The Scale of Ballybunion

[Neil Regan]

The pictures were taken about 3 hours apart, from the same spot.
The sky was washed out in the one with my brother high on the dune,
so I inserted the sky from the other. The other picture is
actually 2 pictures taken about 8 seconds apart, with slightly different
focal lengths and exposures, merged in photoshop, with golfers from
an old postcard replacing my brother at the bottom. There is
some distortion from the originals, mostly from squeezing the pictures
for printing at a different aspect ratio than the originals,
but, in my opinion, nothing that is misrepresentative.
Most photos, such as the one posted by Bill Gayne, do not capture
how steep and tall are the dunes on this hole. And the reason that
the sea can barely be seen in Bill's photo is because, as Tom D. mentioned,
that is the view from the fairway landing area.
If you climb the dune to the left (where many balls can be found),
then you can see the sea.

Here is the washed out sky from the original. 


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[Joe Hancock]

 

[Neil Regan]

This is the same hole (Cashen 15th) from the highest dunes on the right, where the old 12th green is no longer maintained.



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[Tom Jefferson]

Neil;

Now that explains everything!!!!
Thanks for the last photo......beautiful scene, and perfect clouds!

Joe..........those UFOs Neil posted ARE the same ones we've been seeing here!

Best,
Tom

[Joe Hancock]

Joe..........those UFOs Neil posted ARE the same ones we've been seeing here!

Best,
Tom

I know......

Mine is the one that has a force field sticker that says "If ALF didn't want us to eat Earthlings, why did It make them out of meat?"

Joe

[Neil Regan]

Another picture, this one of Cashen #13
(I photoshopped the colors and light a bit.)

This is a sub-400 yard par-4 that plays short downwind, and very long into the wind.

Downwind, the ledge in the foreground, about 100 yards from the green,
is reachable from the tee. A long drive over the edge will fall steeply down towards the pit.
I'd guess the bottom is 40 or 50 feet below the green.

Into the wind, a very good drive might leave another wood.
The dunes are huge on either side, with gaps that can let the side winds gust a ball
in any direction. The direction of the wind is not constant. It shapes the dunes and is shaped by them.
A ball in the air can be blown left, then right.

The walking path on the left of the picture was built years after the course opened. There are similar fills
in many places on the Cashen Course, to ease the walk. It can still be a very difficult course to walk.
But you never forget that you are in the dunes first, and on a golf course second.
Which is a big reason why those who like the Cashen love it.

I'm hoping Tom D. will see this and post some info from his maps, if he ever found them.