the paper:

Drogheda Independent

And from the Limerick Leader, a slightly more intriguing one... I say 'intriguing' because at one point Ivan Morris (the author) reports that I spend more time talking about clubhouse food than I do about shot values. To my recollection I say very little about clubhouse food (I mention the apple crumble at New Forest!), so I'm not sure where he got that from. I know he wasn't happy that Lahinch didn't make my top ten, and that Limerick (Ballyclough) ended up with the same score as a couple of 'lesser' courses, so it's interesting to read the first not-completely-positive review. But it's still good.

Limerick Leader

[Photo: 15th hole at Limerick (Ballyclough) ]