Tuesday 15th March 2011 – Enniscrone, my Enniscrone

By Sam Blackwell Tampa Joe, one of the members of our group, didn’t feel well enough to make the 50-mile trip to Enniscrone Golf Club. Later we’d tell him he may have missed one of the best golfing experiences of his life.  The course is exquisitely beautiful, and so was the day. Enniscrone sparkled in the sun. As Rick, one of the leaders, says, it doesn’t get better than this. The championship Dunes course at Enniscrone is on Killala Bay. The course is framed by Batra Island and the Ox Mountains, but the most striking characteristic is the way much of it threads through mountainous dunes covered in long brown grasses. [SinglePic not found]

Some of the magic dunes to be experienced at Enniscrone

The club was founded 1918. Eddie Hackett, who designed a number of the courses our group is playing, redid this one in 1974.  Hackett’s courses tend toward wide fairways and protective bunkering. When Donald Steel redesigned the course in 2001, he added treks through the dunes on both the front and back nines. Golfers are provided with two very different kinds of challenges, but the effect is not schizophrenic. This course engages you with its beauty while sternly testing your golf skills. Pat Sweeney, the club manager, played in the lead group with Rick and me. He told us many funny stories as we played, including one about a Japanese golfer who made supposedly made  hole-in-one. The Japanese custom requires the golfer to provide the playing partners with lavish gifts. When the group played the next day the golfer aimed away from the pin, but his ball struck a rock and caromed in for a second hole-in-one and second round of expensive gifts. Pat told us Enniscrone would add 10 strokes to our handicaps, and that turned out to be true for all but one member of our group. Mike is not a long hitter but keeps the ball in front of him and has a masterful short game. That is a good combination at Enniscrone, and he shot just 3 over par. [SinglePic not found]

Gary, Virgil, Mike, Sam, Pat Sweeny (Enniscrone) and Rick

Virgil is leaving the group to tend to some radio business in Dublin, a live broadcast from the Jameson Distillery on St. Patrick’s Day.  The rest of us will be wearin’ the green in Galway. Our stay with the Sligo Park Hotel has been as pleasant as could be. Every morning we have powered up with their full Irish breakfast, and every night we have found an intriguing eating establishment in Sligo. Everyone says they would return. For those interested Pat tells us that you can play Carne (Day One), Rosses Point (Day Two) and Enniscrone on the 4/5/6 July of this year in the inaugural Atlantic Coast Challenge. You can find out more about it here