Ballybunion (Old) course profile posted under Courses by Country

[Ran Morrissett]

 You are at a well-attended club meeting. How many know golf course architecture well? 5%? 10%? 25% seems astronomically high to me but maybe that is occasionally accurate.

Regardless, if only a small percentage of people know what they are talking about, the probability for a positive outcome dwindles. That is why most clubs inadvertently steer themselves into the ditch from time to time.

Extrapolate numerous such meetings for a period longer than a century. What are the chances to achieve consistent success? Pass the microscope (!) because they seem tiny.

And yet, here is Ballybunion, one of the world’s elite courses, that has been governed and ruled by committee in three different centuries. Its rock star architect (Tom Simpson) was only on site for a handful of days so by definition, the locals deserve the lion-share credit for … well ... everything.

How such a superlative design could evolve via rule by committee seems against all odds. And yet, today’s Ballybunion is the finest it has ever been. I say that because its best sequence of holes was only established 39 years ago. Additionally, the foundation for proper links running conditions via fescue fairways/greens and rough has only recently been established by John Bambury.

I don’t know which is more special: The heaving, rambunctious landforms or the uber cool greens like 2, 6, 8, 9, etc.? It’s the rarest of marriages whereby both the land and design are exceptional. The sport wins and in my mind, it is one of the dozen or so courses that you must see in a lifetime to appreciate just how compelling golf can be. Herbert Warren Wind drooled over it 41 years ago - and it has only gotten better since.


You go to Ballybunion for the seaside holes but don't underestimate the inland holes. Photo is from the Neil
Regan archives.  

Have a read. It’s a great story with the plot line shifting in recent years to be about a club sacrificing near term happiness for long term good:

https://golfclubatlas.com/ballybunion-golf-club-old-course/

I first saw it in 1987 with my family and thought at the time that it rivaled the best I had ever seen. If anything, my appreciation only went up this go around because I had the good fortune to play several rounds with Neil Regan, who has been a member forever. His incandescent affection for Ballybunion is infectious. Most visitors whistle past an inland green like the 3^rd but not when you are with Neil; a genuine eye-opening, educational experience to be there with him. Sometimes we had our clubs and other times we just prowled about.

No more fitting a course profile to add to Courses by Country at the start of a new decade. If you don’t hold Ballybunion among the world’s elite, I would like to read why as its shortcomings escape me.

Best,

[Tim_Weiman]

Ran,


I am delighted to see your profile of Ballybunion having long thought it was something missing at GolfClubAtlas. Your writing is superb as is always the case, but I also really appreciate the photos. They are different than many I have seen. That reminds me of the 1985 Walker Cup program which features pictures of Pine Valley unlike any taken before.


Hard to believe it is almost 20 years since the Irish Open was played at Ballybunion. There has never been a more enjoyable tournament for fans, especially the parade in “downtown” Ballybunion Saturday night with the band playing “Sympathy for the Devil” by The Rolling Stones.


Thanks for this great profile.

[Thomas Dai]

Nice to be reminded of this splendid and challenging course full of lots of interesting architecture. Terrific photos too. I can't help but feel however, that something has been lost from the game at the higher calibre links courses such as this one by modern day over-conditioning.
atb

[Mike Hendren]

I was there for the first time in October and so appreciate this expert profile.  It keeps my memmory of this splendid course very much alive.  Like Shinnecock Hills, Ballybunion Old is among those courses that made me wish I was a better golfer.  I did it no justice and likely flat insulted the Old Lady.

To foster discussion, I'd like the group's take on the two flanking fairway bunkers at the second.  I found them visually off-putting and unnecessary as a ball down the right side leaves an uphill blind shot and a ball down the left sides finds uneven lies beyond the bunker and perhaps some blindness for the uphill approach.   Why provide the two foul poles on this rare and beautifully expansive pitch of flat ground?  For aiming?    It's a second shot hole,  is it not?

Your take?

Bogey

[Ally Mcintosh]

Lovely write-up but surprising to give the locals so much credit.


No mention of Fred Smith, Carter’s (or was it Sutton’s?) in-house GCA who convinced the club in 1926 to purchase extra land by the sea (the nine hole club was actually buying land further inland). Then he designed nine new holes and reconfigured the existing nine. He deserves the biggest design credit, followed by Simpson.

[Ira Fishman]

At the risk of one play arrogance, I think Ballybunion is overrated. Yes, a great course, but not Top 20, Doak 10, etc. I agree with Bogey that the bunkers on Number 2 are off putting. Number 6 is solid but only truly noteworthy because it takes you to the beginning of the great land. So 33% of the course is very good (charitable as it relates to 1, 4, and 5). And at the end, 16 and 17 play through amazing Dunes but there are not a lot of options except how much dogleg to challenge,  and 18 is awkward. In the middle are some of the finest holes that I have played, particularly 7, 11, and 12. But generally the course does not offer a lot of options in terms of line of play and because many of the greens are elevated, the ground game is somewhat limited.  A magical setting with some magical holes. However, Ballybunion has some serious limitations.


Ira

[Tim_Weiman]

At the risk of one play arrogance, I think Ballybunion is overrated. Yes, a great course, but not Top 20, Doak 10, etc. I agree with Bogey that the bunkers on Number 2 are off putting. Number 6 is solid but only truly noteworthy because it takes you to the beginning of the great land. So 33% of the course is very good (charitable as it relates to 1, 4, and 5). And at the end, 16 and 17 play through amazing Dunes but there are not a lot of options except how much dogleg to challenge,  and 18 is awkward. In the middle are some of the finest holes that I have played, particularly 7, 11, and 12. But generally the course does not offer a lot of options in terms of line of play and because many of the greens are elevated, the ground game is somewhat limited.  A magical setting with some magical holes. However, Ballybunion has some serious limitations.


Ira

IRA,


You probably shouldn’t have commented about #6 after only playing it once.

[James Brown]

It’s not a course that is easy to fully digest on one playing because it is really big and can be overwhelming.  And it can eat your lunch. 

[Michael Latham]

Excellent review.Having played regularly and been a member for over 30 years it has come as a shock to realise it has so many limitations. I will endeavour to look closer.

[Michael Goldstein]

Ran,


Phenomenal write up, thank you!!


My first visit to Ballybunion was so memorable, although this was, mostly, courtesy of the reception we received from the locals.  On my second visit we took the red-eye from NY and went straight to the links proceeding to play three rounds broken up only by a kip in the dunes and a couple of pints in the bar. 


There's some magic to BallyB and you captured it in your article.  I think your comments around the scale & restraint hit the mark (I didn't know the history from sand mining).  But what really sticks in my mind are the green complexes, particularly 6 and 9 which, as you note, are factors that help to elevate the course to sit in the heavens of GCA. 


Thanks for the read.
MG

[Tim_Weiman]

Ran,


Phenomenal write up, thank you!!


My first visit to Ballybunion was so memorable, although this was, mostly, courtesy of the reception we received from the locals.  On my second visit we took the red-eye from NY and went straight to the links proceeding to play three rounds broken up only by a kip in the dunes and a couple of pints in the bar. 


There's some magic to BallyB and you captured it in your article.  I think your comments around the scale & restraint hit the mark (I didn't know the history from sand mining).  But what really sticks in my mind are the green complexes, particularly 6 and 9 which, as you note, are factors that help to elevate the course to sit in the heavens of GCA. 


Thanks for the read.
MG

Michael,


I can certainly relate to your first visit to Ballybunion. More than architecture, Ballybunion is the locals. They are just so good at social golf, including how to play the 19th hole.


When Paul Daley asked me to do an essay on Ballybunion for his Golf Architecture: A Worldwide Perspective series I was beyond honored and more than a bit intimidated. I just didn’t feel the focus of my essay could or should be about architecture rather than the people.


Fortunately, Paul made clear he wanted me to write what I thought should be written and I tried my best, hopefully doing justice to people I came to love dearly.

[Michael Goldstein]

Hi Tim,


Would love to read your work.   Here's a couple of snippets written about 9 years ago from a half written book...


A giant with a shaved head and wobbly smile was first to greet us.  It was Paddy.  Before I had a pint in my hand he explained to me the conversation he’d had earlier in the day with Vari McGreevy, the club’s General Manager, which went something like this:
VM:  Paddy, would ye c’min here.
POR:  Is this about the pink shirt I’ve been wearing to work?
VM:  No, no, no.  It’s these boys from New Zealand.  They’re coming to play on Saturday morning and judging by their website they’re pretty handy with a camera.  You won’t be taking them out drinking on Friday night will ye?  Now promise me Paddy, you won’t be taking them out drinking!
POR:  Oh, no of course not Vari.  Thought didn’t even cross me mind.  I’ll make sure they’re kept well away from trouble.I didn’t know whether to take him seriously at first, so I asked in earnest, “so – are we just having a couple then?”  To which Paddy had already started replying “fook no!”  Words that really set the tone for what was to follow. 

[/size]---


[/size]When you’re on the border between “still pissed” and a hangover you know those moments – particularly out on the links – where the elements all come together at once and baffle your brain, eliciting a rush all at once of joy, fear, confusion, lucidity, amusement, despair and, above all, misplaced confidence?  Well I had one of those standing over my approach to six.  Having thumped a drive into the wind, to the corner of the dogleg, all that stood between glory and me was a punch nine iron. There was divinity in the air as the sun burst down onto the grass between me and the dancing yellow pin, set against an opal, fairly wet looking sky behind.  Time for a Guinness-inspired moment of brilliance before the heavens opened. All went according to plan until the ball landed.  Cruelly my Titleist 3 bit the carpet ten feet left of the flag and tiptoed off the edge of the green.  Ah what a rollercoaster I was on!  Shortly after it became clear that the effective landing zone, playing a draw and in the conditions, was about four square centimetres. No need for greenside bunkers with a green complex like that…  I’d happily play that hole six times a day for the rest of my life![/font]

[JMEvensky]

I can certainly relate to your first visit to Ballybunion. More than architecture, Ballybunion is the locals. They are just so good at social golf, including how to play the 19th hole.

Teed off very early and we run into a local walking his dog along 4 or 5 fairway. After learning we were from Memphis, he offers to buy us "a drink" after the round--he wants to know about Graceland. We walk into the clubhouse and he's sitting at a table with the biggest bottle of John Powers I'd ever seen. It was about 11:00.


Slainte!

[Cob Carlson]

JM: That is one of the greatest little golf stories I have ever heard. Brightened up my start of the year!

[OChatriot]

To foster discussion, I'd like the group's take on the two flanking fairway bunkers at the second.  I found them visually off-putting and unnecessary as a ball down the right side leaves an uphill blind shot and a ball down the left sides finds uneven lies beyond the bunker and perhaps some blindness for the uphill approach.   Why provide the two foul poles on this rare and beautifully expansive pitch of flat ground?  For aiming?    It's a second shot hole,  is it not?

Thank you Ran for your inspired report on BB Old.  A pleasure to read! Love the sand mining stories!

I must have played there at least 40 times and it's obviously always special but I do have some reservations too! Now I am not a golf architecture expert, I'm merely here to enjoy and learn, so don't shoot me too hard!

First to the bunkers on no2. I see the point you're making but in my opinion they frame the hole nicely with the two big dunes behind them, and "force" you to hit a straight drive. They are in play but I feel they actually help the player to focus on such a challenging hole. Maybe they are also there to help protect the players down the 13th and the 3rd green?  No 2 is one of my favourite holes anywhere.

I love all the holes there, but not the twelfth. Spectacular yes, fair, no. I just find it too difficult, too long,  if you miss the green you end up really far away with a boring blind lob shot, the green is not very interesting and I have never seen anyone in that bunker. For me it's always a bit of a zzz between 11th and 13th. I just want to get it done and move on.
Apart from the 12th of the Cashen Course, the collection of short holes on the other course is so fantastic, I wish one one them was in place of that 12th on the Old!

I really hope to see a review of the Cashen one day, but maybe after the potential planned alterations?

Best to all