Golf on Ulster's coast.

[Tony_Muldoon]

“The Province of Ulster (Ulaidh)

Ulster is the most northerly of the four historic provinces. It consists of counties Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Derry, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Monaghan and Tyrone. Although the name is now often used as shorthand for Northern Ireland, three of its counties, Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan, are part of the Republic of Ireland.”


I’m not trying to make any political points here, simply that I’m planning a golfing trip for a week next April and at various points I will need to be near Belfast and then Portstewart.  By including Donegal I can have fun across Ulster.

It’s possible that we will start Sunday PM at Royal County Down as the website says they accept visitors then.  Thursday there’s an open competition at Castlerock (hi Tom ) and possibly Portstewart in the PM.  That would leave the 36 holes at Portrush for Friday.

The one’s I would appreciate opinions on are the trio of venues in North Donegal.  It will need a long drive Sunday night or Monday morning.  If we do it Monday then its likely only 18 holes will be possible.


Rosapena  (36)
Portsalon (18)
Ballyliffin (36)

So which of these would you choose to only play 18 holes on?  Also would you pass up on one of the other courses to play another twice – I’m not sure my brain would enjoy a new course every round for a week as much as getting to know one of them a little better.

Also any suggestions for accommodation as a base in Donegal?

Looking forward to the replies.

[Bill_McBride]

While we were in Ulster for the Walker Cup, we went up to the northern coast (two couples) and played the Valley Course at Royal Portrush, Castlerock and Ardglass.  The latter is on the way, sort of, from Newcastle - Royal County Down - to the north via Belfast which you can't avoid.

The Valley course is terrific, shorter and less dramatic than the big course we didn't play but nonetheless a really good golf course.  Lots of dunesland with good greens complexes.

Castlerock had some less appealing holes but some real crackerjack holes up higher in the dunes than anything at the Valley. #7 and #8 had greens set well up into the dunes with long uphill approaches.

Ardglass is a good first play, with a number of holes along the ocean with great views and some very quirky holes to start off.  The inland holes were sometimes bland, straight up or down sloped fairways.

We saw Ward Peronnyin (sp? always a problem) at the Wine Bar in Portrush and he reported how much he liked Ballyliffin, which he said had the most rumpled fairways he thought he'd ever seen.

Ulster is a lot of fun even if you don't play the top tier, which would include County Down, the Dunluce at Portrush, and Portstewart.

[Roger Tufts]

While we didn't get to play Portsalon, when we were in Ireland this passed summer we played 36 holes at both Rosapenna and Ballyliffin... both of which were tremendously worthwhile. If you have enough time and want to screw around with the late nights, you can even try to play the VERY COOL looking pitch-and-putt course right at Rosapenna... it's literally a dunes/links style course but with 40-80 yard holes. It was very cool looking, though closed when we were there.

Rosapenna's Sand Hills really surprised me... some great holes. A very nice setting and kept me happy all day even with the constant rainfall we played through.

Rosapenna's Old Tom Morris Links was very cool as well... as the Golf Pro at Portmarnock (Old) told us "The first 10 holes have what I believe are the best fairways in the world. Hard, Crusty, Crisp. The way golf was meant to be played." Agreeable to his statement, the first 10 holes are definitely the strong point of the course, though the back-nine doesn't falter. 18 was a particularly fun hole, crossing a road - this is especially true for us as the match between me/brad vs. my dad/family friend was all square on 18 and Brad tried to bomb a drive over the road, narrowly missing a car that was speeding through (haha).

Ballyliffin's Glashedy would be the one of these four that I would not play if you wanted to play Portsalon. It was still a great golf course, but my personal least favorite of the bunch. There are some wonderful holes and a very pretty setting, but in the similar style, I would chose Sand Hills over this course. Specifically the downhill par 3 7th was VERY out of place... it plays off the top of a 100 foot dune, and with the wind, it can almost be a four-five club change while dealing with a massive pond.

Ballyliffin's Old is the best example of rumpled fairways I have ever played (Haven't been to Scotland). As I've said in a previous thread, #1, #4, #10 all present EXCELLENT examples of this. This is a very fun course, and in my opinion, better than the Old Tom Morris Links at Rosapenna, as the two are similar style and this course lacks some of the oddities and quirks that bring down the Morris course.

Sorry I cannot report on Portsalon.


For a sample Ireland trip, this is what we did this past summer:

Fly overnight Wednesday to Thursday into Dublin.
Thursday Afternoon: Play The Island Club after some morning rest. (We didn't get to do this, due to plane mishaps.)
Friday: Drive down to European Club and play, then Drive back to Dublin. (Though that is a lot of driving)
Saturday: Play Portmarnock Hotel Links (We stayed at the hotel) in the morning, then drive down to Baltray and play County Louth in the afternoon; Drive back at night. (Lot of driving again)
Sunday: Play Portmarnock Old in the morning, Drive up to Rosapenna afterwards (A long drive, but very doable with plenty of time)
Monday: Play Both Courses at Rosapenna (We did Sand Hills in the morning, Old Tom Morris in the afternoon)
Tuesday: Drive to Ballyliffin in the morning, play Glashedy in the morning, then play the Old Links. Drive to Bushmills at night. (Very doable drive, not too long)
Wednesday: Play Royal Portrush Dunlace in the morning, play the Valley Course in the afternoon then drive to Newcastle at night (We skipped out on the Valley to get driving earlier... it is doable to play the Valley then drive; part of this was due to the fact that my dad's friend who was with us was slightly Golfed-out... not as hardcore as some of us )
Thursday: Play Royal County Down in the morning, drive to and play Ardglass in the afternoon. (We didn't get to play Ardglass due to the fact that it was raining VERY hard and the wind was blowing 40 mph when we finished RCD... no starting an 18 hole round in that.) Drive back to Dublin in the evening.
Friday: Head home in the AM.

It was a solid trip, and though it had a lot of driving, all of the driving is worth it to experience the courses listed. I wouldn't have skipped any of those, though I hear Ardglass isn't in the same caliber as ANY of the others. It would serve as a nice break though, as I also hear it is easier than others.

Enjoy your trip! Hope this was helpful.

[jeffwarne]

Play Portsalon-before it  gets discovered-eat at the local restaraunt on the water. Play it twice in fact.
Play the Valley course at Portrush.
If you play Castlerock, play the 9 hole Bann course after you finish.
If you only play 18 at Rosapenna, play the Morris course.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Thanks guys, the comments are useful because 11 rounds in 6 days in April may be too much especially if weather is not helpful and it will be good to know what to drop.

Somehow I can't see slipping in the Bann course this time, but I will return.

Surprisingly, April is the driest month, and with light from 6 am to 8.30pm some bodysurfing will be possible as a post round refresher!

http://uk.weather.com/weather/climatology/UKXX0086.htm?dayofyear=103


Still looking for suggested base for 2 or 3 nights in Donegal as we would prefer not to move every day.

[Rich Goodale]

Tony

I'd also vote for Portsalon over Ballyliffin.  I've played the latter a lot and if you could turn the clock back to before the Glashedy, when the Old was in its full glory and the clubhouse was a meeting place and not a shrine to commercialism, I'd change my mind, but you can't bring back time, as Cher used to wish and to say.....

As for staying somewhere, assuming you might play both Portsalon and Rosapenna, stay in Rathmullan, at the fancy old hotel, if you can afford it.

rich

[archie_struthers]

 


You are goig to have a great trip....nothing much better than the courses you are scheduled to play...Royal County Down and Portrush are otherwordly Portstewart is great Castlerock has lots of good holes...

Enjoy ....and when you get to the 5th at Portrush take the right walking path to your tee shot..

cheers

[Aidan Bradley]

Royal Portrush #5

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I found Rathmullen House to be a wonderful place to stay. I was not overly impressed with the new course at Rosapenna. It felt wrong somehow but the holes seem interesting and the routing was good but I just never could say anything more than the views are great. Portrush and RCD speak for themselves.

[Matthew Hunt]

Ardglass has an open competion every otherweek if you are playing there.

[Aidan Bradley]

Rosapenna views........

[Aidan Bradley]

Ardglass.......

[Roger Tufts]

As I sent you in a PM Tony, we stayed at the Rosapenna hotel right at the Golf Course for two nights. The meal that night was also the best of the trip.

Stayed at the Bushmills Inn the night before going to Portrush.

Hope that helps a little.

I'm not on the same level as Aidan in photography terms, but maybe I'll dig up any good pictures I have as well.

[Roger Tufts]

Got two here... excuse the ugly white date-text in the photos... both were taken by one of our trip-mates on his camera.

The Approach at Rosapenna-Old Tom Morris Links #10 with the clubhouse behind the green:


The tee shot from the gold (mens regular) tees at Royal County Down's #9 with the Slieve Donald in the background.


Unfortunately I don't have many of the other pictures that are "good" from the trip. I'll try to dig them up.