KINGDOM’S GEM SHINES
As the finishing hole gets a revamp, along with other major works at the course, Brian Keogh looks forward to the rejuvenated Ballybunion
THE GREAT American golf writer Herbert Warren Wind once visited Ballybunion and wrote: “A tourist driving through Switzerland is staggered by its prodigal beauty; around the bend from the most wondrous view he has ever beheld he comes upon a view that surpasses it — and so on and on, endlessly.
“Ballybunion is something like that. I do not mean to suggest that there are vistas that put the one from the second tee to shame— there aren’t—but there is a correspondence in the way one stirring hole is followed by another and another.”
It’s always a treat to visit Ballybunion but if you haven’t been to the Old Course for some time you are in for a treat should you return to the Co. Kerry links next season.
In 2016 all the greens were renovated and are now 100 per cent native fescue while the surrounds and approaches were refined to create greater ‘bump-and-run’ conditions.
Now the club is redeveloping the 18th on the renowned Old Course that many have felt was a poor finishing hole for such a prestigious links.
The scope of the project is to enhance the putting surface and its surrounds, all within the existing dunescape.
The redevelopment was presented at an EGM in 2016 and was unanimously approved by the club’s membership.
The enhanced green will be more visible from the fair way, offer more pin positions and feature fiendish run-offs that will be in keeping with those you experience on the rest of the course.
The project is being managed by course manager John Bambury, who said: “Our job is to make sure that Ballybunion remains a special place in the heart of golfers around the world.
“Every project at Ballybunion is undertaken with a nod to the past whilst looking to the future.
“The membership know this property better than anyone. They have been a wonderful source of guidance and encouragement over the past few years.
“The team at Atlantic Golf Construction have been fantastic, and we are ver y excited about seeing the 18th hole realise its full potential in the coming weeks.”
The club hosted the R& A’s Jacques Leglise Trophy this summer and will be home to the Ladies Home Internationals in August 2018.
Summing up the recent enhancements, Chairman Pat Harnett said: “The past number of years have been fantastic for guests and members alike. Our greens are firm, fast and true year round.
“The improvement to the 18th green will help us continue our journey towards exceeding the expectations of everyone who plays this iconic course.”
The Old Course will be closed from January to March to give the turf time to knit in.
And while the 18th will remain a 382-yard par-four, a new grass pathway will lead players from the tee to the fairway, where they will be faced with a far more inviting second shot than before.
“We’ve done a lot of work over the last few years on what is obviously an iconic venue,” Bambury said. “But like all iconic venues, you still have to look to the future.
“The greens here over the years got ver y, ver y soft, so we redid the greens and they are fantastic, and the R&A was really pleased with them when we hosted the Jacques Leglise Trophy this year.
“As for the 18th, the original routing of Ballybunion was not as it is now. So the 18th has a ver y small green of around 300 sq m, which is not conducive to the volume of play we have or to championship links golf. So that was the main driver of the change.”
The decision to revamp the 18th is just another part of Ballybunion’s continuing ef for ts to remain on the
world’s great courses and an indication that they are not afraid of a challenge in Co Kerry.
The greens projected, which was undertaken at the end of the 2015 playing season, was a major undertaking. But it wasn’t the only work carried out.
No fewer than 38 sand-faced bunkers were revetted and 30,000 sq m of green surrounds re-turfed, while significant design changes were also made to the seventh and eighth holes.
The course reopened in April 2016, and if you happen to be in Ballybunion at the star t of next season, you will find a ver y dif ferent and greatly improved and enhanced links golf experience awaits you.
It’s all a far cry from a review of the course which appeared in The
Irish Times in 1897, dismissing Ballybunion as “a rabbit warren below the village, where a golfer requires limitless patience and an inexhaustible supply of golf balls.”
If you lose a few of those expensive white pills, it will only be because a true diamond has been polished to its sparkling best.