Connor Mallon, the local professional at Narin & Portnoo GC took pity on my poor soul a couple of days back and offered me a quick lesson. Shooting low scores is not what this year is about, but the daily occurrence of spending half of the day looking for golf balls and wondering how you can possibly hit it staright has been wearing thin. Connor is the local pro and as we were chatting about all kinds of stuff after our round at Portnoo he said he??d have a quick look at my swing. Brunch, coffee and a spot of reading later I was back getting some sage advice. Connor quickly straightened out my swing advising me to stand a fair distance further away from the ball allowing my arms to swing naturally. I had been getting inordinately close causing some crazy swings to come out, some poor ball striking and, dare I say it, even the odd shank. Connor is a top lad who clearly knows his stuff and most importantly has a really easy way about him - a trait that goes a long way as a teaching professional.
New swing and all we arrived from Portnoo to Murvagh GC on a bleak afternoon. We??d been warned this was a long course and indeed there were 5 par fives scattered across the course along with a number of long and testing par fours. Murvagh is a flatter course than the ??dune monsters?? we??ve been playing allowing the wind to be much more of a factor. Add to this the fairway bunkering (as opposed to sand dunes framing each of the holes) and the course felt more like Carnoustie than the heavily duned courses we have been playing of late. Accordingly the cold wind whipping across the ocean was more of a factor making us take particular note of the direction of each hole. The holes flow around the course in various ways ?? as opposed to a traditional out and back links, and so the wind was always coming from a different direction. The pot bunkers, particularly along a number of the par fives were a feature and if you were to stay out of these you??ll go OK!
Around the far corner of the course there are spectacular views across the loch looking inland towards the township of Murvagh ?? a quaint township some 10 kilometers or so from the Donegal township.
Murvagh lived up to expectations as a quality championship golf course. It would sort of the men from the boys but it is also very fair. The green complexes and general design reward good shots and, whilst it was long, it didn??t feel like a constant struggle. The swing started to feel more natural as well and I found the golf ball going in the direction I had hoped on a few occasions and I probably had about 10 birdie putts as opposed to 3-5 which has unfortunately been the norm of late...
Teeing off at 3pm we had a clear run at it until we arrived on the 13th hole when we caught up to a field of serious golfers playing in some form of tournament sponsored by Tennents. At this stage the golf slowed to a mere crawl so much so that by the time we got to the par three 16th hole there were 4 groups of golfers on the one hole. So we joined up with a two-ball ahead to finish the last three holes ?? a couple from Northumberland on their first day of a golfing holiday around North West Ireland.
The slow golf over the last few holes was coupled by a turn in the weather. To put it simply, ??bleak? became ??wet?. And this was, without sounding too Irish, some very wet rain. JP persevered through it holing out for birdie on the 15th but with the wind whipping up from the ocean we??d both become rather cold and our fingers were close to losing all feeling. This year we??re supposed to be following summer but it sure didn??t feel like it today! We walked off the course saturated right through our wet weather gear and freezing cold. It was like being on school camp up in the southern alps. The kind of weather that would drive most sane golfers to the sanctity of the bar, but clearly the hardy (and competitive souls) ahead were up for finishing.
So we jumped through the shower, put on some warm clothes, popped open a Guinness (in a can and extra stout was not the same) and scooted up the road to our B&B for the night at Mount Edward Lodge half way along the road south to Sligo with our fantastic host, Maureen.
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Chisholm Park
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