Co Sligo; Rosses Point

Golfing royalty in these parts.  It certainly lives up to it’s billing but if Enniscrone and Belmullet had an equally affluent and critical mass of members and visitors they would be on an equal footing. 

The opening holes draw you up the hill providing a glimpse of what is in store before tumbling down to The Jump.  This is where Lucifer whispers in your ear and tempts you to over reach yourself before putting you on the rack for the next couple of holes too.  The latter has a two storey bunker for those who can’t get enough of the sand.  And my partner, playing safe, ran his second shot down the pedestrian bridge, less than a metre wide, while I struggled to even find, or keep, my ball on the fairway. Cast a cold eye is the name of the ninth and a suitable review of the front nine would have given me a very icy stare.

The views up here are all encompassing and lead the eye across to Countess Markieweiz’s humble abode, a fine Socialist mansion.   WB Yeats is at rest beyond the course so two important paths of Irish identity cross here under the eye of Ben Bulben, a huge flat topped mountain that wears it’s clouds like Table mountain and should, perhaps, have the faces of WB Yeats and Countess Markieweiz’s etched upon it, like an Irish Mount Rushmore.  These holes run along the shore but are not belittled by the dunes as they sometimes are at Enniscrone and Belmullet.  The 12th has an innocent looking but cruelly exposed green; classic stuff. 

There are no quiet holes here; bunkerless greens that are fiendish, bunkers that are seemingly invisible but suck you in like quicksand, changes of angles between burns, fairways and greens that challenge every shot. On every occasion risk must be carefully assessed.  Yet the course is still wide enough that should the weather turn nasty it can still be played.

This is a course that should be carved on the Mount Rushmore of Irish links courses

The club have very kindly donated my green fee to Alzheimer’s Society via The Links Golfer. Thank you very much.

Seagulls View 31

Greens & bunkers 16

Links Appeal 16

63/72 See blog on rating courses