Eighteen Stakes on a Sunday Afternoon - Redux (last week)

[Ally Mcintosh]

So the best days are the ones where unscheduled events work out beautifully…

I was back down in Connemara at the weekend for a family break and on the spur of the moment we were contacted by a friend who has a house there and invited us round for coffee / food / drink etc… Having not visited her house before, I was most pleasantly surprised by its lonely position over what appeared to be a private beach and headland (it was in fact common land but with no other road there, it is always deserted and may as well have been private)… Initial pleasantries exchanged and drunk, it was time to go a-wondering with my 9 year old son and a couple of golf clubs in hand… With her house acting as the temporary “clubhouse”, you are greeted with this view:




Eighteen stakes on a Sunday afternoon proceeded to be enacted out with faithful precision…. Here’s a sample of the odd delight:

“Gibraltar” – 180 yard Par-3. Perhaps the easiest hole to see, the green is 35 yards long by 26 yards wide, the bunkering already in place.




Approach in to the final hole: “Punchbowl” – 370 yard Par-4. An incredibly subtle punchbowl this one; a wonderful green site (in the distance where the jackets lie) hanging over the beach with perfect natural undulations.




“Chasm” – 155 yard Par-3.




As much as I love the course at Ballyconneely (only 5 miles up the road), I was more than happy to forgo a round there for this little beauty… Playing as firm and fast as any links I’ve ever seen, there was no downside…. Sean A may quibble that the first tees and last green were remote from the house but when it’s an adventure over the beach to get there, I think even he may have allow this slight negative in my routing….

I have decided the best way to play this course is as a two-club challenge where you are deemed to have holed out when within one club length of the flag….

Maybe if the BUDA does come to the west of Ireland, some of you may join me before to play a few holes at this World Top-100 certainty… The next “great” course

Ally

[Russ Arbuthnot]

Incredible! I love the second pic. Love the little swaths of sand all over. And I was wondering how the grass could be so short, but then I saw the sheep! Perfect!

[Ally Mcintosh]

Superb! That is a stunning bit of property. All joking aside, with your professional hat on, do you think it's possible to build a very good 18 holer here?

Brian,

On this little headland there is nowhere near enough land but it's ideal because the undulations are perfect, the land is grazed, there are less rocks than in most of the rest of the west Connemara coast and the land isn't divided by dry stone walls.... But there are other great areas around as well - For instance, a 9 holer would fit perfectly on the spit of land and headland between Dogs Bay and Gurteen Bay but I'd hate that area to be changed - Absolutely spectacular as is...

It was just a lovely surprise to find this completely secluded one and then to head out and hit some balls - far more fun than actually playing a "real" course. I can do that any time.

[Mark Bourgeois]

I love posts like this, thanks Ally! Show us the other stakes please!

[Mark Fedeli]

This is fantastic. Thanks for sharing, Ally.

[Thomas Dai]

This is fantastic. Thanks for sharing, Ally.

+1.
More photos please

atb

[Mike Nuzzo]

Thank you Ally
Lovely!
Don't change a thing.
Are the sheep on the Chasm green?
Cheers

Brian it already is a field of play/golf course
Who needs another 18 hole course?

Cheers

[Eric Smith]

Count me in, Ally..fantastic!

[Bart Bradley]

Connemara is just lovely.  It has a unique rugged beauty.  I have been to that region of Ireland 6 times.  I love Cashel House...my favorite country house on the planet.  Thanks for the photos and the good memories.

With golf or without, if you get the chance, visit Connemara.

Bart

[Tom_Doak]

Ally:

I was doing the same thing last weekend (by Google Earth, not as much fun) for a couple of sites in the west of Scotland and the north-west of Ireland.  I would have done the same at Mulranny last year had I had a bit more time.

I was surprised by your comment for the other nine-hole site that "I would hate for that area to be changed" ... what would really have to change to build a course like this?  Or is it just too busy with people walking now?

[Greg Tallman]

I thought the second photo was of Whistling Straights

[RJ_Daley]

Ally, thanks for allowing us to enjoy your day with your son, vicariously.  May there always be spits of land and room to roam with your child and your inner child, to imagine and play a piece of ground such as this.

[BCrosby]

Great pictures. Makes you wonder about similarities with the linksland at St Andrews circa 1400.

Bob

[Ally Mcintosh]

Mike,

The sheep on the "Chasm" hole are located approximately on the approach. The green site proper is a little further back and to the left but the land feeds in from the safer right so you can run one in... Kind of like the 2nd shot to Royal County Down's 13th.

Mark, Thomas,

I actually didn't take too many more photos but here are the kids repairing a bunker on the carry part of the "Cape" hole:



And here is the landing zone once you've made that carry. The green is located between the two large rocks in the distance and you can see the main fairway on the right side of the photo:




Tom,

As you said, there would be nothing changed. But the particular area I was talking about is a special area for walking and playing and it's the one area I would hate to see altered for anything else, particularly as we were on the beach there on the day of our wedding. So it was more a selfish comment. Here is the google earth overlay though. The first tees / ninth green would be on the north end next to a road. The narrow land between the two beaches is 170m across, perfect width for two corridors. The shorter of the beaches is about 500m long. You can see how the two headlands have ideal grasses on the inside but mutate in to much rockier land nearer the edges. Enough good land for a decent length 9 holer without getting in to the rocks though. Like the land I was on, nothing extra needed.

[Carl Nichols]

So many incredible places in the world to see, so little time . . . .

[archie_struthers]

 


That is way cool ,what a spot that would be to play golf!

[Tony_Muldoon]

Thanks Ally.

A few years ago I went to the NLE course at Bembridge. It was only ever 9 holes and subsequent to my visit I discovered there had been 3 different routings, the last of which Darwin and others praised to the skies.


Very early on Easter Sunday I had it entirely to myself but the problem was there were possible holes everywhere!  I learned later that the sites I picked out for greens had mostly not been used in any iteration. There's a wonderful freedom from not having to worry about a set plan or accommodating others wishes. Only when you form a Club do you need the best possible routing.


I love the idea of having one meeting a year on one of your two sites.  The flag positions would be put out in the morning by the golfer who won last year!

[BCrosby]

Thanks Ally.

A few years ago I went to the NLE course at Bembridge. It was only ever 9 holes and subsequent to my visit I discovered there had been 3 different routings, the last of which Darwin and others praised to the skies.

Very early on Easter Sunday I had it entirely to myself but the problem was there were possible holes everywhere!  I learned later that the sites I picked out for greens had mostly not been used in any iteration. There's a wonderful freedom from not having to worry about a set plan or accommodating others wishes. Only when you form a Club do you need the best possible routing.

I love the idea of having one meeting a year on one of your two sites.  The flag positions would be put out in the morning by the golfer who won last year!

Wonderful story Tony. Thanks. Maybe it's just me, but sites of NLE courses, even undistinguished courses, have an aura to them.

As I recall there was a hole from Bembridge that Ambrose picked as a favourite circa 1926 in his exchanges with Crane in The Field.  I will try to look it up.

Bob

[Bill_McBride]

Thanks Ally.

A few years ago I went to the NLE course at Bembridge. It was only ever 9 holes and subsequent to my visit I discovered there had been 3 different routings, the last of which Darwin and others praised to the skies.


Very early on Easter Sunday I had it entirely to myself but the problem was there were possible holes everywhere!  I learned later that the sites I picked out for greens had mostly not been used in any iteration. There's a wonderful freedom from not having to worry about a set plan or accommodating others wishes. Only when you form a Club do you need the best possible routing.


I love the idea of having one meeting a year on one of your two sites.  The flag positions would be put out in the morning by the golfer who won last year!

This is a lot like the Sheep Ranch at Bandon Dunes.  A bunch of tees and greens, everything mowed fairway height, no set holes, winner picks the next hole.   "Okay, dogleg left around the big mound to the green hanging dangerously over the cliff."

It's a great way to spend an afternoon with some pals and maybe a case of say Shiner Bock. 

[Ally Mcintosh]

I just pulled out Hutchinson’s 1897 British Golf Links book this evening... and looking at the photos, it was surprising how many early shots of now well known courses reminded me of this old thread.


I have a definite intention to go see this land again, perhaps actually marking out a few holes properly and then making a yearly pilgrimage.


What more do we need, indeed.

[Thomas Dai]

I just pulled out Hutchinson’s 1897 British Golf Links book this evening... and looking at the photos, it was surprising how many early shots of now well known courses reminded me of this old thread.
I have a definite intention to go see this land again, perhaps actually marking out a few holes properly and then making a yearly pilgrimage.
What more do we need, indeed.

+1.
And played with just a small number of hickory clubs carried under a wee lads arm and a couple of spare balls in a jacket pocket. As you say, "what more do we need..".
atb

[John Mayhugh]

Missed this the first time around. Glad to see it resurrected. Some great looking holes you found. That would be a fun Buda diversion some year.

[ward peyronnin]

Would a cart girl spoil the effect? This is how it all started hundreds of years ago and maybe it would be best to refer to a route like this without par but as strictly a matchplay course

[jeffwarne]

Oh to get some Billy Bunker liners, pure white Ohio "sand", and lazer leveled/accurate yardage plates...
and some shorter legged sheep with sharper teeth to get a proper height of cut for the approaches...
and professional caddies with bibs--
then we'd have something


 

[RJ_Daley]

Ironically, as I read your new posts on this older thread, I am watching the PBS documentary of a natualists tour of the "wild Irish way" and there is a portion that deals with Connamara. I spent a few days in Clifden, driving out each day for 27 holes at one of my favorites, Connemara GC.  I'd take the coastal routes back to Clifden those days and past and endless number of alluring patches of land abutted to turfed land up to the rocky shores and sandy beach.  There by your  picture of "Dogs Bay" one couldn't help but feel the urge to take a 7 iron from the 'boot' and make up some holes.  But I didn't for fear of a tresspass charge as I couldn't really work out what land would be common or private.  That Connemara coast is a marvel!