Donal's outstanding photo tour and some 'in favour' mentions by Jeff Warne in various threads inspired a visit to Dunfanaghy when in Donegal.
And what a cracking village it is too, and what a lovely gentle, subtle, well conditioned, firm and fast golf course you'll find there. Not long on the card admittedly, so young bucks with bags full of titanium and graphite and super spin grooved wedges my scoff at it, but in my book it's a real hidden 'gem' and a course I'd certainly recommend you play if you're in the area. Inexpensive too.
Here are a few pix to give a little bit more flavour to what Donal's already splendidly shown us. I hope there's not too much overlap. Unfortunately not quite such wonderful weather for my photos I'm afraid.
From a distance Dunfanaghy looks to be a very flat course, and yes apart from the holes on the more raised area at the far end of the course, there isn't that much overall elevation change in conventional terms. But, nothing is really flat at all. Gentle folds, subtle rises and falls, dips and humps and hollows abound and a level stance or flat lie is the exception rather than the norm. Tight lies too, so there is a need for quality ball striking, including around the greens. Judging distance, rangefinder excepted, isn't particularly easy and watch out for the ditches too, there are a few that need crossing and they're not very visible from the tee. And these are all natural features too, not contrived by man and machine.
Here's a typical lie and stance, target in the distance, feet on one side of a hump giving an uphill stance, ball on the other side of the hump giving a downhill lie.
And here, at the 5th is the kind of bumpy terrain in front of the greens. You kinda want to play a bump-n-run but can you achieve success over these undulations? If not, can you fly it all the way and stop it quickly enough on the
very firm and smooth rolling greens? Your choice!
Same green, the 5th, photographed from the right side.
This is the 6th green from various angles. It's a beaut! Long and thin and pretty severely sloping down from rear to front and rolling-off all over the place at the front. A damn awkward up-n-down, but lovely all the same.
Firstly, from about 80 yds out
Second, from about 40 yds out
Thirdly, from the left side
Fourthly, the back and what's over the back. The village of Portnablagh is in the background.
Fifthly, from the rear. I threw the ball down in this spot for reference purposes.
Sixthly, looking across the green from the 7th tee
Seventhly, the 6th green is on this rocky headland, as photographed from Portnablagh. You can just make out a single golfer and his trolley near the raised 7th tee.
There are several super greensites at Dunfanaghy, a couple of which I shall post about as separate threads in due course.
In the meantime, here is the 14th green. A lovely par-4.
Firstly, photographed from about 40 yds short of the green.
The photos pretty much speak for themselves as to the lovely humps and bumps and slopes and varirty of shot-making possible both into the green and for up-n-downs around the green
Right side
Here are a couple of photos taken from some distance away giving an overall impression of this cracking course.
Firstly, from above Portnablagh village across the harbour and bay to the course with Dunfanaghy village in the far backround.
Secondly, from the other side of Dunfanaghy Bay, with the tide out.
Thanks again Donal and Jeff, for without your posts, I would never have gone to Dunfanaghy and played this hidden 'gem'.
atb
More about holes 9, 16 and 17 to follow in due course.