Play as you Erne
This stunning Fermanagh resort is a haven of relaxation and great golf, writes Brian Keogh
WINSTON Churchill never got the chance to play golf at the Lough Erne Resort, but even the famously cantankerous Winnie might have forgotten his golfing vexations and eased into blissful repose in beautiful Co Fermanagh.
After all, his humorous putdowns had more to do with the frustrations of the hacker than a man genuinely opposed to the great game.
From stating that its “aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose” to likening the challenge to “chasing a quinine pill around a cow pasture”, he was speaking the universal language of golf ’s afflicted.
His son Randolph said he had “little aptitude” for the game because “he fails to keep his head down and foozles his drive”.
But it was also claimed he was a great admirer of golf’s ability to test character and even to inspire the kind of rhetoric that could rally the troops!
Speaking at a club function at Chigwell Golf Club in 1928, he joked that his finest perorations had been achieved “by negotiation with his niblick against a recalcitrant ball in a venomous bunker”.
Given his powers of oratory, he might have done some justice to the beautiful Lough Erne Resort, slumbering peacefully in its idyllic lakeland setting.
It was a part of Ireland that Churchill inadvertently painted in a watery light when describing Europe’s emergence from the trauma of World War I.
“The whole map of Europe has been changed,” he said, six years before that dinner at Chigwell. “But as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again.”
There are steeples galore as you motor through Fermanagh towards Enniskillen and Lough Erne, but there’s nothing prosaic about the idyllic spot where Nick Faldo designed the stunning championship golf course that still thrills almost a decade after Rory McIlroy and Pádraig Harrington played the first official round there.
The six-time Major winner fell in love with the site where, inspired by Loch Lomond, proud Fermanagh businessman Jim Treacy decided to build his dream resort.
“You’ve got Lough Erne and Castle Hume Lake literally 300 degrees around you and you won’t see a building,” Faldo said as work on the 7,000-plus yards test went apace.
“There are some wonderful natural features out here in terms of vistas and atmosphere, some beautiful natural spots like down on the eighth. Separation is something wonderful when each hole has its own individuality; that’s really important to our design team.”
The lavish five-star resort hotel and spa opened in 2007 before the Faldo Course followed with great fanfare two years later.
What happened next was a calamity for Treacy, who lost the resort and his €33m dream during the last great economic crisis.
It still hosted the G8 summit in 2013 before it was purchased by an American investment group led by TRU Hotels and Resorts in 2015 for some €11m.
Its loss still pains Treacy, but it remains one of the great places to stay and play in the gateway to the north-west, with its 120 rooms and suites, its stunning food and those idyllic views.
Add to all this the award-winning Thai Spa, voted Luxury Golf Resort Spa of the Year in 2017, and it’s clear this is a
spot for restoring both body and soul.
The Thai Spa offers the chance to ease any niggling aches and pains that might linger after a joust with the sensational Faldo Course or the less exacting Castle Hume layout.
The Detoxifier, De-Stresser, Muscle Relaxer, Jet-Lag Reviver, Immune Booster, Energiser and Body Toner are all tempting options, as is a dip on the infinity pool, where families with children have an hour each morning and afternoon to indulge the youngsters with a refreshing swim.
Of course, you could leave the Thai Spa until later and linger a while longer in a sumptuous four-poster bed before strolling down for a leisurely breakfast and those splendid lake views.
As for the food, multiaward-winning chef Noel McMeel is committed to showing off the very best of local produce – fillet of Fermanagh pork, Thornhill duck, Lisdergan beef, Sperrin venison, Kilkeel crab and local salmon are just some of the delights.
Whether you choose the 3 AA rosette Catalina Restaurant, The Loughside Bar & Grill specialising in quality Irish meats and seafood, or the eclectic grazing menu from the newly refurbished Blaney Bar, there are no wrong options as you dine in front of a blazing log fire.
Golf lovers will find no better parkland test in the north-west than the Faldo Championship Course, where the estimable head professional David Allen is living the dream at one of Ireland’s great golfing retreats.
Not only is he busy giving lessons and welcoming visitors, but he’s also thrilled to see the new Lough Erne Resort Winter Series, which is played on the first Thursday of each month from November to March 2019, attract so many adepts.
There are still three more events in the six-event series – January 3, February 7 and March 7 – before the Grand Final on March 28 next year.
And it’s a testament to the quality of the course and continuing investment by the new owners that the Faldo Championship Course remains eminently playable all year round, whatever the weather.
Water is a frequent threat, but not only are holes such as the driveable 10th a thrill to play, the par-fours and -fives are often challenging, the par-threes varied, and the three-hole finishing stretch eminently memorable.
Employing 150 staff in the winter and as many as 200 in the high season, the new owners have invested €330,000 in a new John Deere maintenance fleet for the golf course, improved drainage and landscaping at both the Faldo Course and the Castle Hume Course and spent an additional €330,000 refurbishing the Blaney Bar and Ross Banquet suite.
While the Irish Open planned for 2017 did not come to pass for myriad reasons – the change in strategy to play links and the loss of McIlroy as ambassador were crucial reasons – the course remains a potentially great tournament venue.
As Harrington said after his defeat to McIlroy in 2009: “If a tournament was here you would see a fantastically exciting event with plenty of birdies to be made out there.
“There is plenty of water and intimidation coming down the last few holes and with a topclass hotel with it, it is a facility that people will come back to time and again.”