On to Buncrana - After 5 nights in Moville we decamped for the Western shores of the Inishowen peninsula and the Town of Buncrana. Buncrana is a very pleasant town with a nice main street that has a selection shops, bars and restaurants. Lough Swilly is one of three fjords in Ireland and Buncrana is a beautiful location to spend some time. The town's claim to fame seems to be that it is the landing spot of the seaman who wrote the lyrics to Amazing Grace.
We stayed at the Innishowen Gateway Hotel & Conference Center taking advantage of their "Stay & Play" package. This included breakfast and dinner along with a round at each North West GC and Buncrana GC for each night we stayed. The hotel backed right onto Buncrana GC with our 2nd floor room overlooking the course out towards the Lough. The food was quite good and the hotel even had a pool and jacuzzi for our use. Definitely a nice change of pace and worth the extra few Euro's we could have saved by staying at a B&B and booking the golf ourselves.
North West GC: As stated in the OP I have a strong personal bias for this type of course. Flattish firm links with good natural rolls and a bit of funkiness. The course sticks out into Lough Swilly on a triangular piece of links land bounded by the old rail line that is now R238, the main road out of Buncrana headed south. There might be 10-15 feet of elevation between the highest and lowest points and with the rolling/bumpy movement you end up with a lot of semi-blind shots where you don't see the landing areas in any clear way. There are only a few shots on the course that have any real sense of moving up or down hill. The club's logo is the city crest of Derry/Londonderry. City residents founded the club and still make up a meaningful part of the membership according to a club officer we played with one of the days.
The maintenance was perfect for the course. The greens were smooth and fast enough given the wind and amount of internal movement. While the greens were not wild by any means there was sufficient internal movement to consistently drive interest and some examples of more dramatic features that really stood out. While the rough along the course boundaries was quite thick for the most part the internal fescues between the fairways were a nice 1/4 to 3/4 shot penalty with a reasonable ability to find you ball without too many issues. It got thicker in some areas but these tended to be on steeper slopes or lower areas where more water might be available for the turf.
A map of the course and drone tour is on the club's web page:
https://www.northwestgolfclub.com/the-courseHoles of note:
3 - par 3 (152/162 yards): The first of a real good set of par 3's. The green is elevated a few feet above tightly mown turf to the left and long - the banks are steep. The bunker short left is a good miss and landing it short right is probably the daily play for members.
4 - par 4 (330/343 yards): Really good short par-4. Your decision off the tee is between 1: lay up short of a pinch point defined by the fairway bunker that pinches in from the right and a mound that has some deep fescue on it, or 2: hit driver up the gap between the right bunker and a fescue and gorse covered ridge along the left of the fairway all the way up to the green. The green is elevated with a steep false front and tight firm run-offs left, long or right. If you lay up getting an approach to stop on the green will require something releasing up from short of the green unless you're playing into a pretty good wind. My son pounded two good drives up the gully and had fairly simple chip shots up the false front.
7 - par 4 (405/424 yards): unique par 4 with the decision on the drive being to lay up short of a pinch in the fairway where it drops down into a depression between two nobs covered by some of the deeper fescue rough on the course (the upper part of the fairway to the right of the depression as shown in the drone footage does not seem to be maintained with as much width up there at the moment). The first day I hit driver not knowing what was up there and ended up perfectly in the depression leaving myself 170 yards or so into the wind. The second day knowing what was up there I hit a lay up leaving me a solid 5-wood from 200 yards out. The green is one of the more interesting on the course.
11 - par 4 (349/373 yards): An elevated tee allows a nice visual down the length of the links. There is a burn right in front of the green with members parking behind the green. On the first day the hole played downwind and I had a tight lie pinch wedge from 70 yards or so, very nervy shot. The second day we were into the wind and a nice full wedge from 100 in the first cut of rough was much easier. I can easily see this hole being interesting day in day out as you need to choose what approach you're most comfortable with given that day's conditions.
12 - par 4 (421/434 yards): This is a neat par 4 with the rather bland flat view on the tee box giving little away in terms of what's to come. Once you pick a line somewhere between the fescues lining either side of the fairway you get up the fairway and the fairway starts heaving down to a sunken green with only a marker pole to identify the proper line. There are a couple of bunkers and some firm slopes. two times around did not give me any idea as to the best way to approach this hole.
14 - par 4 (329/349): Blind tee shot over a direction marker to an up and over fairway, hit well you and you end up with a gorgeous downhill approach to a two tier green that bunches up into a dune. Really lovely stuff here.
16 - par 3 (90/93 yards): Devilish 90 yard par 3 with trouble everywhere around the green and some slopes on the green that will just shoot you off the green if you land on them - the members I spoke with see this as one of the standout holes on the links. On top of the obvious pots and slopes you don't even have complete visibility of the green and it's surrounds from the tee.
17 - par 4 (397/407): The only real dog-leg and it is also the only time that you feel like you are playing uphill through the whole round. Easily the hole with the most sense of scale off of the tee, and also one of the few where you can see both your tee ball and your approach land and run out.
After playing the par 5 18th back towards the club house you can head up to the second floor bar that overlooks the lough and the links for a nice pint. North West GC is a very solid course that challenges you on every swing while being fun and playable. If I wanted to nitpick I would say that if the fescues lining the fairways become too overgrown it could get really tight really quickly, especially if you get the wind running across the course instead of primarily along the holes. I could say that the views are not dramatic enough and that there are too many blind or semi-blind shots that visually have a kind of sameness. I could say that the course is too tightly hemmed into a small plat of land and that it's too short for serious competitions. However, none of these critiques override all of the great positives of the course and the club. North West GC is a fine example that golf doesn't have to be flashy or complicated to make for a great day on the links.
Next up Buncrana GC.