Golf Travel Ireland

by BRUCE VITTNER

...Continued from Golf Travel Ireland Page.

Ballyliffin Golf Course

The next day we traveled to Ballyliffin Golf Course, taking a car ferry across the Lough Foyle.

Ballyliffin has two courses, the Old Course and Glashedy Links.

This is the only property in Ireland that has both courses listed in the top 25 in Ireland,(so it is a must visit on your golf travel Ireland trip) and we were playing the newer course, Glashedy Links.

It is only 10 years old, but it looked like it had been there for a century.

The main difference between the two courses was that the fairways on Glashedy were a little flatter, but the rough was very rough and the bunkering was very deep and challenging.

You will remember the severe downhill par 3 eighth hole with a pond to the right.

The wind was gale-force the day we played, and one member of our group hooked one that rode the wind about a quarter mile.

He teed up another, started it over the pond and it rolled right into the hole. Nice three!!

The Ballyliffin Lodge & Spa where we spent that night was our favorite hotel on the trip.

Spacious rooms with views of the Atlantic Ocean and overlooking Ballyliffin Golf Course and a great restaurant, made this a must stay if you are anywhere in the northwest of Ireland.

The other course at Ballyliffin is called the Old Course.

We wanted to play that until we found out that 'old' meant that it had been built in 1972.

We walked some of the holes on the Old Course and it was similar to what we played.

Last Course, Portsalon Golf Course

Our last course on this golf travel package Ireland, was Portsalon Golf Course in Fanad, County Donegal. What a hidden gem.

The course was founded in 1891 and just won a members competition among the original fourteen courses in Ireland.

Club Captain, and our playing host, Garrett, a retired police officer, was the quintessential Irishman.

He was happy, fun, moved quickly on the course and was very helpful.

"We love our course," he said smiling.

He has reason to love it. Four holes run right along the ocean and you can see the water from most every hole.

The path to the ocean from the beach town used to run across the first and eighteenth hole, but the members dug a wide trench for a pathway and put fencing across the opening that you play over.

Unique, but quite creative.

"We used to have to wait sometimes 30 minutes to tee off with all the folks walking to the beach," recalled Garrett.

On the last golf travel Ireland evening we traveled to Drogheda in County Louth to stay at the d hotel.

It is one of the more upscale hotels in Ireland and overlooks the port and is twenty minutes from Dublin Airport.

Our tour guide for the last four days of our golf travel Ireland was Greg Creagh of Creagh Executive Travel.

A tour driver for many years, this big, burly former semi-pro basketball player was wonderfully helpful.

His son, Lloyd, had purchased a couple of tour vehicles after getting out of the service and was getting started in the executive travel business.

"It's nice to work for my son," said Greg as he traversed through roads that this reporter wouldn't drive through with a VW.

The eight days of our golf travel Ireland trip flew by and it was a most memorable trip. Ireland is a beautiful country. The rolling countryside is so green, and instead of using fences, most properties are divided by hedgerows.

There are hundreds of streams meandering through the country and the rocky cliffs on the northern coast look like the coastline of Maine or Nova Scotia.

Speaking of Maine, Ireland is roughly the same size as Maine and has a little over seven million residents.

If you consider yourself a golfer, then Ireland is a place you must play.

Useful numbers and websites for Golf Travel Ireland:

Northern Island Tourism: 028-9044-1582, www.discovernorthernireland.com
Tourism Ireland (New York office): 1-800-223-6470, www.discoverireland.com
North at West Coast Links: 353-091-868642, www.northandwestcoastlinks.com
Creagh Executive Travel: 353-021-4932755, www.creaghexecutivetravel.com
Blue Badge Tour Guide: hugh.rice1@ntlworld.com

Bruce Vittner is a member of the Golf Writers Association of America and can be reached by email by email

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Side Notes
On Ireland

Who says it rains in Ireland? We had two holes of rain in eight days on our golf travel Ireland trip, although we were told that it had rained quite often this past summer.
Guinness tastes much better in Ireland than it does in the States.
They say it does not travel well and must be consumed soon after it is brewed. We did!!

Pubs in Ireland?

Yes, there are a lot of pubs, every little hamlet has one as well as on most streets in the larger cities. Remember the name Rory McIlroy. He is only 18, but the Irish consider him the next Tiger Woods. He has won every amateur title in Ireland and just turned professional last week. Don't be surprised if he doesn't challenge Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke as the top player in Ireland soon.

We flew into Dublin

and had to drive north to golf.
There are beautiful courses near Dublin as well. If you are going to the north, it might be wise to look at flights into Belfast.
Currently there is a flight from Newark to Belfast, but they are considering starting a flight from Boston that would help.
Aer Lingus is a nice airline serving very good meals. Everyone was so helpful and friendly in Ireland. the food was much better than we thought it would be.

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