Lough Erne Golf Resort

jimjo

Played Lough Erne recently and the place is truly awesome. The best course I’ve played. And before you ask I’ve absolutely no ties with the course!

What’s so good about the course is that it’s extremely playable for a championship course which has aspirations for holding tour events. I played off the blue tees and it measures something like 6,750 yards but it didn’t feel all that long, five par 5’s making up the length. The 9th Par 5 not sure of the yardage but is god damn long. However there’s great variety on the course. Some holes are around Lough Erne while others are through forests. Leave the Driver in the bag for many of the par 4’s, the 17th, 10th, (although I used the driver and got great reward but if there was much wind I wouldn’t use it) and not a big club needed on the 2nd. On many of the par 3’s there no prizes for being short, its all carry over water, on the 6th its about 160, 15th, than the 18th its about 180 carry of the blue’s, not sure how’s its index 18!

Some great driving holes, the 1st (such a nerve jangling start!) 6th, 7th, 16th, (both of those two are great elevated tee boxes with terrific views over the course and Lough).

What really impressed me was how dry the course was. You’d swear there wasn’t any rain in the past few weeks the course is that dry. Its like playing a links without all the gusty winds. Apparently its built on 2 feet of sand, so the girl in the shop said, but whatever its built on the course is absolutely bone dry. It was a pleasure playing on a course where you wouldn’t rip the ground at the slightest touch. Within saying this it isn’t cheap to play, it cost me £45 and that was the cheaper morning rate, £60 after 9.30am and it goes way up during the summer. The day I played and I was about there for 5 hours on a weekday, there was no more than 5 other players on the course and I stayed to have a lovely steak and Guinness pie after and the clubhouse was dead to the world. Talk about missing out on the boom years.

IMO its certainly better than say the PGA National or Luttrellstown which I have a lot of time for. I think Kevin only played the front nine when he reviewed the course so would be interesting to see what he thinks and rates the place if he ever goes back there. It’s a good while from Dublin so that might put people off but I certainly feel they should make every effort to get up there.

Took some photos will post when I get them sorted.

Know there's another thread on here about Lough Erne but that’s mainly about the Lough Erne Challenge between McIlroy and Harrington but I feel in time more people will want to talk about this magnificent course!

thoscon

its a savage course.the 9th is a monster of a par 5.10th is a class hole took the driver aswell just short of the green with my drive.
whats the greens fees for the weekend for the winter ?

jimjo

Its £45 before 9.30 and £60 after.

The impression I got from the staff was that they would prefer the course be empty and rely on company days rather than your regular green fee'er. I suppose whatever pays. Membership is £30,000!

thoscon

oh right thought that was the weekday rate.
cant imagine it having many members at 30k in the current climate.
must try get down over the winter for the early tee off

GreeBo

Out of interest, were there many others about when you played?

BombSquad

jimjo wrote: »

Its £45 before 9.30 and £60 after.

The impression I got from the staff was that they would prefer the course be empty and rely on company days rather than your regular green fee'er. I suppose whatever pays. Membership is £30,000!

Did you have to get a cart? Or did you have to play in a fourball? Sounds like a great deal. Must give it a go over Xmas.

Kevinmarkham

jimjo wrote: »

IMO its certainly better than say the PGA National or Luttrellstown which I have a lot of time for. I think Kevin only played the front nine when he reviewed the course so would be interesting to see what he thinks and rates the place if he ever goes back there.

Took some photos will post when I get them s

Only got to play nine holes (not in the correct order) - the rest were still under construction and I didn't get to see the halfway house that they were so enthusiastic about. It's an amazing stretch and is up there in the top five, no bother at all. Probably the top three with Adare and Druid's Glen for excitement.

Jimjo, if you're interested in doing me a big favour, it would be great to add your photos of the other 9 to my Lough Erne Flickr site. I'll credit them to you, obviously. I just don't know when I'll get back to the course.

zztop

Best course I have played and agree with all that was said.
Watch out for the prices in the bar....they are quoted in sterling
and you will pay a lot more than you think.
DO not play the course from a buggy if they confine you to
using the paths only.You will be miles from your ball.
Love to go back on a summers day.

jimjo

GreeBo wrote: »

Out of interest, were there many others about when you played?

I’ve been down twice, one Sunday when it was quite blustery and not ideal for golf, I walked the front nine and seen no one and a few holes on the back and seen 4 people, two two balls. When I played it there cant of been anymore than 5 other people playing the course tops. The place stinks of money, everything is manicured to the last but there’s still a natural feel. As I said before, what impressed me the most was that the place is absolutely bone dry, if you keep it on the fairways or light rough you won’t even be scrapping grass off your shoes and no hint of mud on your trousers.

BombSquad wrote: »

Did you have to get a cart? Or did you have to play in a fourball? Sounds like a great deal. Must give it a go over Xmas.

No you don’t have to use a cart and they’ll have you in one, two, three or four balls, there not overly busy!!

Kevinmarkham wrote: »

Only got to play nine holes (not in the correct order) - the rest were still under construction and I didn't get to see the halfway house that they were so enthusiastic about. It's an amazing stretch and is up there in the top five, no bother at all. Probably the top three with Adare and Druid's Glen for excitement.

Jimjo, if you're interested in doing me a big favour, it would be great to add your photos of the other 9 to my Lough Erne Flickr site. I'll credit them to you, obviously. I just don't know when I'll get back to the course.

Yeah sure thing Kevin, no need to credit me. I fear you’ll only be able to use a few as on the elevated 16th tee which is probably the best tee box on the course the sun was blinding and the photo came out poorly, also the 17th which is in the same direction as the 16th and one that they use to advertise the course, the sun was the same. In any way I’ll email or pm you the lot and you can choose. If its of any help I’ll be playing the Farnham Estate shortly and will be taking a few photos of the new back nine and you’ll be more than welcome to have them also.

fullstop

zztop wrote: »

Watch out for the prices in the bar....they are quoted in sterling
and you will pay a lot more than you think.

:rolleyes:

Why wouldn't the prices be quoted in sterling? Last time I checked, Northern Ireland's currency was sterling.

conno16

anyone else up there recently?

jimjo

conno16 wrote: »

anyone else up there recently?

You planning on playing there soon Conno?? Know I already commented but a friend was down and was well impressed, not a bad track (better than Silloge just to let you know) but not sure if it would live up to your high standards..

conno16

yes i hope to play there before the summer
i've heard its extremely quiet on the course
presumably they'll have the tour packages coming in from march/april onwards though
the non-golf facilities are top of the range and far exceed typical nordie set-ups i'm reliably informed
i would have thought they'd be offering some good deals for jan / feb / mar in particular but this doesn't seem to be the case

jimjo

From what I gather and I don’t mean to be smart, but the owners have a lot of money behind the whole venture. They realise that the country is in a recession but they aren’t going to start panicking, their comfortable to sit out the recession whist the course matures. Many perceive it as the is the Irish version of Loch Lomond. But I too am a little surprised than there’s no specials or deals on.

Blunder

Yeah. AFAIK the owners are keen to maintain the exclusivity of the club and wont be doing much in terms of dirt cheap offers and the like. Also if the British Masters Goes ahead in the free week of the 16th-19th of Sept 2010 and is held at Lough Erne, Which is a big possibility, then prices will possibly go up instead of down!

Great track though.

ipitydafool

Yeah i have heard it is a near certainity for the British Masters. Would be great for the North and for us golf lovers to have more international tournaments on these shores.i have heard the course is of a unbelieveable high quality and obviously its owners have finance behind him and a long term plan for it to be one of this islands 5 star resorts. But as one poster compared it earlier to Loch Lomond it could easily follow its path (links below) if they dont get over the exclusiivty, high pricing, no special offer view. Loch Lomond was alot more established than Lough Erne, held a prestigious tournament every year and seemingly had an extremely well off owner:eek:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8308695.stm

http://forargyll.com/2009/10/troubled-loch-lomond-golf-course-to-cut-35-staff/