County Louth: Eire’s most underrated golf course you could play

If you’re fortunate sufficient to make a journey to Eire to play some golf, you could add County Louth Golf Membership to your checklist.

Often known as Baltray, County Louth is a hidden gem that runs by way of the whispy dunes alongside the Irish Sea. Smylie Kaufman and Justin Thomas, who performed this course after The Open this yr—and two days after I did—agree.

Not a single blade of grass is misplaced, leaving you with the impression that you’re strolling alongside heavenly floor. It’s a agency, truthful, good take a look at of golf—hyperlinks golf at its best. It’s a spot the place each golfer ought to play at the least as soon as.

Baltray sits 4 miles east of the city of Drogheda—the ‘g’ is silent—and 45 minutes from the Dublin airport, a comfort for these touring from North America.

This golf course has loads of accolades, too. Golf Digest Eire has it ranked because the eighth greatest hyperlinks golf course in Eire, whereas many others across the British Isles rave about this place, too.

The DP World Tour’s Irish Open has visited twice, most not too long ago in 2009, when Shane Lowry gained the title as an novice. The course additionally welcomes a few of the greatest gamers on the earth each June for the East of Eire Beginner Open Championship, one of many 4 vital novice occasions held on the Emerald Isle annually. The East of Eire has been performed right here yearly since 1941, apart from 2020 and 2021, when the pandemic shut issues down. Notable champions of the East of Eire embody 2011 Open Champion Darren Clarke and former prime novice Christo Lamprecht. This yr’s winner, Caolan Rafferty, a former greenskeeper at close by Dundalk Golf Membership, gained the 72-hole competitors at 15-under-par.

Photograph by Andrew Redington/Getty Photographs

The membership will even host the Boys Beginner Championship in 2025, the R&A’s equal of the U.S. Junior Beginner. County Louth takes large satisfaction in its junior golf and family-friendly environment, because it has 250 junior members, a lot of whom boast handicaps beneath 15. Competitions for juniors happen each Tuesday and Thursday all through the summer season and extra sporadically all through the winter months. Sure, County Louth’s local weather permits it to function 12 months per yr.

The course has a complete membership of about 1,500, a lot bigger than most golf equipment in america, a big chunk of that being households. It’s been like that for practically a century, too. The Connolly’s, Gannon’s, Garvey’s, Lyon’s, and the Reddan’s—to call a number of—have all performed a distinguished function in making certain the membership’s success over time, and so they proceed to take action to today.

Therefore, the tee sheet is loaded virtually day by day, and you will notice younger girls and boys taking part in in every single place you look, a welcome sight for any golfer of any age.

That additionally explains why internet hosting the Boys Beginner is such an enormous deal for County Louth, and the R&A gave it the final word reward prematurely of subsequent yr’s championship.

Earlier this summer season, an official from the R&A visited County Louth to scout the course and assess its situation. Just like the United States Golf Affiliation (USGA), the R&A prides itself on internet hosting its championships at the perfect venues.

So, whereas strolling down one among Baltray’s lush fairways with County Louth Basic Supervisor Ryan Donagher and Head Groundskeeper Wayne Murray, the consultant from the R&A started to shake his head in disbelief.

“This place is in higher form than any present Open Championship rota programs,” the official stated.

County Louth Golf Membership

“You’ve one thing particular right here.”

But, the course continues to make slight enhancements

It’ll bear an enormous sanding program to make the fairways even firmer, making it a greater hyperlinks golf take a look at. Donagher defined that, over the subsequent 5 years, this sanding program would hopefully put County Louth within the sphere of Portmarnock, Royal Portrush, and Royal County Down—three of the perfect programs on the earth, not to mention in Eire.

As somebody who has performed this golf course, it actually has that potential.

Each gap is memorable, and the pot bunkers—nicely, they’re fairly punishable. However by the point you attain the brief par-4 14th, you’ve got performed 13 phenomenal golf holes, all of which go in various instructions and have totally different traits. However there may be nothing fairly just like the 14th. You’ve the complete course in entrance of you, and the crisp, cool air from the Irish Sea whips off out of your left, making you are feeling like you’ve got transcended into an otherworldly {golfing} universe. And on prime of all of it, this gap is an engineering marvel. It performs as a brief, 330-yard par-4 from the again tees, veering barely from left to proper. The opening works itself gently uphill, to a inexperienced that has extreme drop-offs throughout—not in contrast to what gamers noticed at this yr’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2.

County Louth Golf Membership

However each inexperienced at County Louth has quite a few run-offs and assortment areas, forcing gamers to make use of their creativeness with their method. That’s the fantastic thing about hyperlinks golf and of this course. In any case, you could use the bottom to your benefit within the British Isles, taking part in the ball low and out of the wind. You even have to make use of the contours of the panorama to tally the perfect rating.

Take the par-4 4th, as an illustration—Donagher’s favourite gap on the property. One other brief par-4, this 379-yard magnificence has zero pot bunkers. As an alternative, a semi-blind tee shot leaves the participant uncomfortable on the tee, as do the mounds encompassing the inexperienced. It’s a quintessential hyperlinks golf gap, one the place you’ll be able to stroll away with a 3 or a six—with out discovering any of Louth’s treacherous holes of hell.

County Louth Golf Membership

Talking from expertise, it’s important to keep away from the pot bunkers, or else an eight or a 9 will present their ugly faces in your scorecard—a sight no one desires to see. I sadly made a 9 on the simple par-5 2nd, which ought to have been a simple birdie alternative. However I seemed like a silly 30-handicapper within the bunker, smacking 4 pictures into the revetted face earlier than strolling away with my tail between my legs.

And but, I had a smile on my face all day as a result of County Louth is that outstanding. After I completed my spherical, I texted my father, saying, “That is my new favourite golf course on the earth. It’s that particular.”

So, if you wish to expertise this extraordinary place, you’ll be able to name the County Louth professional store or use their on-line reserving system. Nevertheless, I encourage you to take action 12 months prematurely as a result of these tee sheets refill rapidly. Even then, it’s well worth the wait after which some. I do know I can’t wait to return, and hopefully, on your sake, you add County Louth to your checklist, too. It’ll without end be amongst my favorites.

Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By means of. Remember to take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You’ll be able to comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as nicely.