NORTH-WEST GC, Donegal - A quick photo tour

[Ally Mcintosh]

Last week I had a trip back up to North Donegal that included Rosapenna, Ballyliffin and Portsalon, most of which have been written about a little on here. We finished off at North-West GC in Buncrana on the Inishowen peninusula (15 miles from Ballyliffin) which provided plenty of high points…

North-West is one of the oldest courses in Ireland (120 years) and the club was a founding member of the Golfing Union of Ireland. The course is positioned on a low lying and undulating piece of land hemmed in between the eroding coast and the main road. It is classic links land in the Scottish sense… However, it has lost between 100 to 150 yards of coast in those 120 years and this has had a serious effect on the golf course with many of the original holes having disappeared forever…. What is left is a quirky little arrangement with enough original stuff to make you realise that the initial course would have been absolutely excellent if the sea and wind had not had its say in the last century… Some of the newer holes which have had to be squeezed in between the older ones have the odd thing going for them but the sense of scale has been lost… The course remains, however, enormously fun to play with plenty going on, a few wonderful lay of the land greens and it is a great respite from the longer and tougher tests mentioned above (it plays 6,380 yards from the back)… It is well worth a visit…

The approach to the 2nd is classic low lying links golf, the green being little more than an extension of the fairway but with good movement… Bunkering is quite good around this course, both in style and placement… In this respect, it beats a couple of the others we played…

North West 2nd hole approach 1 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr


The 3rd is a short par-3 next to the coast with an interesting built up green that gives a little visibility from the tee…

North West 3rd hole green 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr


The 4th is clearly a new dogleg right hole with a rather simple green… but being a short par-4 downwind, an interesting heroic carry comes in to play from the tee with a diagonal stream / drain running along the right side of the fairway from 100 yards in…

North West 4th hole tee shot 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr

The 5th green is very recent, built rather well by the in-house crew I believe…

North West 5th hole approach 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr

The 7th is an excellent par-4 with an interesting approach between two low lying sandhills (first photo) and an absolutely great green (2nd photo)

North West 7th hole approach 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr


North West 7th hole green 1 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr

8 is a small par-3 that doubles back and has been added between the 7th green and the following tee… 9 and 10 are good strong holes in to the prevailing wind… Approach to the 10th is below…

North West 10th hole approach 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr

The 11th is back downwind towards the clubhouse playing along the coast (1st photo)… This begins a wonderful stretch of 5 or 6 holes…. The approach is over another diagonal stream (bridge in background) tucked closely in front of the green site (2nd photo)

North West 11th hole tee shot 2 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr


North West 11th hole approach 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr

The 12th has a lovely drive along a ridge (or at least what amounts to a ridge at North West – probably only about 3 or 4 yards of elevation change from the flat) and a good approach over rumply ground to a tucked away semi-blind green…

North West 12th hole approach 2 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr

The 13th is a solid tough par-3 back in to the wind…

North West 13th hole tee shot 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr

The 14th again shapes nicely from the tee with the approach over good ground to a slightly sunken punchbowl

North West 14th hole approach 1 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr

15th is a strong dogleg left to a slightly raised green that kicks in from the left and falls off to the right

North West 15th hole approach 1 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr

Whilst 16 is clearly an add-on 93 yard par-3 to a treacherous green downwind… Great fun this one because there is trouble all around in the contour…

North West 16th hole tee shot 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr

17 crosses the 4th fairway and is a stern challenge in to the wind… The same goes for the well set-up par-5 finisher back to the clubhouse, an end that will separate many a tight matchplay game…

I didn’t look in to the history of North-West and who had been there from an architectural point of view but I’d be very surprised if a name or two hadn’t added their touches in the early days… Because of lack of land, there is little the club can do to improve the course greatly these days but I don’t think it needs it… These are the kind of courses that make Britain and Ireland such a worthwhile destination for golf… A slice of the past that offers up a quick morning round and a whole bucket of enjoyment on the road home…

[jeffwarne]

A very enjoyable course to play.and a good mix of holes. Played it in a stiff crosswind which certainly added to the fun.
Also a very friendly welcome.

Often a course such as Northwest comes under scrutiny as "short", (They let you pick what tees you play from-one of the great joys of many lesser known gems)
Then the same person who condemns such a course as short will play Troon or another trophy course from the mandated yellow tees at a significantly shorter distance (and a much steeper price).
From tees often 100 yards in front of the back markers, quite often the hazards off the tee are not even close to being relevant for lower handicappers, and it's difficult to get a feel for how the course plays.
 Such is not the case for an overall shorter course such as NW where playing the back tees is quite common for many players, and the hazards/choices tend to have evolved to be more in play.

The great thing about the trophy courses though is that they keep the gems from being overrun

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Thanks for the photo tour Ally. It's been many years (1984?) since I played the course and my memory is a bit hazy when it comes to many of the holes.

I believe Charles Thompson (Royal Portrush) designed the first course in 1891 and it was just 9 holes. He also designed the first course at Portsalon. I understand it was extended to 18 holes in 1938, but I'm not certain. I have some newspaper articles from 1913, 1915 and 1968 that I will post here. The order of holes was changed in the 1980s. I have an old score card from 1984 that I will also post. 

Those bunkers at the 2nd were done last year. Here's a link the the NW web-site;

http://mainsite.northwestgolfclub.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=23&Itemid=72

[Jim McCann]

Ally,

Thanks for the photo tour of the old-fashioned North West course - they brought back great memories.

My grandfather had a cottage (it's one of the buildings at the back of "Fairy," the par three 16th) that I used to visit in the summer as a lad from Glasgow (I remember thumbing a lift with my father to watch World Cup games along the road in Fahan in '66) and the wee house is still in the family, looked after by one of my aunts.

I used to sneak onto the course in the evenings to play that hole with an old 5 iron and balls that I'd found around the course, pretending to be Arnold Palmer.  

It was there that my love of links golf began so it holds a very special place in my golfing affections.

North West may never make an Irish golf course Top100 chart but who the hell pays attention to those ranking lists anyway?  

[Kevin Pallier]

Ally

Thanks for that - never heard about NWGC - it looks like it has some cool greens.

Any chance you could do a pic. thread on Donegal ? I recall a Donegal one before but its was more narrative than pic. from memory...

[Mike Sweeney]

Fabulous post, and would love to see the before/after of the erosion and its effect on the course.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Here's a map of the course taken from a 1980s scorecard. The order of the holes was altered sometime in the mid-80s.



When I played the course in May 1984, this was the scorecard we used. The hole numbers for this scorecard are in red in the map above (I hope it's readable).

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Here are some old photos (pre-1914)  from the William Lawrence collection (National Library of Ireland). Notice the unusual flagstick in the last two photographs.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Whilst 16 is clearly an add-on 93 yard par-3 to a treacherous green downwind… Great fun this one because there is trouble all around in the contour…

North West 16th hole tee shot 18th Sept 2011 by Ally McIntosh, on Flickr

Having just today found out that the 93 yard "Fairy" is in fact one of the 3 remaining holes from the original nine hole course, I am just publically chastising myself for the above comment...

Incidentally, the other two "originals" are 7 and 12, indisputably two of the best holes on the course...

[Thomas Dai]

Bump in view of comments on a current thread about Donegal courses.
Now I understand a bit more about the 16th. Looks a right rascal!


See satmap - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.1178597,-7.4587619,14z/data=!3m1!1e3 - and note 2 courses near Buncrana - North West GC (18) and Buncrana GC (9)

Atb

[Charles Lund]

Thanks for posting the photos.


I drove by the course many times, but from the adjjacent road it looked dangerous due to congestion in one corner of the course.  But I met a couple of members playing at a course in the area, who encouraged me to give it a try.  I played on a Tuesday with three long term members, who shared a lot of information about the history of the club.  Overall, I thought it had a lot of very good holes, with #16 being the most memorable because I have a fondness for short and diabolical par threes.  I recall playing some holes poorly. On the other hand, I don't have a specific memory of any hole as one I thought of as a bad hole.


It reflects another example of a lesser known course which provides good value and is a club with good craic.


I'll make a point of getting in some more rounds on future trips to Donegal. 


Charles Lund

[Garland Bayley]

In reviewing the courses I played to choose my eclectic for the Donegal eclectic thread, I put together the following map of North West.

Routing by Garland Bayley, on Flickr