St. Patrick's Course Photos (more pics added)

[Dan_Callahan]

Had a 3rd round at St. Patrick's before heading south and wanted to post a few more photos of the course from some different angles.


At this point on this trip, I've played both Ballyliffin courses, the Rosapenna courses, Buncrana, North West, Narin & Portnoo, Cruit Island, Donegal, Rosses Point, Strand Hill, and Enniscrone (Carne to come on Monday, but I've been there before). I think it's fair to say that St. Pat's is nothing like any of them. It has the dramatic dunes of Enniscrone and Carne (and obviously it's neighbor, Sandy Hills), but it feels far bigger than any of them. N&P and the Old Course at Ballyliffin have some moonscape fairways like the 11th at St. Pat's, but not to such an extreme. None of the courses have greens that are even close to the massive size of St. Pat's.


It's funny, but after three plays, I think I would categorize St. Pat's as a second shot course. On my last day, I was on 7 of the first 9 greens in regulation, but had 6 bogeys because I was on the wrong part of the green, which made birdies impossible and two-putts unlikely. 







Looking back down the fairway from behind the 2nd green.



A closer look at the 3rd green.



Tee shot on 4. This played downwind all three days I was there, but apparently it typically plays into the wind.



Second shot into the par 5 4th.



Small pot bunker that protects the front right of the 5th green.



Waste area that cuts across the 6th fairway.



View of the blind shot into the 7th green.



What you see after you climb the hill that fronts the green.



Looking back down 7 fairway from the hill behind the green.



The center(ish) fairway bunker on the 10th.



Fairway contouring on 11. The photo doesn’t begin to convey just how huge the mounds and valley’s are.



Looking back down 13.



This angle of 17 shows the deep depression that protects the front left of the green.



View of 17 from the 18th tee.



A wider angle view of the tee shot on 18.

[Mike Sweeney]

Dan,


Thanks again for posting, it sounds like a magical trip. St Pat's will probably become the anchor course of the Northwest, a good thing for tourism and the locals, but a bad thing for visitors who did not love the tour buses of Ballybunion and preferred the quiet and rustic nature of the Northwest.

[Adam Lawrence]

Dan,


Thanks again for posting, it sounds like a magical trip. St Pat's will probably become the anchor course of the Northwest, a good thing for tourism and the locals, but a bad thing for visitors who did not love the tour buses of Ballybunion and preferred the quiet and rustic nature of the Northwest.

Yes, absolutely. I had a good discussion about this with the Caseys when I was there last year. They are well aware that St Pat’s puts them in the big league, and they’re in the middle of figuring out how to deal with it.

[Ally Mcintosh]

St. Pats will definitely tip NW Ireland in to a lot more peoples’ consciousness.


I don’t think you should suddenly expect that part of Ireland to become overrun like the SW though, partly because of transport links, partly because chasing Top-100 courses still remains a fairly niche activity. SW Ireland attracts multiple more tourists full stop / period; never mind the golf part.

[Thomas Dai]

Splendid extra photos Dan. Thanks for sharing. Shame the wind direction didn’t change for your third StP game. Shame too that you weren’t able to play nearby Dunfanaghy. It might not look exciting on first appearances glancing through a car window from the main road but when you play it there’s more to it than there initially seems and holes 5-10 and 16-18 are excellent.
Atb

[Dan_Callahan]

Splendid extra photos Dan. Thanks for sharing. Shame the wind direction didn’t change for your third StP game. Shame too that you weren’t able to play nearby Dunfanaghy. It might not look exciting on first appearances glancing through a car window from the main road but when you play it there’s more to it than there initially seems and holes 5-10 and 16-18 are excellent.
Atb

I’ve played Dunfanaghy a few times before. Very enjoyable and an easy walk. This time I wanted to add North West and Buncrana, and I also wanted to make sure I got in a number of rounds at St Pats, so I dropped it out of my itinerary.


It’s been interesting to see the changes at a few courses since I was last here in 2019. I liked Murvagh much more this time around. They’ve clearly done some work widening fairways. Very noticeable on 9 and 18. Same is true at Enniscrone, where the deep gnarly stuff has been thinned out in some of the landing areas. Was great to see the final iteration of Narin & Portnoo, which was in the middle of renovation when I was last there. N&P is, in my opinion, the most under-the-radar great course in the northwest. Even most people from Ireland that I talked to had never heard of it. And Rosses Point was a definite highlight. Maybe it was the beautiful weather on a late afternoon round, or the fact that I was playing well, but I thought it was much better than I remembered.