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BALLYLIFFIN GOLF CLUB
On the northernmost tip of the island of Ireland in County Donegal is the most extensive stretch of true links ground suitable for golf that I have ever seen in dunesland setting of indisputable grandeur. Nick Faldo has called it “the most natural golf links I have ever seen”. It is home to the two courses of Ballyliffin Golf Club; it could easily accommodate three or four times that many. Yet as recently as 1970 there were only the 9 holes home made by the members when their small and perpetually poor club was formed in 1947.
OLD LINKS
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The “Old” is not that old at all having opened in 1973 as a re do of the original 9 holes and a new 9 holes laid out by the ubiquitous Eddie Hackett, golf architect for the Irish tourist board. The terrain he used ripples so constantly that it reminds the golfer of The Old Course or the West Links at North Berwick. Never a level stance; seldom a straight bounce. Several holes have been outstanding since the inception of the Old. I have always been found of the 2nd, 5th, 13th, 14th and 18th. At one time, several others were less appealing leaving noted golf writer, Jim Finegan, to label six of them as “ordinary” and the short par three 9th as “anemic”. Enter Nick Faldo whose eye for courses is proving almost as good as his swing in his prime. After he worked his magic with new bunkering, the relocation of a couple of greens and major surgery on at least one hole, the Old officially re-opened in June 2006 to rave reviews, including one from yours truly. I like the place!
GLASHEDY
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The fairways are less corrugated here than on the Old but the course is not nearly as flat. As Finegan writes: “Fourteen of the eighteen holes are routed through the high dunesland north of the original course, where the scenery is more stirring and the terrain provides more feature and elevation change. I am not certain why this course is not recognized and rated internationally. Open for more than a decade, there has been ample time for the keepers of the lists to play it and, if they had they would have failed to find a single ordinary hole while they would have discovered several outstanding ones. They likely also would have shot no where near their handicaps. Pat Ruddy’s courses are like that. (See also, the European Club and Rosapenna Sandy Hills.)
The Golf Courses of Ireland
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