[Charles Lund]

I have been up at Ballyliffin in County Donegal for about a week.  The Glashedy course will host the Irish Open in early July.  Preparation is in progress and member play has been on mats from tees, fairways, and short rough to facilitate the kinds of conditions desired.  Play has been very light, so there was good opportunity to take photos without much in the way of people on the course.


I set up a google photo album for each hole and included a layout for each hole from the new course guide.  I typically took photos from newly constructed championship tees on holes where they existed, such as holes 2, 4, 9, and 13.  I also took photos from black tees, or member tees, along with fairways from selected points.  The flatness of some of the holes precludes photos showing illustrative detail in some instances, while in others some holes revealed more detail from ground level photographs.


Obviously, drone videos and flyovers capture details more completely.


The links below are to separate albums for each hole.


Charles Lund


#1

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7gdj664fDT7qkMJ63


#2


https://photos.app.goo.gl/1gonrmLKwmVXCjaLA


#3


https://photos.app.goo.gl/FGaxLrYLowz1S2qU2


#4


https://photos.app.goo.gl/CJg7MGAc6aCdde4k2


#5


https://photos.app.goo.gl/bTPr2SMSA73QBraB3


#6



https://photos.app.goo.gl/l7nnBS01x1jqYUn92


#7


https://photos.app.goo.gl/q7nCBUZU5U28NRYG6


#8


https://photos.app.goo.gl/Hx7SRci3j3wnQt6z1


#9


https://photos.app.goo.gl/WkBsUa21ekaNwD9Z2


#10


https://photos.app.goo.gl/obJCE226YnFsugXW2


#11


https://photos.app.goo.gl/j8Rq4xn6WRxhQ7l62


#12


https://photos.app.goo.gl/ksmIcbLPbJZtmY093


#13


https://photos.app.goo.gl/K9jqlyfR36QefYHV2


#14


https://photos.app.goo.gl/HfZRR8eocrPytyYn1


#15


https://photos.app.goo.gl/MJ2nt1RB5BMh4slJ3


#16


https://photos.app.goo.gl/wijW4SoxwDb30s462


#17


https://photos.app.goo.gl/HZj23GT5DwU7Uw1p2


#18


https://photos.app.goo.gl/GaTba0GmxQOTvBp03

[Niall C]

Charles

Many thanks for that. It's a course I've not played but for some reason I thought it was a bit more "duney" than your photos suggest. From your photos it appears, to me at any rate, that the holes mostly play along the valley floor between the dunes with not much play over and off. Is that fair comment ?

As an aside, those three circular pot bunkers short left of 15th green look horrible although rest of the course looks good.

Niall

[Charles Lund]

The three bunkers catch a lot of balls that don't have the momentum or line to hit the green.  They are horrible to be in, tough up and down.  I have an old photo from an angle about 30 yards short and left. I thought it captured the difficulty of the bunkers.


The first two holes run toward massive duneland.  The next four run up through high dunes and fairways were created by removing dunes and sculpting faiways between dunes, some of which are quite large.  Seven drops back to flatter land with moderate size dunes.  Ten and eleven are flattish holes on terrain similar to The Old Links, the other course. Penal bunkering is evident and provides visual cues for the driving line.  Twelve has an arc shape with fairway bunkering which helps with driving lines.  Number 13 is an uphill par five.  Fourteen is a downhill par three, with the green created in the location of a dune which was flattened.  Fifteen can play dreadfully long into the wind.  Sixteen and seventeen are flattish holes where bunkers provide directiional perspective for the hole.  Both are difficult.  Eighteen is more benign.


The course is characterized by penal bunkering, interesting elevation changes on several holes, and good views of the water and area mountains.  Number seven is liked by some and maligned by others, but it is a quick way off the high dunes.  The water on the hole is a natural drainage area.  Water doesn't come into play anywhere else as holes are set back from the water.


Charles Lund

[Niall C]

Thanks Charles. I don't doubt the bunkers on 15 are effective and fulfil a purpose but my word they sure are ugly. How does the course rate in terms of others you've played on your extensive travels ?

Niall

[Charles Lund]

I misplaced a couple of photos in the album for the 4th hole and replaced them with correct photos.  Number 4 was lengthened by over 100 yards with construction of another tee, extending the hole to close to 600 yards.


The direction from which the photo was taken of bunkers on #15 might contribute to the unattractive look of these bunkers.  They are generally in keeping with the deep, revetted style of bunkering, which is quite penal in the character of bunkers on the Glashedy course.  I have never thought of revetted bunkering as attractive.   The three bunkers near number 15 often leave players with very difficult pitch shots for those missing short and left and not catching bunkers.  Albums for holes 4 and 15 depict more of the bunkers.  I might go back and take additional photos of bunkers and update albums.


The penal character of deep bunkers leaves many members playing The Old Links almost exclusively.


The Glashedy course has generally ranked lower than Rosses Point but higher than Enniscrone.  It is quite different in character than The Old Links, a companion course at Ballyliffin.  I enjoy both courses, but for different reasons and play each about equally on trips to Ballyliffin.  I am now in my fifth year as a member and on my 12th trip to Ireland, spending most of my time in Donegal.  I became a member because I was consistently welcomed at an affordable links complex, which offered a quality experience.  I would guess that some Scotland or England clubs would offer broader golf with some cultural immersion in less populated areas, away from the regimentation of overseas golf tourist meccas.  I became enamored with this area and stayed with it due to quality, affordable experiences.


In over ten years of overseas travel and golf, I've gone from 27 rounds on 23 different courses in five weeks type trips to trips where I return to places I enjoy.


On trips here, I commonly visit a few other courses in the North and West of The Republic, such as Enniscrone, Rosses Point, Murvagh, Rosapenna, and Portsalon.  Northwest GC is also a fun course to play, with quite a few challenging holes.  I have played the top tier courses in Northern Ireland on a couple of trips, but mostly play in Counties Donegal, Sligo, and Mayo.


Ballyliffin doesn't get much coverage on this site.  I took the time to take photos due to the upcoming Irish Open. 


Charles Lund

[Peter Pallotta]

Thank you, Charles, for the significant efforts and top flight work, about a course I knew so little about (ie nothing at all) that I had to look it up. I can already imagine what many here might say, but from what I can see Pat Ruddy should be congratulated -- I didn't think they built courses like this anymore, and (while I might be challenged playing it in a strong wind), I'm very glad they did. An interesting coincidence that Nick Faldo had done some work on the other/Old course -- looking at your photos and the overhead drawings, I immediately thought it a course tailor-made for a Nick Faldo in his prime; a rarely used term these days, but it seems a real "shot makers" course. Thanks again; happy that you've found a home there in Donegal.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I spent a couple of days at Ballyliffen the year the new Glashedy course opened. The two courses could not be more different. I really enjoyed both courses but gave the edge to Glashedy. I like the way it ran through the dunes. It is pretty special place but you really have to want to be there. It is long way from Tipperary.


As an aside, I stayed at a local B&B. Now this was 1996, I think. Things were still hot across the border in Northern Ireland. After I checked in the woman who owned the house asked what I did. I told her that I was a Lutheran Pastor. "What is that?" she asked. I said, "I am a Protestant minister." I thought she was going to fall over. I was the first Protestant pastor she had ever met. She could only think of Ian Paisley, I guess. After she put away all the silver, she showed me my room. When I returned the next day I noticed her daughter struggling at the piano with a Chopin piece. I helped her a bit. When Mom saw this, I could do no wrong. I can't be sure but I think she even put the silver back out.

[Dave McCollum]

Charles, the weather for your photos seems quite like what I remember from my golf there.  Sideways rain.  I'm a crap golfer, but was at my pathetic peak in Ireland, that is, playing my best golf.  I thought Glashedy was very difficult.  Like Sandy Hills at Rosapenna and his European Club, the only three I've played, Ruddy builds stout golf courses.  It was deserted when I played.  All the members and visitors seemed to prefer the Old Links.  It was October with plenty of wind and rain.  After looking for balls in the rough a few times, I didn't bother much after that.  Waste of time.  It was very strange because most of my misses were the result of hitting my shots where I wanted and the ball being less effected by the howling wind than I thought.  It didn't matter much, though, a yard off the short grass was just as lost as twenty or fifty.  To be fair, this was true all other Irish courses after a wet summer and fall.  I didn't run out of bullets, like I almost did at Portrush (down to my last for the last three holes), so I must have adjusted to the conditions.  Playing as a single, the course won the match.  Also, my memory didn't retain many "flattish" holes, just gigantic dunes, especially at the start.  It was my last round before heading to Belfast and home.  I left Ireland thinking I'd have trouble enough on a Ruddy course on a calm day.         

[Charles Lund]

Holes with flattish fairways are #1, #2, #8, #9, #10, #11, #16, #17, and #18. Greens are mostly situated on sites elevated above fairways and virtually all greens have a way to hit into them which does not require forced carries over penal bunkers.  Holes #8, 10, 11, 16, 17, and 18 have greens not elevated much above fairway level.


Weather here has been good, with some sunny days.  On day I took photos, it was overcast, so photos with my tablet camera did not wash out.


Rough can be nasty,  but fairways are generous. 


Faldo tried to buy the course.  He reworked some bunkers on The Old Links, which are also quite penal.


Stout is a good word for Ruddy courses.  I finished up one trip at The European Club which I have played many times.  I told him I had been playing Ireland's Pat Ruddy Golf Trail.


I can drive from Dublin to Derry in about three hours, but traffic can be slow after that.  On this trip, I drove to Murvagh, stayed there, and took about two hours the next day to get here.  Ryanair flies into Derry from UK airports.  Icelandair now flies to Dublin and offers connection on Flybe to Belfast.  Flight from Seattle to Reykjavik took seven hours this time, followed by two hour layovee, and two hours to Dublin.  Heathrow is too complicated with checked luggage.  Ireland immigration is welcoming and there is preflight clearance for U.S. immigration on direct flights to U.S.


I might go out and get some up close photos of bunkering on The Glashedy and maybe take some of Old Links bunkering later today while playing because I am generally in a few.


I went to Catholic schools for 16 years.  I am not Irish, but 2/3 of my classmates were Irish, so coming here is like being around grown up classmates.


Charles Lund

[Thomas Dai]

Thanks for the photos Charles.
Have you noticed any set-up changes for the Irish Open to the mowing lines, length of rough etc...or are things pretty as usual?
I prefer the rumpled Old Course myself but am not entirely adverse to the more manufactured Glashedy, particularly the way the Glashedy routing uses the big dune/hill. Not so keen on the par-3 7th but I can understand the hole...courses sometimes need a photo point for publicity etc reasons and the 7th provides one.
My recollection is that the Ladies European Tour played a tournament on the Glashedy in the late 1990’s, I think Sophie Gustafson won, and the weather was distinctly windy during at least one round.
Atb

[Charles Lund]

New tees were constructed o  #2, #4, #9, and #13. #4 will be close to 600 yards.  The new tees are situated so that angles of fairways will likely require players to lay back on some holes like #2, due to long drives on more direct lines having a high likelihood of running through fairway into deep rough.  It appears placement of additional tee on #13 will limit depth of landing area due to chanfing angle and leaving a diagonal line where hitting it farther increases risk.


They imported new sand that is more coarse and granulated.


All play on course is now off mats.  There are lots of rough areas beyond first cut that are very long and will probably not be cut.


Charles Lund

[Rich Goodale]

Thanks for those Charles.


I had my honeymoon in Ballyliffin in April 1991.  My wife and I have gone back to visit 5 or so times since then and will be returning this fall with her parents (the mother-in-law has family connections there--including a two-time club captain).


It is a very special place, but the Glashedy course does not move me and I regret that the Old course had to be raped to fit in the new course.  That being said, I look forward to seeing how the town, the club and the course stand up vis a vis the pros and the Euro tour.


Rich

[Dave McCollum]

Me too about my enthusiasm for watching the pros.  I’ll likely confirm what I already know:  I suck as a golfer.  Thanks, Charles, for refreshing some memories.  Your comments seem right on the mark.  When I was there, on the eve of my round on Glashedy, I was devastated to learn that our 20+ year Super was struck down and certain to die.  The whole round I was preoccupied by thoughts of “why am I here and not where I should be?”  All I could think about was getting home.   A very sad time.  I’m grateful I spent the time alone on a golf course thinking about him and all we wanted to accomplish, and did,  because he’d like that and appreciate where it was happening.  I’d have to say my comments about the course are trivial compared to what I was feeling at the time.

[Charles Lund]

Given references to The Old Links at Ballyliffin, I thought I would post some links to additional photos taken yesterday, when I played with a man who had been greenskeeper for a couple of decades, and who was present during the expansion of the original nine holes to eighteen when The Old Links was built by members, mostly with donated labor in the early 70s.


He described to me the process of Eddie Hackett setting up fairway lines using broomsticks and locating greens through lower duneland and the relatively primitive equipment available at the time.  Another long term member mentioned flailing mowers as the most powerful equipment.  The former greenskeeper discussed the Marram grass in the area around the course which was used by locals for thatch in roofing.  I don't think there was a power grid in the area until after 1975, according to what I recall seeing at a local historic site depicting the history of the area.


The man described rerouting some of the holes that made up the last several holes on the back nine, adding more detail than had been recounted in other conversations on previous trips here.


The photos in the links depict some of the aesthetics of the course and setting, the Nick Faldo bunkering, and the humps, bumps, mounds, and moguls that add to the character of the course.   I think back on the early 70s in my lifetime, where in much of Western Europe and even in rural America, there was affluence and development that would offer stark contrast to the the conditions people lived under in parts of rural Ireland.  Somehow, all across the country they found a way to get golf going in the small communities.


https://photos.app.goo.gl/DZiw5WWamYPCpwKj1


https://photos.app.goo.gl/KeXMgDXfqkwFIdr92


https://photos.app.goo.gl/fxRyGCXdEaduGlt83




Charles Lund

[Tony_Muldoon]

I spent a couple of days at Ballyliffen the year the new Glashedy course opened. The two courses could not be more different. I really enjoyed both courses but gave the edge to Glashedy. I like the way it ran through the dunes. It is pretty special place but you really have to want to be there. It is long way from Tipperary.


As an aside, I stayed at a local B&B. Now this was 1996, I think. Things were still hot across the border in Northern Ireland. After I checked in the woman who owned the house asked what I did. I told her that I was a Lutheran Pastor. "What is that?" she asked. I said, "I am a Protestant minister." I thought she was going to fall over. I was the first Protestant pastor she had ever met. She could only think of Ian Paisley, I guess. After she put away all the silver, she showed me my room. When I returned the next day I noticed her daughter struggling at the piano with a Chopin piece. I helped her a bit. When Mom saw this, I could do no wrong. I can't be sure but I think she even put the silver back out.

Tommy great story, but as the Daughter could have taught you, the song is “It’s a long way to Tipperary”.


Charles Thanks for these.. .   Of all the architects, Pat Ruddy is the one whoose style is most apparent on Links. He frequently uses a  lot of raised greens with a solitary bunker along the front.  It can make it hard to recall individual holes when you’ve played e.g. Sandy Hills and Glasheedy on consecutive days. But there ae some fine holes on what is an interesting routing. I particularly recall a par 5 that rose in three steps. 13?



You’ll be doing the world a favour if you can write more about Eddie Hacketts working methods. There’s a few pages in “Links of Heaven” and very little else. Time to capture those memories before they’re gone forever.  Donegal in those days was so underdeveloped. Around 1975 I was there on a fishing trip with my Dad. After 3 days he said we should call my Mother and let her know we were coming back to the North the next day. I offered to do it and asked at the hotel reception how I could make that call. They said they’d book an international line (for a call of about 40 miles as the crow flies) and to return in an hour. I was chatting to her when the phone rang.  It was the Operator calling back and the Receptionist/Barlady/Owner had to set up the call up using the kind of switchboard you see in B&W films with plugs and wires.  The effect of the Celtic Tiger in the 1990’s was transformational in a way that few would believe unless they saw it. 

[Thomas Dai]

Nice set of Old Course photos Charles. Thanks for sharing. Humps and hollows galore. Wonderful stuff.
Interesting what you pass on about Eddie Hackett and past times construction. A members quote to me during a visit was “The Old Course was made by a man with a mower, the Glashedy was made by men with big machines”.
Tony, as well as passing on a nice old time story, makes a very valid point about recording Eddie Hacketts methods for posterity herein. Perhaps a separate thread is in order.
Atb

[Rich Goodale]

Tony and Dai, I did write a piece on Eddie H.  Not the greatest thing I have written, but not bad,


http://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/Desperately-seeking-Eddie-Hackett


Rich

[Thomas Dai]

Tony and Dai, I did write a piece on Eddie H.  Not the greatest thing I have written, but not bad,
http://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/Desperately-seeking-Eddie-Hackett
Rich

Thanks for highlighting Rich. Very nice and informative too.
atb

[Thomas Dai]

Bumping this thread as the Irish Open’s being played at Ballyliffin’s Glashedy course commencing tomorrow.
Atb

[Charles Lund]

Thanks.


Hope it is helpful.


I tried to approach the photo sequences systematically for each hole.  There was a new yardage guide so I took photos for each hole.


I have seen hole flyovers and would have posted a link if fhey were in one spot.


Some of the fairway bunkers were deepened to make them more penal.  Rough was very deep in some places, matted to 6 to 12 inches, making lost balls likely if hit into these areas.


The club and the nearby communities are hoping for a memorable event.


Charles Lund

[Ally Mcintosh]

I particularly like the routing at Glashedy...  Trust they’ve let it brown out completely for the Open

[RJ_Daley]

I just got around to taking a good look at all these photos and yardage books of the Glashedy and old course.  It certainly is easy to see why Charles has such an affinity for the area and this course setting.  This is a wonderful effort, Charles.
I do hope the rough is properly penal yet not a lost ball issue slowing up play even with pros, as we watch on TV.  I can't wait. 

I just spent an hour Google 'street viewing' tourism.   Quite a fantastic area.

[Mark_Fine]

Great set of photos.  I was just up there two weeks ago and played both courses.  Don't have time right now to elaborate but I actually gave the edge to the Old Links over Glashedy.  Glashedy is the tougher test but the Old Links held my interest much longer with more variety in the holes.  Hopefully the wind will blow for the big boys otherwise they will light it up.  We had a 3-4 club wind for each round and both were fun to play. 

[Ally Mcintosh]

I see Pat Ruddy has put in a new nine hole par-3 course at Ballyliffin.

Hopefully a nice addition.

https://www.irishgolfdesk.com/news-files/2020/1/20/another-ruddy-good-job-as-ballyliffin-prepares-to-unveil-par-three-pollan-links

[Dan_Callahan]

Nice timing. I was just starting to put together my itinerary for summer 2020 and a return trip to the northwest. Looks like Ballyliffin would be a great place to start and then swing down the coast. Right now I've got:


Ballyliffin (all three courses)
Rosepenna (two courses, assuming St. Patrick's isn't open yet)
Cruit Island
Narin & Portnoo
Rosses Point
Strandhill
Carne
Enniscrone

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()