ONtheFAIRWAYS
CO SLIGO GOLF CLUB
RESULTS: Sat 10-Feb-2018: 15 Holes- Stableford; White Tees; 1st Larry Kelly (19) 33 Pts, 2nd Karl Demmel (10) 32 pts Entries: 30; CSS: Non-Qualifying.
Golf Courses named in top 11 best courses to play around the country
Co Sligo Golf Club and Enniscrone are no strangers to winning much praise for their Championship courses perched beneath beautiful Benbulben and along the seaside village of Enniscrone.
Both attract visitors from around the world and were named in the top 11 most breathtaking courses to play in Ireland according to Sports Joe.ie
The others included in the shortlist were Druids Glen, Royal Portrush, Tralee Golf Club, Narin & Portnoo, Old Head Golf Links, Royal County Down, Portmarnock, Ballybunion and Lahinch.
When speaking about Co Sligo, it said: “One of Ireland’s most formidable championship links, County Sligo boasts an arresting combination of mountain and ocean scenery and sits beside countryside so beautiful, WB Yeats immortalised it with a poem, calling it the ‘Land of Heart’s Desire.’ “The gem of Rosses Point is worthy of standing tall among Ireland’s finest courses and is a fitting venue with which to round off the list.”
Enniscrone was also highly praised for its spectacular scenery and with two courses both from county Sligo in the shortlist shows how valued they are in the golfing world.
The likelihood of next year’s Irish Open coming to Rosses Point was discussed by Dermot Gilleece in the Sunday Independent at the weekend.
He said that the west is very much awake with a bid being prepared to bring the 2019 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open to Co Sligo which would also tie in with the club’s 125th year anniversary. “On foot of a decision already in place to bring this year’s event to Ballyliffin, European Tour Officials visited Rosses Point last summer with a future staging in mind. I understand they received a very positive response from local representatives, anxious to promote an area much loved as Yeats country.” He said the availability of 4,500 hotel beds in a 35-mile radius was an added bonus in terms of providing accommodation for such a large-scale event. “If Ballyliffin can make sense to the European Tour, so could Co Sligo, provided they present a comparable deal. And players would be in for a real treat at Rosses Point, where after a visit in 1961, the celebrated English scribe Pat Ward-Thomas wrote “I had heard tell of its beauty, of its savagery when great winds roared from the ocean...”
BOYLE
WEATHER conditions akin to a succession of biblical plagues resulted in many of the 2nd round matches from the Spring League not taking place this week. All members are invited to attend a meeting in the clubhouse this coming Wednesday the 14th of February at 7.30 pm to discuss a number of proposed changes to the layout of the course. A full account of the proposals is available on the club website , www.boylegolfclub.com under the “Course” section. Many of the proposals are acknowledging the reality that some areas of the course never dry out fully in the course of a year and that cutting and maintaining these areas has become disproportionately labour intensive. There are a few other proposals including some tree-planting, re-aligning semi-rough areas and widening of hazards. The Captains Drive In takes place on Sunday the 25th of February.
Sligo duo David Brady and Cian Feeney from Maynooth University recently won the first ever Irish Student Sixes Tournament.
The competition’s shortened format was a big hit and a quicker form of the game was ideal for clubs to embrace.
Although the golf had to be put on ice following a 45-minute frost delay, the rapid foursomes format more than made up for the slow start at the Irish Student Sixes Tournament, played at The Heath Golf Club in Laois.
The first tournament of its kind for amateur golfers in Ireland, Maynooth University pair David Brady and Cian Feeney took first prize thanks to a top score of 15 gross stableford points over the final six holes. And the new-look competition met with warm support