GOLFING IN IRELAND’S HIDDEN HEARTLAND
Charming Midlands jewel is a real natural beauty. By Brian Keogh
EVERY golfer knows the charms of the Wild Atlantic Way and the delights of Ireland’s Ancient East. But for all their obvious charms, it’s easy to forget the varied beauty of the midlands.
‘Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands’ is now a marketing campaign promoting tourism in the Shannon region, encouraging visitors to fish and boat at a host of great locations from Lough Derg to Carrick-onShannon.
While you can cruise your way up and down the great river and enjoy sumptuous hotels, great food and no shortage of cultural delights, many forget that you can also play the royal and ancient game to your heart’s content at some of Ireland’s finest venues.
Glasson, Athlone, Esker Hills, Tullamore and Mullingar are all well know and so too are Birr, Longford, Roscommon, and the Slieve Russell Hotel, not far from the midlands in Co Cavan
But there’s another one, just a ten-minute drive from Athlone , that’s a relative newcomer to the scene but no less alluring for its youth.
Mount Temple Golf Club is just 27 years old this year but what was once ranching territory and later a fine farm situated midway between Moate and Athlone in Co Westmeath, has been transformed into a little golfing gem.
Renowned for its large greens and undulating fairways, it sits on an esker ridge similar to those that make Esker Hills so playable all year round and its elevated site offers spectacular views of the Irish countryside – up to 100 km on a clear day from the highest point.
Shane Lowry set a course record of 67 at the 6,400-yard par 72 back in 2007 and with its onsite academy and the old farmhouse converted into a welcoming clubhouse, its a product of the Agri-Tourism initiative promoted by the government in the 1980s and 1990s.
“My father was in the cattle business and the farm goes back three or four generations,” explained course ow ner Michael Dolan, whose father owned the cattle mart in Moate.
“He went to Blackrock College and played hockey for Pembroke
Wanderers and Ireland, winning the triple crown in 1937-38. In fact, I have still have his Irish cap here in the little clubhouse, which was the old farmhouse, until we decided to convert part of the farm into a golf course in 1991.
“My father was a founder member of Moate Golf Club so I had been playing since I could walk and I recognised the site as a natural site.”
What was once a stony farm used mainly for ranching was transformed back in the 1950s into a far more profitable and modern farm by a man who has a deep connection with golf in Ireland, the civil engineer Hugo Flinn of Druids Glen and St Margaret’s fame.
“He was a Corkman but he was based in Athlone and he reclaimed the farm, which was full of rocks, before going down to Africa to make his fortune,” Michael explained.
“I then got into farming at a different level but some some 25 year laters we built the golf course, taking advantage of the hills and hollows to create natural greens and fairways. It was very effective and it plays very well all year round.”
Bobby Browne, the late Laytown and Bettystown professional laid out the course and with its natural water hazards, its rock formations and an abundant selection of mature trees, it combines hints of the west of Ireland landscape with lush parkland features, offering golfers a splendidly dry course all year round.
“You could spend hundreds of millions building a course but so many of them are so similar that you can’t tell one from another,” Michael explained.
“But at Mount Temple, it’s a wonderful natural site and there are fantastic views from the top of
the course all the way to the Slieve Russell.” An enthusiastic rally driver in his youth, Dolan had a lifelong friendship with the great Bertie Fisher and named the picturesque sixth, Fisher’s View, in his honour.
A former chairman of the Irish Golf Course Owner’s Association, Dolan is determined to spread the Mount Temple golfing gospel and make golfers aware of an area that boasts severeal major hotels and significant tourism numbers.
“Failte Ireland has come on board to promote Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands and we are working to get more attention for golf,” he said. “There is fishing and boating for people to try but there is also great golf in this part of the world.”
Chuckling, he added: “Built by God, polished by man!”
Given the beauty and history of Mount Temple’s location, it’s hard to disagree.