Bushmills Causeway Coast Competition

Matt Santos

Going up to Portrush on Sunday to play this superb week of Golf.
The best run and organised Amateur Golf Competition I have ever been involved in. Four rounds in the five days. Portrush, Portstewart, Ballycastle and Castlerock.
This is my 5th year making the journey and every year the crack is better and better. You get to meet the best of guys from all over the world. I have played with lads from America, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Britain and Canada.
Any one else making this trip?

slumped

sure don't look like it.

YBF


S

Matt Santos

Wow!
Just back from the North and what a week. The sun was beating down from the off and we could not have asked for better conditions. The journey up was pretty non eventful but once I got to Portrush the fun started. There was the traditional opening of the event in Royal Portrush Clubhouse on the Sunday evening and plenty of drink was flowing. Got to meet some of my past golfing partners who have played this for many years now.
First round was 8.50am on Monday Morning. Played with Larry from Canada (13), Wheets from The Netherlands (5) and Quentin from Scotland (12). Had a nightmare front nine with just four pars, no birdies and three dings! A turn of just 11 points! Suddenly the game came back and I fought back with 25 points on the back nine! A four under back nine. A steady 36 off of 6 for day one.
Second round saw us in Castlerock. I think its the toughest course we play and I got away with 34 points. I had a super drive on ten but failed to capitalise and ended up having a terrible double bogey six. Fought hard but having bogeyed 16 & 17 had to settle for the 34.
The third round saw a mix of partners and I had the pleasure of Eamon from Portstewart (5), Peter (11) from Royal Melbourne and Diarmuid from north Yorkshire. At last 18 holes that was to come together for me and an impressive 40 points was to lift the personal score up to 110. Now I was in the mix but a mere six points from the top. How expensive was the charged putt on 18 to cost me?
The last round was with the same fourball as the day before in Portstewart. A mighty start with a birdie on the first and a very makable putt for birdie on the second that just slid by to start my round. I felt another 40 points would shake the top. I turned with twenty and the game was good but disaster was just minutes away. A drive just on the right on 10 was to yield a double bogey for no points, a slight miscalculation on 11 was to result in another bogey for a single point & a putt left short robbed me of a certain two on the par three twelfth. Kellys night club from the night before was taking its toll and the inevitable happened with a daft scratch on 13. I finished with 34 points which gave me a total of 144 for the three rounds.
So there you have it! Level 2's for the four rounds.

Slumped,
Sorry you got your wrist slapped for jumping the gun.
Can not see how your post benefits anybody? Started this thread hoping that I could contact at least one other who can and does appreciate the work that is put in to organising this event. Not to be ridiculed in the manner that you have with your weak post. Would appreciate a positive response to any other thread that I start from you from now on. Pity to see a fellow golfer who obviously loves the game to be brought to this!!

Matt

Trampas

I played in the North East classic before but was heading up and down as courses where Laytown & Bettystown, Ardee, Dundalk, Seapoint. Was in the hunt with one round to go but got rained off. One a daily prize in Laytown which gave me a nice piece of glass.

I noticed must of the players from abroad seem to get a lend of handicaps as most were crap of low handicaps.

They are good crack all them same.

Great for meeting people from other countries.

I do is get shamrock pins for a couple of euros and give them to my fellow players not from Ireland as a token.

CLADA

Sounds like a great trip matt, just interested to know is it invitation only?

Matt Santos

Clada,
Yes it certainly is a class week to play golf and the courses are fantastic.
No its not an invitation tournament at all. It is run in association with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. There is a stipulation of sorts that the maximum from any one Club is 12 entries.
http://www.blackbushgolf.com/apply.html
This gives you all the contact people that are required.
I can guarantee that you will not enjoy playing golf better than at this competition.

Matt

Oliverdog

Matt:
I was hoping to get to this for the first time this year with some friends from the UK but they didn't make the trip this year, because some of the members had got fed up with the 5-hour rounds in recent years, they say because of people constantly holing out for 9s and 10s in Stableford format. The organisers had tried to reassure by saying they were putting more marshals on the courses, but they still decided not to go. Did you see any evidence of slow rounds this time?

TheDoc

sounds like a good trip, must look into this next time its on, get me and my mates up.

Contemplating a road trip for a week and play loads of golf, or go to spain/portugal for the week and play golf, ORRRRRR.....save up this year and next year to go Sawgrass

Matt Santos

John,
This was beginning to creep in over the last few years. Early morning tee times were not being affected but the later times were a torture!! It seemed that there were loads of little competitions going on between friends so they had to finish out holes etc.. But this was stopped in no uncertain terms from the get go. A little speech from the 1st tee from the starter more or less said that they knew that guys were playing little games between themselves but that unless it was Stableford based they were not interested. If you had taken two shots more than the par on a hole you were requested to pick up unless you were in the hunt for the Gross.
Much more emphasis was placed at the registration stage to produce Handicap Certs to prove that the competitor was at least 18. A misunderstanding before was that anyone over 18 would have to play off of 18 instead that you had to be at least an 18 to be able to play.
Indeed there were much more Stewards and Marshals this year and play moved on at a much more swifter pace. I think they had the times more spread at 12 minutes instead of 10 minutes for each Fourball tee time. I noticed also that at 11am each day they had a sponsors tee time which was not used for three of the four days so that even spaced it out further.
This 6 hour plus rounds were upsetting the lower handicap players most and I think that there was an exodus of sorts last year. It was something that was noticed and as you can see it was seriously addressed.
Hope this helps.......

Matt

Oliverdog

Matt:

Yes it does, thanks. It's nice to see that the organisers were as good as their word in trying to do something about the slow play. I'll be living down here for good by next year's event, so if my old friends do not make the trip I'll perhaps go independently - I certainly think that from what I've heard that getting a few games with some friendly golfers is simply not a problem.
Good luck with your golf.

John

Matt Santos

Entries for this tournament are being accepted at the moment.
You will need to make contact with Jackie Graham to get sorted.
Contact e- mail address is in a post above.

Matt:D

stockdam

For anyone who hasn't played the courses then you won't be disappointed.

For me Portrush is the pick and can be a real test especially when the wind blows.

Castlerocka and Ballycastle are also good courses.....I've never played Portstewart but it always is well recommended.

krutt

Sounds very similar to a competition we are running in May.
www.kerrygolfclassic.com
Playing Tralee, Ballybunion, Beaufort, and Killarney. Accomodation in new 4* hotel in Tralee. €2200 for team of 4. What price in Portrush?
I tend not to play winter golf because of the weather but it sounds like you were blessed up there.
I played in the Tramore classic lasy year was a great competition well run very enjoyable. It led us to running this one in Kerry. Hopefully we have the best courses at an affordable rate for all Golfers.

Matt Santos

Cost for this is £170 for all the golf. That includes the prizes etc.
You need to look after the hotel/B&B yourself.

krutt

Matt,
Thats good value, especially for the courses involved. My only concern is that i cannot play in wind & rain. Do you run a similar comp in the summer months?
Kieran

stockdam

The Causeway Coast competition is usually in June........I think the original post was last year and it's been bumped up recently.

Matt Santos

krutt wrote: »

Matt,
Thats good value, especially for the courses involved. My only concern is that i cannot play in wind & rain. Do you run a similar comp in the summer months?
Kieran

Value is indeed super. As I have said earlier it is organised along with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board so they are very well organised in the advertising dept. It is a mid week event so it needs help from the members of the courses involved but it reaps huge money for the Northern economy. Maybe you need to look and see if the Tourist Board have any help for you in the promoting stakes?
Funnily enough the weather is usually very good at that time of the year so very little rain! I have heard though from some of the long time participants that they got a belt of rain in 2001 and that was bad!! I always come back looking like an indian with the colour I get. The breeze with a bit of sun can really tan you up.
I think you may have misunderstood me somewhere along the way. I dont have anything to do with the organising of any competition. I can only say that if there is anything that you would like to know about this well run Tournament feel free to PM me and I can answer any questions that you have.

Matt

krutt

Matt,
No chance of any support down here for our event. the only thing they said was that they would mention it on the web site (wow!)
I learnt a lot from the Tramore Classic we entered last year and hopefully if all goes well with our classic i will get up north later in the year. Must say i dont fancy the 7 hour drive.
Kieran