Craddockstown

Gary ITR

I'm playing Craddockstown in Naas on Monday for the first time, anybody got any helpful tips or hints?

WHIP IT!

First of all, you're in for a treat - it's a cracker! I love it...

Em, on the first - Par5 - there's water in play with your second - play well to the right, more right than you think you should...

There's also a relatively short hole on the back side, 13th maybe that you probably shouldn't take driver off - long iron or Rescue club should still lead you well inside the 150 (over water) for your second...

Gary ITR

I heard it was nice alright, thanks for the info

madds

Yes, Craddockstown is a really nice track - they've made great use of the limited space they have. The course was in great nick when I played there last March. The greens were superb. The first hole is a great opening hole, and the second shot is very important. As Whip It says, keep the ball well right (I think I played driver, 6-iron, 9-iron to 20 feet above the hole).

Food in the clubhouse is excellent and the staff are very friendly.

rubberduckey

Craddockstown is a very enjoyable course.

What I found very useful is, you can download this guide from the club website.



http://www.craddockstown.com/images/shotsaver.pdf

Good insight into all the holes.

madds

Well Onkle, how did you get one? Playing here next Wednesday myself so would appreciate your views - how it was playing, speed of greens, etc.

Gary ITR

Sorry for not posting earlier... Am away on holiday now.

Anyway played the course last Monday and I have to say I was super impressed. Greens were very fast. Lots of water on this course and very easy to get yourself into trouble.

milltown

Sounds great! I'm playing there on Thursday. Also of interest to me is the membership info on the site. €4500 for 5 day membership sounds good to me as I don't play at weekends anyway. I may be getting ahead of myself, not having actually played it yet, but does anyone know what the membership is like? Are they looking for members? (Guessing they'd be happy enough to take 5 day members that won't be clogging up the course at weekends). Or is it the type of place where you take your place on a list, wait two years for your number to come up, then, if you have two respected members to second you, and pass the interview process, you're welcomed with suspicious looks? Also wondering about annual subs.

Even further off topic: Is there anywhere else within reasonable distance of Lucan with good 5 day member prices?

1916

Distance membership in Longford is about €300 and its about 1hr drive from Lucan. It would take you longer to get to Craddockstown

1916

milltown

Riiiight.

I gather you're not familiar with the new road linking Lucan to the Naas road then. Craddockstown is 20 - 30 mins from my house. I have a mate living in Oak Glade, a couple of hundred yards from it.

madds

There's also a cheeky route back from C'town which brings you through Ardclough into Celbridge...helps you avoid Naas town altogether. Door to door it took me 30 mins to get from C'town to Leixlip yesterday.

I would say you'd have a good chance of getting in there on a 5-day membership. I know a couple of members so if you need any info, let me know.

Finally, the greens yesterday were very tricky. Theres hardly a straight putt in the place, although I did find them quite slow in places.

milltown

Yeah, less than 30 minutes each way yesterday without breaking a single speed limit.

What time were you there yesterday madds? We were out at 10.20 and the greens were pretty quick and I'd imagine they were only going to get quicker with the heat yesterday. Although the green for the index 1 seemed a bit softer, maybe because of the proximity of the stream and lake.

madds

We teed off at 12:30...had a grand run as there was no one in front of us. Got off to a great start with birdies on the first 2 holes - we were -3 after 4 holes.

Some the green are "newish" so I was told, so putts don't run true on them. I must have left 4/5 birdie efforts short, and that was after having seen my partners attempts!

Had a hcap of 6.2 (3-man team, 1/6 of the combined) but we only picked up a further 2 birdies (the last on 18) to finish with 60.8. Nice format and we enjoyed it.

How did you do?

milltown

madds wrote:

How did you do?

Don't mention the war!

I was playing with two mates. I couldn't hit the ball out of my way, either off a tee or off the odd bit of fairway I managed to find. It got so bad that I bade the lads farewell at the 12th and drove home thinking that I'd give the game up for a while. Had I stayed the 18 I would have been in the record books for the worst round of golf ever played. I have played badly before, never quite that bad, and thought about quitting the round but was usually only playing with one other so wouldn't leave him on his own. Yesterday I just felt that I had wasted my money but I didn't need to waste any more of my time.

Today I went and hit three buckets of balls at the driving range and got back into a bit of a groove, so I'm looking forward to my next game again. Tuesday probably.

Was well impressed with Craddockstown though, and we'll definitely be going back. I take it you were in a competition there? It must have started behind us then.