[ward peyronnin]

Ballyliffin old in Donegal Ireland was the trailer course on our recent Walker Cup tour of Ireland  
 
Ballyliffin is not anything near the scale of portrush or rcd or even portstewart althought the perspectives are indeed fine.
The clubhouse(and food) are poshish and compensate for the remote location. and the perspectives of the Irish coastal mountains that surround and offshore islands shore up the experience as well.

The great attraction for me is the pervasive extent of the small scale rumpling of their topography; subtle yet really marvellous and devilish. Surely very hard to reproduce by man as opposed to other grosser features and impossible to intro in clay soils where drainage doesn't happen. Anyway if you haven't seen this course when you are there next make the effort. Tain's 15th is the closest i can remember to this kind of playing surface but BLLiffin has many of these hols not just one.

This made me compare the subtle delight that slowly overtook me as i tried to navigate these 2-4 foot elevation changes with the massive features of the other courses we saw and marvel that such diverse styles can even compete with one another for one's favor in the same game.

Does anyone have favorite examples at other locations; what are the consequences playing at such a place delivers that makes the game so enjoyable to play?

By all means check it out if you are in the area  

[ed_getka]

Thanks for the recommendation. Sounds intriguing for the Ireland trip in a few years. Is the rumpling throughout the course or is it just a  limited stretch of holes?

[Ally Mcintosh]

i have only visited ballyliffin once to play the glashedy... i unfortunately did not get time to look at the old...

...however, i was lead to believe that the old was compromised on the building of the new glashedy course...

...does anyone know how severe those compromises were?

the glashedy does not have rumpled fairways but as a whole, ballyliffin is one of the most spectacular dunescapes i have seen... someone posted the 7th tee as their favourite tee for the vistas it gives... hard to disagree...

[ward peyronnin]

Ed,

My recollection is not precise but i would guestimate that at least half the holes had 75% coverage.

Faldo loved the course so much that he became affilited with  in the early nineties. This led to his involvement in a bunker rehabilititation and the reworking of a couple greens a couple of years ago which seem to fit in well and were certainly not ham handed. One great thing about features on this scale is that relatively small but well placed pot bunkers appear much larger and more menacing from a distance.

We also had a cute result in that we requested five caddies. No other course delivered the requested number but we had great fun at B liffin playing a fiveball with four ~50 year old Caddiettes and their harem keeper Coleman looping for us.

[Aidan Bradley]

For those of you who have been to Ballyliffin will agree, there is no town. A gas station, a grocery store, private dwellings, five hotels, and two golf courses. As a former pro there once told me, "the only things that happen in Ballyliffin are Weddings, funeral lunches, and golf"......

[Norbert P]

Aidan, How do you get those clouds to shape up and present themselves?

 Nice work.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Slag,

That was my first question.

Here is my second....in the last photo, how does the earth naturally go from dunes to flat?  When I see those dunes on the right (as we look at it) so regular in shape and so lining up with the fw, I think the fw was leveled somewhat long ago and those mounds pushed up.  The dunes on the left look natural, however.

Anyone agree?

[Aidan Bradley]

Jeff & Slag

Re., question #1. If you have the patience to wait around long enough or come back to the same course for 11 days, the golf gods toss you a bone - great clouds.

Re., question #2. I defer to the right honourable Mr Pat Ruddy to expalin that one.

[ed_getka]

Aidan,
   Beautiful work, were these taken this year?

Yet another course to add to the list. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need another lifetime to get my list checked off.

[Aidan Bradley]

Ed,

2004, 2005, 2006.....  and I'm still not done.......

[ed_getka]

Aidan,
   Keep up the great work.

[Aidan Bradley]

View of the landscape from the "Aidan Bradley" suite at the Strand Hotel in Ballyliffin. There is enough land to build three more courses.

[Aidan Bradley]

More images of clouds that like to "jump up and present themselves" to my ever patient camera whilst visiting cloud heaven "Ballyliffin".......

[Rich Goodale]

I think what Aidan was trying to say politely is that Pat Ruddy moved a lot of dirt in building the Glashedy course.  Most of the fairways are anti-rumpled.

Ward is right that the Old is as micro-rumpled as you can get.  The course was hacked up a bit to create the Glashedy, but Faldo has recently restored it.  I'm interested in seeing or hearing how that turned out.

[Roger Tufts]

Ward is right that the Old is as micro-rumpled as you can get.  The course was hacked up a bit to create the Glashedy, but Faldo has recently restored it.  I'm interested in seeing or hearing how that turned out.

This is completely correct. The rumpled fairways of the old course at Ballyliffin were the most natural and rumpled i have ever played (haven't been over to scotland). #1, #4, and #10 are some of the best examples of this... you can even see most of the rumples on the par saver guide.... the par savers are shown on the course map on the Ballyliffin website, though the par saver doesn't give the rumples complete justice. The old course is a very fun play that i enjoyed greatly... I liked it better than Glashedy but the two almost can't be compared because they are completely different animals.

I hadn't played the Old Course before Faldo's restoration, and some of it was actually going on while we were there... a few bunkers were wire-fenced off and you could see lines on the ground where Faldo was going to widen them or change them in just very small ways. The course itself played very natural and it didn't seem too affected by the way... the only hole that seemed a little flat compared to others that is directly next to dune holes of the Glashedy course is #3...

We played Ballyliffin the day after the two courses at Rosapenna, and the experiences are very similar in style, although there are actual houses and a town at Rosapenna. It is waaaay out of the way but well worth it if you are up on the Northern Coastline to visit Ballyliffin (and Rosapenna for that matter).

The clubhouse is very pretty and provides a nice backdrop to the par 5 18th hole of the old course (and subsequently, the stage for the disappointment of me trying to beat Brad for only the 2nd time in my life; tapping in for one of the better 75s of my life only to watch him drain a 40 footer for birdie to tie me.....). The food is also quite tasty and a good place to grab some food before you head back to civilization- it might be a while until you find food if you don't eat here...

You truly walk up to the first tee of the old course and think to yourself "This is the way golf was born to be played; this is natural" as the first hole presents the golfer with a multitude of options to play your shot through the leaps and bounds of rumples and rolls. Truly a great test of golf and a fun adventure back to the stage golf was meant for.

Great pics Aidan

[Sean Walsh]

Ward I agree re Ballyliffin Old.  Lovely fun.

The closest I've seen to this is on the next peninsula over.  Rosapenna Old has the same rumpled fairways.  Coincidentally also a Pat Ruddy course next door..

[Evan_Smith]

If you want some rumpled fairways, go to Portsalon.  The front nine is amazing for some rumpliness!  The 5th at Strandhill is easily the most rumpled piece of golfing ground I've ever walked on.  Of course the pictures can't do it justice but here goes.
This is from the 13th tee looking down to the 5th hole.  The green is to the left and slightly below the bush on the right side of the photo.  It's a par 5 that doglegs left (you can see golfers in the landing zone on the left side of the photo) and the tee is up on the edge of the giant dune.


This is from on the front of the green.  There's a huge roll at the very front of the green-you can see where the mower cut is for the green in the middle of the hill.  It's a great hole.  The landing area for the tee shot is not really rumpled, it's just the last 250 yards approaching the green.  Worth the trip just to play this hole!!!

[Jack_Marr]

Yes, you're right about Strandhill. You walk down the fariway not knowing which mound the ball has rested a the end of. You only find the ball when you're on top of it.

Another rumpled fairway is the third in Carne. I'll post a picture when I fine it.

[ward peyronnin]

Jeff

I was just on the Lahinch site and noticed the picture of the 10 the hole which resembles the conditions you question above. Both courses were supposedly very minimally tinkered with when concieved so i assume that the valley/mounding can be natural.

Ward

[Jack_Marr]

A nice rumpled fairway

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I found the new course at Rosapenna lacking somehow. The course was good but lacked that special feeling that one gets from the original course. I gather the same is true for Ballyliffin. What a pity.

[billb]

Aidan:
Could you possibly let us know what holes are in the great pics you posted?
Thanks.

Another vote for great rumplage: #17 at Nairn and Portnoo.

[Aidan Bradley]

Bill, in desending order the holes are......

18 Old
12 Old
15 Glasheedy
5  Old
14 Old
13 Glasheedy
Overview (2)
5 Old Tee Box
8 Old
3 Old
13 Old
10 Old
Clubhouse

[Tim Pitner]

I'm curious--if the old course was such a gem (as many, including Faldo, have said) and there is ample land in the area, why did the construction of the Glashedy course have to affect the old course?  

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