Castleknock Golf Club -poor greens

lob020

I notice that Castleknock greens are no longer adverised as best greens in the country.I'm not surprised. having played there regularly over the last few years.the rapid decline is very noticeable. In my opinion they are now amongst the worst in the country.I wonder is the arrival of Care Golf.reduction in staff.maintenance and being one of the most played golf courses anything to do with deterioration. I am interested to hear other comments

pcasso

I am no expert but I haven't particularly noticed a significant drop in the standard in the last while.
I actually commented a month or so back how beautifully they were rolling that day I played.
They don't always appear to be perfect I suppose.

Mantis Toboggan

I played there a month ago and thought the greens were very good not perfect but certainly not the worst greens on Ireland. In fact I really liked the course. Up there with one of the best Parklands in the county that I've played.

First Up

The greens on several courses I've played recently are in relatively poor condition. I'm guessing its a combination of heavy traffic at this time of year and the wet weather. But I wish people would fix their pitchmarks.

bustercherry

It never had the best greens in the Dublin let alone the country. Probably got told to take it down due to false advertising,

lob020

bustercherry wrote: »

It never had the best greens in the Dublin let alone the country. Probably got told to take it down due to false advertising,

I would disagree with you there.the greens were super 3/4 years ago .however since takeover it appears that money is paramount hence skimping on costs/manpower result poor greens.I also see that builders have started work on new houses.how valuable would that land be for housing ?

Seve OB

bustercherry wrote: »

It never had the best greens in the Dublin let alone the country. Probably got told to take it down due to false advertising,

I would agree with that. They were alright though, seen plenty better, but also seen lots worse.

haven't played it in a good while now so couldn't really comment, but I was at a recent focus group there and the greens were an issue raised so I would expect to see some kind of action taken in coming months

slave1

lob020 wrote: »

I notice that Castleknock greens are no longer adverised as best greens in the country.I'm not surprised. having played there regularly over the last few years.the rapid decline is very noticeable. In my opinion they are now amongst the worst in the country.I wonder is the arrival of Care Golf.reduction in staff.maintenance and being one of the most played golf courses anything to do with deterioration. I am interested to hear other comments

Seems overtly harsh, I play there once a year and look forward to it, the greens were perfect when we had our society outing in July, everyone was full of praise.
I'd say they are certainly in the top half of greens in the country and that is being conservative.
I know you are entitled to your opinion and all that but does appear misinformed, I've played on a lot worse this year.

lob020

As one who plays there regularly ,I can only comment on what I see and I would say mine is an informed opinion.
Perhaps you can explain how I am misinformed
We are all entitled to our opinions and I welcome all comments,but dont call me misinformed without any explanation

ForeRight

Guess who had a shocker of a day putting in castleknock

lob020

ForeRight wrote: »

Guess who had a shocker of a day putting in castleknock

Who ??

ForeRight

lob020 wrote: »

Who ??

You

lob020

ForeRight wrote: »

You

Fair comment.I know what your trying to say in a humorous way .however I would suggest that half the members of the golf club would agree with my comments. The other half may have their head buried in the stuff that seems to be always on the greens

Ollieboy

Personally I would rather if comments like this were said to the club and the officers of the club instead on a public forum where it can do lasting damage to a club as these comments can't be removed from the internet. But I can understand your frustration.

Once any club as to many members (deals) and is overused and ran by a business rather then the members, then these problems will always happen at different stages. If they don't make a profit, they won't invest in machinery etc. We just purchase a rough mower at 80k, so it's huge money to keep up the maintenance of a course, something which most people don't understand or consider. It also comes back to the question what is a fair price for a round of golf....

But if it's a members own club, they will always try to invest all the spare cash back into the club, but this also doesn't mean they are the best people at getting value for money for the club which can lead to different problems.

lob020

Ollieboy wrote: »

Personally I would rather if comments like this were said to the club and the officers of the club instead on a public forum where it can do lasting damage to a club as these comments can't be removed from the internet. But I can understand your frustration.

Once any club as to many members (deals) and is overused and ran by a business rather then the members, then these problems will always happen at different stages. If they don't make a profit, they won't invest in machinery etc. We just purchase a rough mower at 80k, so it's huge money to keep up the maintenance of a course, something which most people don't understand or consider. It also comes back to the question what is a fair price for a round of golf....

But if it's a members own club, they will always try to invest all the spare cash back into the club, but this also doesn't mean they are the best people at getting value for money for the club which can lead to different problems.

Some intelligent comments there and I agree with most of them.I'm hoping as a result of this type of forum/discussion that the club will realise that there is a problem and take action.I will gladly return to this public area and acknowledge if things change within a few months.it sometimes needs a forum like this to make people sit up and take notice of grumblings within the club that are never openly spoken about

First Up

lob020 wrote: »

Some intelligent comments there and I agree with most of them.I'm hoping as a result of this type of forum/discussion that the club will realise that there is a problem and take action.I will gladly return to this public area and acknowledge if things change within a few months.it sometimes needs a forum like this to make people sit up and take notice of grumblings within the club that are never openly spoken about

I like Castlenock a lot and I have sympathy for all clubs trying to maintain course conditions, especially if you have a lot of visitors who don't bother to clean up after themselves.

That said, when a club advertises itself as having "probably the best greens in Ireland" they are making a bed for themselves.

Seve OB

lob020 wrote: »

Some intelligent comments there and I agree with most of them.I'm hoping as a result of this type of forum/discussion that the club will realise that there is a problem and take action.I will gladly return to this public area and acknowledge if things change within a few months.it sometimes needs a forum like this to make people sit up and take notice of grumblings within the club that are never openly spoken about

do you really think golf clubs are looking on here or similar forums? we most certainly have a few clubs represented and a few members of importance who dip in and out, but I don't honestly believe any club is monitoring forums to find out where their problems lie.

As I already mentioned, it was a topic brought up at a recent group organised by Castleknock Golf Club, so by the very nature of them organising the focus group surely implies they are interested in investigating the issues and doing what they can to improve the facilities. By the way, that focus group was ran at all Carr Golf Locations

bustercherry

lob020 wrote: »

As one who plays there regularly ,I can only comment on what I see and I would say mine is an informed opinion.
Perhaps you can explain how I am misinformed
We are all entitled to our opinions and I welcome all comments,but dont call me misinformed without any explanation

Obviously not when you believe they had the best greens in the country. No one was saying they were bad but ffs catch a grip; as I said there are courses with better greens in Dublin alone.

lob020

bustercherry wrote: »

Obviously not when you believe they had the best greens in the country. No one was saying they were bad but ffs catch a grip; as I said there are courses with better greens in Dublin alone.

I never said they had the best greens in the country.thay were advertised as best greens in the country and I said they were super a few years ago.
Maybe we should start a new thread "Best and Worst greens in Ireland" and you can list your worst and best
Please read carefully before making your comments

slave1

lob020 wrote: »

As one who plays there regularly ,I can only comment on what I see and I would say mine is an informed opinion.
Perhaps you can explain how I am misinformed
We are all entitled to our opinions and I welcome all comments,but dont call me misinformed without any explanation

I was (and bolded) responding to your comment on "amongst the worst in the country". To make this comment in a fair manner you would need to play on a lot of golf courses up and down this fine isle.
I've played on 21 different courses this year and would not place Castleknock greens in the bottom tier and I don't play (with respect) the "bottom" courses.
I'm finished with this thread now, you've clearly made up your mind

lob020

slave1 wrote: »

I was (and bolded) responding to your comment on "amongst the worst in the country". To make this comment in a fair manner you would need to play on a lot of golf courses up and down this fine isle.
I've played on 21 different courses this year and would not place Castleknock greens in the bottom tier and I don't play (with respect) the "bottom" courses.
I'm finished with this thread now, you've clearly made up your mind

I do respect your opinion and it's interesting to hear that Castleknock greens are in the top half of the courses that u have played.however u only played castleknock once.so its hard for u to compare the greens now to what they used to be like.Apologies if I appear trucculent and I have played at least 20 other courses in Ireland this year and castleknock is amongst the worst
BTW I played Druids Glen a couple of weeks ago and the greens there were terrible also

BigChap1759

Seve OB wrote: »

do you really think golf clubs are looking on here or similar forums? we most certainly have a few clubs represented and a few members of importance who dip in and out, but I don't honestly believe any club is monitoring forums to find out where their problems lie.

As I already mentioned, it was a topic brought up at a recent group organised by Castleknock Golf Club, so by the very nature of them organising the focus group surely implies they are interested in investigating the issues and doing what they can to improve the facilities. By the way, that focus group was ran at all Carr Golf Locations

Apologies for off topic but is there s relationship between Carr Golf and Synnergy?

Seve OB

BigChap1759 wrote: »

Apologies for off topic but is there s relationship between Carr Golf and Synnergy?

Don't know

Macker1

BigChap1759 wrote: »

Apologies for off topic but is there s relationship between Carr Golf and Synnergy?

Why do you ask ? Just curious

PARlance

BigChap1759 wrote: »

Apologies for off topic but is there s relationship between Carr Golf and Synnergy?

They are seperate companies that both provide, amongst other things, management services (running, maintenance etc) to golf clubs. Some of the clubs Carr handle are Corballis, Castleknock. Synergy manage Grange Castle, St. Margarets.

lob020

PARlance wrote: »

They are seperate companies that both provide, amongst other things, management services (running, maintenance etc) to golf clubs. Some of the clubs Carr handle are Corballis, Castleknock. Synergy manage Grange Castle, St. Margarets.

To wrap this up- of the contributions /comments received .3 (including myself) say they are v poor greens.and 3 say they have good greens
So stalemate and nobody has managed to convinced anyone one way or the other
Maybe it's just one mans poor greens are another mans good greens.
I would encourage people to look up descriptions of good greens
Anyway it ends here and as already said I will be happy to come back in 6 months to give u all an update.thanks for comments

fullstop

lob020 wrote: »

I would disagree with you there.the greens were super 3/4 years ago .however since takeover it appears that money is paramount hence skimping on costs/manpower result poor greens.I also see that builders have started work on new houses.how valuable would that land be for housing ?

I take it you've never played Lucan. Streets ahead of what Castleknock ever were.

Ollieboy

fullstop wrote: »

I take it you've never played Lucan. Streets ahead of what Castleknock ever were.

People reckon that Lucan actually have THE BEST GREENS in the country, but they spent a lot of money on them and it's a very well ran members club that got a financial win fall a couple of years ago. This why I always believe it's best to join a club that is own by the members and ran as a business compared to a club that is ran as a business for profit only.

Ollieboy

BigChap1759 wrote: »

Apologies for off topic but is there s relationship between Carr Golf and Synnergy?

Carr Golf and GCMS are the same business but set-up as two separate companies, Synnergy and BRS appear to be own by the same people. BRS also have there fingers in other golfing pies.

fullstop

Ollieboy wrote: »

People reckon that Lucan actually have THE BEST GREENS in the country, but they spent a lot of money on them and it's a very well ran members club that got a financial win fall a couple of years ago. This why I always believe it's best to join a club that is own by the members and ran as a business compared to a club that is ran as a business for profit only.

If not the best, they're always pretty close any time I've played there. Came close to joining a few years back.

lob020

fullstop wrote: »

If not the best, they're always pretty close any time I've played there. Came close to joining a few years back.

I havent played Lucan for a while.but I accept your point
Best greens I have played on this year would include Woodbrook,Newlands,Macreddin,Bunclody,
Ashbourne,Powerscourt and Hermitage to name but a few.No need for me to name the worst
Also agree with the point made regarding members owned clubs as opposed to privately owned business /profit oriented ones

the lawman

lob020 wrote: »

I havent played Lucan for a while.but I accept your point
Best greens I have played on this year would include Woodbrook,Newlands,Macreddin,Bunclody,
Ashbourne,Powerscourt and Hermitage to name but a few.No need for me to name the worst
Also agree with the point made regarding members owned clubs as opposed to privately owned business /profit oriented ones

I don't have a side in this at all but you said there is no need to name the worst yet you started a thread on a popular golfing public forum stating that a named golf course has the worst greens in the country.

If I was connected in some way to the club I'd be pretty annoyed at this thread.

lob020

the lawman wrote: »

I don't have a side in this at all but you said there is no need to name the worst yet you started a thread on a popular golfing public forum stating that a named golf course has the worst greens in the country.

If I was connected in some way to the club I'd be pretty annoyed at this thread.

If you read my post .it says in my opinion they are amongst the worst in the country.no need for me to repeat it .Why would you be annoyed.I'm entitled to my opinion
I'm hoping that forum like this might bring about improvements to the course
Anyway as I stated already.No need for further comment but will report back in 6 months

the lawman

I'm not annoyed at all, as I stated, but I certainly would be if it was my course you decided to share your opinion about.

There is definitely more constructive and helpful ways to tell a club it may want to do this or that than start a thread with that title on the biggest public forum in the country.

lob020

the lawman wrote: »

I'm not annoyed at all, as I stated, but I certainly would be if it was my course you decided to share your opinion about.

There is definitely more constructive and helpful ways to tell a club it may want to do this or that than start a thread with that title on the biggest public forum in the country.

Castleknock Golf Club is owned by Oaktree Capital Management a vulture fund and managed/run by Carr Golf purely for enjoyment and pleasure of members😂
They are big boys who can withstand criticism from this tiny forum