Earlier this week my brother and I travelled out to Holyoke for a visit and came away very impressed with Ballyneal. I have to admit that I was thinking the course was going to be in similar in nature to the Sand Hills Club but I was wrong. Very very wrong.
Ballyneal really is an incredible course. I didn’t feel there was a weakness out there one bit. The topography is much different than what was expected. These are not hills but rather sand dunes that the course weaves its way through.
I read the other comments and went through Ran’s write up as well and I though I would just add a bit.
One of my favorite features is the open teeing grounds. We didn’t use them to make it tougher on whoever didn’t have the honor, it was more of “how about here” type selection. And for most of the course we played fairly far back. The only exception was the 7th hole where I talked my brother into moving all the way to the front of the teeing ground. He proceeded to draw a three wood into the front bunker.
Favorites holes:
My brother loved the 4th hole due to the view across the dunes.
My favorites were the 7th and the 15th.
Jointly we both loved 11th hole.
The 11th hole we played from two different teeing areas. Our first shots were from the very back. The second tee shots we hit were from the tee box located front and left almost hiding the hole due to sand dune. Unfortune or fortune for us the flag stick was on the right side of the green thus giving us a target. When the flag is positioned on the left side of the green and you play the “hidden” teeing area it turns into a blind hole.
The 15th hole was fun just for the fact that my brother went to the very back of the teeing area just beyond the 237 yardage marker and put his peg in the ground. He preceded to carve a massive three wood just unto the edge of the green. Not to be outdone by my younger brother I took a three iron and put my shot 5 feet from the flag.
Since you are playing from one dune across a few football fields to another dune it helps to drive the ball lower. I think his three wood was penalized from hanging in the air a bit too long.
Lastly, the 7th hole. My first and only comment on this hole is that it should be replicated at every First Tee location across the country to get kids into the game of golf. Similar to the 16th at Pacific Dunes I could play this hole over and over and over again.
All in all we had a great time out at Ballyneal. It definately falls into my Top 10 courses. I highly recommend anyone thinking about joining to venture out and see what Ballyneal is about. You won’t be dissapointed.