Hole 1
The 488-metres, par-5, 1st may be as flat a golf hole as you’ll ever see but benign and featureless it is not. The prevailing wind blows straight up the fairway, but a cautious approach is most likely to succeed. Standing on that 1st tee without a proper warm up is foolish. One must be straight into one’s A-game. Tall reeds standing along the edge of Lough Gill guard the entire length of the right-hand side. An open ditch and a series of bunkers lurk in wait for hooked shots down the left, which makes for a most intimidating shot but that is only the beginning. The layup area is squeezed tighter and tighter the further up the fairway you go. The coup de grace is that the green complex is abutted on three sides by water.
Hole 4
The 4th (368-metres) can play deceptively long when the prevailing wind is into your face. The drive must carry over a bothersome stream before a long raking second shot can be attempted to a partially blind target. Again, it is critical to be on the short grass – endeavouring to play a long shot from the spiky rough is nigh impossible.
Hole 6
Glorious Mount Brandon looms in the background on the 6th tee. There’s also a fabulous sea view with not a hint of the fairway in sight. Former club captain Sean O’Connor claims that he can sometimes see America on a clear day from here. It’s only a small exaggeration if you use your imagination. At 260-metres, usually downwind, and with a ‘good’ line, it is possible to drive within a couple of yards of the green but you would question the wisdom of doing so when looking backwards from the putting green.
Hole 8
You could transfer Castlegregory’s wonderful 8th hole (365-metres), which is played back into the prevailing South westerly to any course on The Open rota and nobody would complain (or notice.) From a high tee, you play down onto a rumpled fairway flanked by high dunes and a water hazard snaking along the LHS before diagonally crossing the fairway. The second shot must be bold and accurate to find the plateau green successfully.
Hole 9
With my own ears, I have heard the (CNSO) Castlegregory Natterjack Symphony Orchestra performing an unnerving, late evening, throaty “Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit!” concert at the 9th (149- meters) – a medium length, par-3 over a small pond, to an elusive target set at an angle in an amphitheater of dunes..
