Castlegregory Golf Club - Dingle peninsula

[Ed Tilley]

Castlegregory golf club is a basic 9 hole course on the north of the Dingle peninsula approximately 25 minutes drive from Tralee and Dingle. It is scenically stunning and there are some massive dunes on the property - probably too big as some of the holes are a bit extreme. The dunes extend for some way north of the course (to the right of the 2nd hole) and I believe Tom Doak was involved in a potential 36 hole development here that fell by the wayside due to planning issues.

The club and conditioning is very basic. I played 9 holes at 6pm. The clubhouse was closed but there was an honesty box for people to pay the ridiculously low green fee of 15 euros for 9 holes. There are a fair few flaws with the course but the positives far outweigh these and it is great fun. I played in a 3-4 club "breeze" which made the course very challenging but it was still a lot of fun.

The course starts with a par 5 on the flat ground next to the inland lough. The green is sited hard against the lough with water front and right. A tough start but on marshy ground and very different from the rollercoaster to come.





The second hole is unbelievably tough. A long par 3 steeply uphill with a massive bank in front of the green meaning you have to carry it all the way. Into a big wind this would take some hit to reach the green. The photo from the tee is a bit blurred I’m afraid but the second photo gives an indication of the severity of the bank.





From behind



Taken from the 3rd tee this gives an indication of the extent of the dunes bordering the course.



The 3rd is a very short par 4 – I played it at 260 yards but wind into and off the right taking balls down the steep slope to the left of the green.






The 4th is a mid length par 4 that returns to the flatter ground. Despite, or maybe because of this, I thought this and the 8th were the best holes on the course. The drive is reasonably straightforward but the approach is over classic bumpy linksland to a slightly raised green.







From behind


The 5th is almost identical to the 2nd. It is the same length steeply uphill with a severe bank in front of the green. There is out of bounds hard left of the green. With a 3-4 club wind into and off the left this was plenty of golf hole I can confirm!





The 6th was a short par 4 curving left round the dunes. Very scenic tee box.







The 7th was a mid length par 4 with a raised green with a severe slope in front. A criticism would be that there are a few of this type of green. Unlike the 2 par 3s this one was down wind. I’m not sure how it was possible to hold the green given the very strong wind and very steep slope at the front. Very spectacular though.







The 8th was an excellent hole playing through a widish valley. The green is raised but the slope is nowhere as severe as previous holes meaning this is very playable.





The 9th is a short par 3 over a natural marshy pond. The green is only a few yards over the pond. There is a bank short but this was quite wet when I played. With the wind I played in, and the wetness of the bank, I don’t think it was possible to hit the green. My ball landed a foot from the top of the bank and went back a few inches from the plug mark. If I’d landed it a couple of feet further on it would have gone well through the green. However, the wind was very strong so maybe I am being a bit harsh.



All in all a fantastic authentic Irish links experience – no tour buses here. I played through a man and his 2 very young sons on the first hole and this very much had the feel of a real local course. I could be very picky about the severity of some of the green sites but that would be to miss the point here I think. This is a very fun course that is unbelievable value. Not worth a special trip but very definitely worth a quick knockabout if you are in the area.

[Thomas Dai]

Well posted Ed. Looks just the kind of place I like.


The 4th and 8th holes appear real corkers whilst the 1st hole looks quite similar to the 2nd hole at Narin & Portnoo.

There used to be more photos of Castlegregory on GCA but they seem to have disappeared so thanks for sharing these.

atb

[RJ_Daley]

it is remarkable how the terrain appears to vary a great deal throughout the golf holes.

[Paul Gray]

Thanks Ed.

I'd pay 15 euros just to have a closer look at the 3rd. I have a real penchant for very short par 4's which do their own thing.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I never knew about this course. It looks like it would be great fun. Thanks for the pictures.

[jeffwarne]

Stay in Dingle, play Dingle GC, then play an afternoon nine at Castlegregory.
return to Dingle via Connor pass.


Then top it off with (another) night out in Dingle.
Dingle is a tourist town, but a good kind of tourist-nongolfers(male and female ) having fun! , Irish, European, Americans


Throw in day trips to Dooks, Killarney (Mahoney's Point) Tralee(underrated here) and maybe Waterville(pair with 12 holer Parknasilla and you get a nice Ring of Kerry drive) and you've got the makings of a charming trip in a fun, albeit remote, town with a couple big guns thrown in.
-in addition to enjoying two of the most scenic stretches of driving in the world (Connor pass, Ring of Kerry)

[Tim_Weiman]

Arthur Spring once showed me around Castlegregory. I found it ok, but not something special. But, maybe that is partly because Arthur also showed me around Inch and that is tough to compete with.

[mike_malone]

Thanks so much for the photos. I played it in '98 just off the plane with a group of 12.  Most of them were experiencing their first links golf.
The best part was the driver trying to get the bus into the club!
We found it to be beautiful and challenging.

[Tom_Doak]

The dunes extend for some way north of the course (to the right of the 2nd hole) and I believe Tom Doak was involved in a potential 36 hole development here that fell by the wayside due to planning issues.

Ed:


Bill Coore routed 18 holes just to the north of the current Castlegregory course, and I routed another 18 across the small road, on the Dingle Bay side of the property ... which was also very good.  My side had a bunch of holes with grass already on them, if I hadn't wanted to contour the greens we could have "built" them just by mowing!


Alas, it never happened.  The whole property for both courses is part of a commonage owned by 7 families; our client had gotten something like 25 different people to sign off on selling him the property, but then he didn't spend the $ to get it though the environmental approvals, and the option lapsed, which upset the landowners.  I doubt anyone will be able to put it back together again.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Thanks Ed.  One day.

The repeated use of a raised green may well be an 'homage' to the style of Pat Ruddy. At least there wasn't the money to whack a random bunker in the raised faces.

[Ed Tilley]

It just seemed that the ground game was not much of an option here. I had the same impression, but to a lesser degree, when I played Dooks. All those greens seemed to be built up at the front with fall offs at the side. This was pretty striking to me as I went through the round. All good / decent green sites individually but no real variety which was a shame - particularly when they neutered one of the world's most individual green sites on 13 which was a ridiculous move. Dingle had much more variety in the green sites.

[Sean_A]

Ed


Thanks for the tour.  CastleG looks better than I imagined.  I am, however, very disappointed to hear about th raised green syndrome at Dooks. Is it really that bad?

Ciao

[Ed Tilley]

Ed


Thanks for the tour.  CastleG looks better than I imagined.  I am, however, very disappointed to hear about th raised green syndrome at Dooks. Is it really that bad?

Ciao

None of the greens are in any way bad at Dooks. In fact, at the start of the round I was thinking "That's a nice green" on every hole. It was just that as I got through the round it became very apparent that every green seemed to be similar. I would have liked to see a bit of variety, i.e. some more lay of the land type greens (which used to be common at Dooks) and maybe the odd Dell type. The only massive issue I have with the greens at Dooks is what they did to the 13th. That is now actually the most bland green on the course and I'm not sure how no-one in the decision making process thought to say "Hang on...". Like redesigning the 16th green at North Berwick because the current one is a bit unfair!

Anyway, I have photos of Dooks that I'll post shortly so you can see if I'm talking rubbish or not. I did have a bad experience with green staff on every hole so maybe I was looking for issues? Equally, however, maybe the stunning scenery at Dooks blinds people to issues that would be apparent on other courses?

[jeffwarne]

Ed,
Sorry to hear about your experience with green staff at Dooks.
That sounds like something that would happen at a large crew, high end course in the US, not a rural course in Kerry.


That is a total disconnect between whoever's offering the bookings at 7:30 and the maintenance staff.


It is ironic that in the quest for ever more idyllic conditioning that such an occurance is common at many clubs and early morning rounds are restricted so the crew can get all the daily, mowing, raking, rolling, waxing that is seemingly now demanded before the first golfer sets foot on the course.


I remember MANY times growing up seeing the green on number 1 being mowed as I was teeing up on 18, and more recently seeing the same in Ireland and Scotland. (though often someone would go out and wick the dew off the greens on the days they weren't to be cut-imagine that greens not cut and rolled daily)


You can imagine how long it took to type this on my typewriter   and submit via carrier pigeon

[Ed Tilley]

Hi Jeff,

I did complain to Dooks by e-mail. I didn't complain at the time because:

- There was quite a few people around in and outside the pro shop
- I just wanted to get away
- I'm far too English!

I got an e-mail back from them saying that they were very sorry and that they'd spoken to the maintenance crew and "measures had been taken" to ensure this didn't happen to anyone else. I imagine this just means that they won't cut 1&2, then 3&4, then 5&6 etc.. They offered me courtesy of the course next time I went back to Dooks. Obviously I won't be able to take them up on this as it will be years before I'm back in that area but it was appreciated nonetheless and means I will no doubt be back someday.

Ed