Tulfarris - advice needed

madds

I'm playing Tulfarris next Friday afternoon (Weather God please be kind) and was wondering if anyone here would have a good knowledge of the course and provide some tips? It's a Committee outing/jolly out of Lucan and nothing would give me greater joy than to put one over some of them. Something along the lines of what Licksy provided in the Carlow Scratch Cup thread would be ideal.

Johnny_Fontane

its a nice course - tricky first few holes with water on the left of both first and second holes. The first is a good par 5 and unless you hit the ball huge a good three shotter - dont go left with the drive there is some trees over there and you cant really play out of them. 2nd is a nice par 3, tough shot normally into the wind but anything left is in real trouble, generous green. third is str8 forward par 4, fourth is a dog leg left - its long but if you get your drive out there its fine. 5th is a drive and a flick- use your three wood, green is tough - dont go long. 6th is a lovely par three that plays a little longer than it looks - short = death. 7th, 8th and 9th are all gentle doglegs, no major worries.

10 is the signature hole, you need to get your drive in position A1. If you slice it right into the bunker, you wont get there in 2, if you hook left, you're ob. If you were a high handicapper, you could play it as a par 5. otherwise the drive needs to be pinpoint with a little draw to run off the hill. if you get your drive in perfect position, the second is not too bad with a long green and plenty of room on the back of it.

11's a good par 3, dont be short again, some tough bunkers there. 12 is a difficult drive, you need to get to the top of the hill ideally but go right and you're blocked out with your second, go left and there is tough trees - if you're short make sure you're central. 13 is a gentle par 5 requiring another str8 drive, real problems left and far right - play it as a three shotter again. 14, the drive needs to be good....big tree on left hand side of green, you'll need to be long and have loft in your hands if you need to go over it. again blind landing position on drive and you can take it over the right hand bunker more than you think. 15 is a cracker and reachable with two good long shots, its all in front of you. 16 is a nice par 3, bad left and right are gone but the green is quite long and wide so dont go after pin if its on left hand side. 17 is another blind drive - not sure how long you hit it, but its basically about 200 yards to the ideal landing zone and then an 8/9 iron across the water....you will see a bunker from the tee and a driver will definitiely run into it. no issues being a little right, makes for a longer second but no major issues. 18th is a lovely drive, take it on, safety is up the lhs, avoiding the bunkers, but if you smash a drive its a 6/7 iron onto a two tiered green. slice = death on this hole!

enjoy! its a cracking course. its very wet though and you could get lots of mud balls, be prepared for those.....

madds

Thanks Johnny. I hit a reasonably long ball, but will keep an eye out for the soft fairways and factor those into my club selections. Very grateful for the feedback especially for those blind tee shots. I hate being indecisive on the tee so I'll stick to your pointers. Will let you know how I go!

Dr_Colossus

Resurrecting an old thread here. Looking at Turfarris as a possible club to join for 2011, I've read good reviews of the course and how it has a decent practice area where you can hit your own balls. As far as I'm aware their membership offer is €1,000 for the year but you can join from Nov 2010 and it will cover you until Feb 2012?

Now I've never played the course or been near it but hope to try and play it this weekend to get a feel for the place. As a prospective new member do clubs generally give you a free practice round or what's the general procedure before I ring. Also what's the course like this year in terms of drainage and wetness, I've read that they invested quite a bit in drainage this year so hoping some of the concerns might be resolved. Are there any members of Tulfarris on here or how would they generally rate the club both in terms of all year round playability and atmosphere? Do they have much members in general and what sort of numbers would they generally get in weekend competitions, easy enough to get out in the timesheet etc?

I haven't been a member of a club for about 6+ years when I was a junior/student member so gradually getting back into the game. I started playing this year in a society at work so wouldn't be at the complete beginner stages but I'm very rusty. Living in Dublin city centre if that has any bearing on other suggestions.

Thanks

shamco

Cracking course but very wet this time of the year. The bunkers were also very poor when I played during there this summer.

TheGrump

I play there a lot and love the course. The only downside is that in the last few months they have had lots and lots of societies and cheap green fees (myself included) playing at the weekends. As a result the last three times i played, it took a minimum 5 hours. I won't be going back to play at the weekends anymore.

Snakey

practice area where you can hit your own balls

doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun to me!

Mr. Larson

Snakey wrote: »

doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun to me!

Even less so when the range is primarily heavy rough. So try finding all of your balls after you have hit them down into 'the field'.

Tigerswoody

Lovely course, some great holes and one or two average ones but very poor drainage in places..... unfortunately.

1967

A course i have played a few times and totally enjoyed it although has to be said not in winter time.

jonas7

Couple of us playing there next thursday, green fees are 15 euro each which from what i've heard of this course is great value. Dissappointed to hear about the poor drainage but perhaps that explains the price.

puttputt

Played there last Sunday after heavy rain on Friday and very heavy rain on Saturday night/early Sunday morning. Overall the course held up well, the fairways were fine except for puddles in 1 or 2 places and the greens were excellent. Off the fairways and walking between holes it was a little marshy in places but considering the weather and the reputation the course has for poor drainage I was very happy.

Dr_Colossus

Was down there today to try out the course and facilities. Wanted a weekend after a solid few weeks of heavy rain to see just how wet the place was and was pretty impressed. Some of the tee boxes were a bit soggy and wet but fairways were well sanded and greens were very true and solid. Granted the greens were a bit slow but that seems to be a given for this time of year. There were a few muddy and wet soggy patches here and there but not bad considering all the rain as of late. Didn't get any plugged balls on fairways or rough which is what I was expecting and in general there was very little mud on the ball.

The money spent on drainage early this year seems to be paying dividends. There's evidence of the drains on a number of fairways as the ground has settled leaving little depressions in alot of them.

One gripe however were the bunkers which were pretty solid in general and some had little ruts where the sand was washed away. When I finished the round though I finally noticed the notice board which had the bunkers as out of play. They were in play earlier in the week but since the heavy rains on Thurs and Fri there was no time to re-rake them and have them prepared for the weekend.

The practice area or "field" was very wet with large puddles in parts and grass was generally very long. Tough enough to find some of the balls hit down with long irons, I'd say there would have been a good chance of short irons plugging and lost.