Macreddin golf club

blue note

Any thoughts on this place? I put my name down for their scratch cup on Sunday. I was bored yesterday and looked up the course guide and open up Google maps to check distances. Would I be right in thinking that you're probably better off leaving the driver in the bag on most holes? The holes really seem to get narrow around the 220m mark.

prawnsambo

blue note wrote: »

Any thoughts on this place? I put my name down for their scratch cup on Sunday. I was bored yesterday and looked up the course guide and open up Google maps to check distances. Would I be right in thinking that you're probably better off leaving the driver in the bag on most holes? The holes really seem to get narrow around the 220m mark.

Not really. Unless you're hitting it over 250 yards and even then, there's generally a line. Below are all straight shots unless stated otherwise:

1st - Take a line over the trees on the left. 2nd - Over the trees on the right. 3rd, so long as you're straight. 5th - Plenty of room, but take your line off the right side of the gorse on the left. 6th - A fun hole, but just don't be left. Right is fine albeit with the chance that you could get snookered behind a pine tree. 8th - plenty of room, but left fairway/rough is a good aiming point. 9th actually gets wider towards the dogleg. 10th plenty of room. 11th also plenty of room, but don't aim at the flag - right side of the hill is the line. 12th - probably best to keep the driver in the bag. Ideal landing zone is halfway up fairway on the right (about 200m). 13th - The Tiger line is about 10 yards left of the rightmost trees, there's a little fairway there that gives you a good shot at the green in two. Otherwise hit something shorter and left fairway. 15th - let her fly , 16th - A draw off the last trees on the left is ideal. 18th - Plenty of room, a slight cut off the bunker is the ideal shot.

Jim Stynes

I played a black tee comp here. Don’t think I broke 25 points! Such a hard course from the black tees. Completely exhausted as well! Book a buggy!

Frisbee

Jim Stynes wrote: »

I played a black tee comp here. Don’t think I broke 25 points! Such a hard course from the black tees. Completely exhausted as well! Book a buggy!

Can't stress this enough. It is a serious slog if you walk it (which I stupidly have done), my bag felt like it was full of bricks by the end.

blue note

Tees aren't specified. If it's black it'll be some fun! I saw killeen Castle had a stableford comp from the blacks. I think it was 7,667 yards or something. I wouldn't generally have problems with distance, but within reason! That's mental!

prawnsambo

Jim Stynes wrote: »

I played a black tee comp here. Don’t think I broke 25 points! Such a hard course from the black tees. Completely exhausted as well! Book a buggy!

Yeah, it's a different course. Some of the tee shots are absolute knee-tremblers.

prawnsambo

blue note wrote: »

Tees aren't specified. If it's black it'll be some fun! I saw killeen Castle had a stableford comp from the blacks. I think it was 7,667 yards or something. I wouldn't generally have problems with distance, but within reason! That's mental!

White tees, you can breathe.

prawnsambo

Frisbee wrote: »

Can't stress this enough. It is a serious slog if you walk it (which I stupidly have done), my bag felt like it was full of bricks by the end.

A good compromise is to walk the front nine and buggy the back. The rule there is buggies on the paths only, so you can sometimes be walking a bit to your ball anyway. The front nine is an easy enough walk, so you can mix it. But I'd say book one for the scratch cup and book early as they could run out of them with one player per buggy. Unless you're sharing with a family member or someone in your 'bubble'.

willabur

Macreddin is a brilliant park land course. It has some spectacular holes. If it wasn't such a pain in the arse to get to I would play it way more often.

You definitely need a buggy

But the buggy needs to stay on the path. It makes for alot of running around carrying around multiple clubs and a long long round. Don't expect a sub- 4.5 hour round would be my advice

Frisbee

Is it Macreddin that have the Competition off the black tees that's called 'Break 30' ? I think it is, which shows how tough it can play.

blue note

I kind of want to carry my clubs now. It seems like a challenge I have a chance in. I'm not confident of bringing in a good score, but I reckon I can carry my clubs and survive.

Skyfloater

Played it last Friday, there was placing on the fairways as it was surprisingly squelchy under foot.

GreeBo

Its a lovely course, you dont need a buggy, but I dont think I would carry either, just bring a power trolley.

First Up

Its a fine course but a fair old hike too.

copacetic

I always carry clubs, macreddin is the only course I haven’t. Played a couple of weeks ago and got buggy as usual, it’s a nightmare walk. It’s a very tricky driving course too in my opinion, very easy to kick off fairway mounds the wrong way into heather and unfindable on the front 9. 3 wood definitely the right call on the shorter par 4s and the unreachable par 5s. On back 9 it’s probably fairer, but still tight enough through the forest with some big carries if off back tees.

awec

Lovely course, a fair trek especially if you zig zag your way down every hole like I did.

Luckycharm

You need a buggy alone just to get from 9th green to 10th tee box

Jim Stynes

What’s it like off the normal tees? Off the black tees it was far too hard for me. So hard thst I wouldn’t go back. I play off 9 as well so I’m not totally crap but that was just far too much for me. Some of the tee shots were ridiculously long. It was a strange place as well, such an impressive course but hardly a green keeper in sight and no club house. Was this a Celtic Tiger set up at one stage?

First Up

Jim Stynes wrote:

What’s it like off the normal tees? Off the black tees it was far too hard for me. So hard thst I wouldn’t go back. I play off 9 as well so I’m not totally crap but that was just far too much for me. Some of the tee shots were ridiculously long. It was a strange place as well, such an impressive course but hardly a green keeper in sight and no club house. Was this a Celtic Tiger set up at one stage?

One of the worst cases. Entry money was eye wateringly high at first as I recall.

prawnsambo

First Up wrote: »

One of the worst cases. Entry money was eye wateringly high at first as I recall.

I read somewhere that it was €30k :eek:

Somebody told me recently that it actually went up after the first tranche of members joined.

What a mad time that was.

blue note

Membership is under a grand I think now. Wouldn't you hate to be that member that paid €30k!

prawnsambo

Jim Stynes wrote: »

What’s it like off the normal tees? Off the black tees it was far too hard for me. So hard thst I wouldn’t go back. I play off 9 as well so I’m not totally crap but that was just far too much for me. Some of the tee shots were ridiculously long. It was a strange place as well, such an impressive course but hardly a green keeper in sight and no club house. Was this a Celtic Tiger set up at one stage?

It's about 500-600 yards shorter off the whites. There's a scorecard in yards here. The blacks are a challenge alright, very difficult to get a good score. I played it a few weeks back with my son and had 22 or 23 points. He had 32 off 10. One day I'll do it.

The only tip I could give you on how to score off the blacks is concentrating on the par 3s and short par 4s. The par 5s are very difficult to score off when we've had weather like this for a while, they just play too long when there's very little bounce on the fairways.

Whites are easier in these conditions, but you still need to think each shot.

Frisbee

Jim Stynes wrote: »

What’s it like off the normal tees? Off the black tees it was far too hard for me. So hard thst I wouldn’t go back. I play off 9 as well so I’m not totally crap but that was just far too much for me. Some of the tee shots were ridiculously long. It was a strange place as well, such an impressive course but hardly a green keeper in sight and no club house. Was this a Celtic Tiger set up at one stage?

Surely all those abandoned Chalets on the back 9 gave that away? :pac:

Jim Stynes

Frisbee wrote: »

Surely all those abandoned Chalets on the back 9 gave that away? :pac:

Jesus I forgot about that too. Some massive houses sitting abandoned. Crazy! You boys in the south must have went mental with your money!!

prawnsambo

Jim Stynes wrote: »

Jesus I forgot about that too. Some massive houses sitting abandoned. Crazy! You boys in the south must have went mental with your money!!

I enquired about those once. I'm told (and I haven't checked) that they have planning permission as holiday homes, so can't be sold as residences. I think they're doing them up now, as when I was there a few weeks ago, I noticed new gas cylinders had been installed on each one. Covid probably put a halt to any other work.

awec

blue note wrote: »

Membership is under a grand I think now. Wouldn't you hate to be that member that paid €30k!

600 quid according to their site.

Only things going against this place is the lack of club house and the location is a bit awkward.

First Up

awec wrote:

Only things going against this place is the lack of club house and the location is a bit awkward.

Too far from Dublin to attract members but its nice to play a couple of times with dinner and overnight in the Brooklodge between rounds.

fullstop

prawnsambo wrote: »

I read somewhere that it was €30k :eek:

Somebody told me recently that it actually went up after the first tranche of members joined.

What a mad time that was.

You’d have to be mad to pay that money to join there, Celtic Tiger or not. Have played it 4 or 5 times and it has been very boggy every time.

blue note

So I'm not long home after teeing off at 11:50. Round took just over 5 hours! Then to compound it, there was some incident on the road on the way home. Not sure where, but it took me an hour and a half to get to the dundrum exit!

And my round did not go well either. Started okay, bogey on 1st, should probably have gotten up and down for par. 2nd hole I was perfect from the tee, so tried to lay up with a 5 iron. Pulled it left out of bounds. Drop 3, repeat 4, drop 5 decide to play an 8 I be safe and pulled it out of bounds left again. Then I decided I was gone from the comp so better pick up and not hold people up. Comp over for me on the second fairway!

So after that I probably didn't concentrate a whole lot, but hit some good shots until I got near the green generally. It's definitely not a course for the driver for me. 3w is much more accurate and you don't need the distance at all. Par 5s are u though to reach in two anyway, so there's a good argument to play an iron from the tee on these.

The 4th is a really odd hole. Impossible to club. There was a huge wind into us so I was trying to work out the how much to take off for that and add on for the elevation. So I hit a 6i. It carried the green, ob.

I think the 6th was the first hole I used my driver on. With the wind it's absolutely a driver hole, green very makeable and if your tendancy is to slice it right like me, you'll be in pines that aren't too dense. That said, I ended up blocked off, chipped out, then on, then two putts for a double.

The course is lovely, but condition could be a lot better. Tee boxes are in poor condition, whole course is very soft, greens soft and slow, fairways a bit sparse (they had placing). I carried the bag for the round and other than the walk between 9 and 10 the walking wasn't bad at all. The real downside to all the buggies is that they're anti social. Everyone kind of drives around on their own. Also, staying on paths and having to run across the fairway for each shot must be very frustrating.

There are some lovely holes on the course though. I think the index 1 is a real standout. The par 5s are very strong too. I don't think it's worth the journey for me to be honest though, I'll look for someplace closer next time.

GreeBo

blue note wrote: »

Also, staying on paths and having to run across the fairway for each shot must be very frustrating.

This drives me bananas, invariably I end up hitting the wrong club because I couldnt be bothered going back to the cart for the correct one.

blue note

GreeBo wrote: »

This drives me bananas, invariably I end up hitting the wrong club because I couldnt be bothered going back to the cart for the correct one.

What a guy in the group in front seemed to do was run across to check the distance, then go back to get his club. Same guy also came back to hit from the tee a few times in the round rather than play a provisional. And he must have been way out of the comp at this stage. His playing partners were driving off on him by the end of the round. I'm glad I wasn't in that group.

That said, I can't blame him for the hold up. Even with all that we were on the tee boxes with them waiting to hit off on most holes.

Neewollah

Played in the Scratch cup here yesterday also. Course well and truly beat me up in the end!!

1 over par through 7 in tough conditions I was extremely happy. Lost my drive then on the par 5 8th and couldn't get the momentum back after that. Back 9 I found was far tougher. I was hanging onto a score coming onto the par 5 13th. Hit my best drive of the day to the lowest part of the fairway. Rescue in hand because I didn't want to go long.....Ball in the air looked like I was going to have a 10ft eagle putt...Straight over the back into the long stuff....lost ball and that was that. Played abysmal then to the finish.

Good balance of holes on the course. Tough long par 4's with 3 driveable par 4's also. 2 of the hardest par 5's you'll ever play in 2 and 15 but the other 2 pars 5's are reachable. Great par 3's I felt. I thought the index one is a bit of a stupid hole myself to be honest and lets the place down a bit. No benefit to taking the braver line off the tee.

Course was a little soft but I didn't find it too bad with placing on the fairway. Problem was if you were a little left or right the ball would't come back off hills like they would in normal conditions leaving awkward stances. I found the greens very nice. Lovely roll to them and nice to putt on. They are a little slower compared to most but you could be aggressive. I suspect they a left a little longer due to the high winds in some parts of the course.

I probably will go back again now that I know my way around it better. Great course to really test all aspects of your game especially the driver.

willabur

First time I played there I was blown away by how good it was. We had carts but they didn't have that rule about sticking to the path

Second time I was there it was brutally slow, we must have had a 40 min wait on that downhill par three. Really takes the fun out of it, if you have a bad shot you have so long to bloody think about it rather than forget it and hit you next shot. Carts rule was in play then so sure enough the reason behind delays was a few lads up ahead going back and forth. I just brought an arm full of clubs, huge pain in the hole

Third and last time I played it it was just a brutal day.
I don't remember it as a course not to take the driver out on and I am a reasonably long hitter (270 average)

blue note

You can certainly hit driver on most holes (bar par 3s obviously), but you tend to be getting nearer to less forgiving landing areas. And on top of that, there's only a couple of holes that you'll be left with more than a 7i for your second shot if you hit a 3w or sometimes even a 4i from the tee.

For me I'm far more accurate with my 3w and hit it about 210m, so it's plenty long for that course. If you're accurate with the driver than by all means hit it. If you need some leeway with it it's not a course for driver.

wardides

blue note wrote: »

So I'm not long home after teeing off at 11:50. Round took just over 5 hours! Then to compound it, there was some incident on the road on the way home. Not sure where, but it took me an hour and a half to get to the dundrum exit!

And my round did not go well either. Started okay, bogey on 1st, should probably have gotten up and down for par. 2nd hole I was perfect from the tee, so tried to lay up with a 5 iron. Pulled it left out of bounds. Drop 3, repeat 4, drop 5 decide to play an 8 I be safe and pulled it out of bounds left again. Then I decided I was gone from the comp so better pick up and not hold people up. Comp over for me on the second fairway!

So after that I probably didn't concentrate a whole lot, but hit some good shots until I got near the green generally. It's definitely not a course for the driver for me. 3w is much more accurate and you don't need the distance at all. Par 5s are u though to reach in two anyway, so there's a good argument to play an iron from the tee on these.

The 4th is a really odd hole. Impossible to club. There was a huge wind into us so I was trying to work out the how much to take off for that and add on for the elevation. So I hit a 6i. It carried the green, ob.

I think the 6th was the first hole I used my driver on. With the wind it's absolutely a driver hole, green very makeable and if your tendancy is to slice it right like me, you'll be in pines that aren't too dense. That said, I ended up blocked off, chipped out, then on, then two putts for a double.

The course is lovely, but condition could be a lot better. Tee boxes are in poor condition, whole course is very soft, greens soft and slow, fairways a bit sparse (they had placing). I carried the bag for the round and other than the walk between 9 and 10 the walking wasn't bad at all. The real downside to all the buggies is that they're anti social. Everyone kind of drives around on their own. Also, staying on paths and having to run across the fairway for each shot must be very frustrating.

There are some lovely holes on the course though. I think the index 1 is a real standout. The par 5s are very strong too. I don't think it's worth the journey for me to be honest though, I'll look for someplace closer next time.

What a random one, I was in the group behind! We shared a few tee boxes on the back 9 due to the hold up. Not sure it's anyones fault (besides the lad in front of you who did seem to be slow enough). We played with a member who said rounds generally take 5 hours due to size of course. I was in a buggy as the father wanted one, but would have preferred to walk it. Ended up walking a good bit with 5 clubs in my hand unless ball was close to the path.

I thought the course was really disappointing, didn't think it was in good shape at all. Fairways were sparse, teeboxes were rough. Greens were slow, bumpy and just generally in bad shape. Played it a few times now and that's the worst it has been. Lovely design, just badly maintained. Certainly would not be in a rush back, especially not with the trek out & back as well.

blue note

wardides wrote: »

What a random one, I was in the group behind! We shared a few tee boxes on the back 9 due to the hold up. Not sure it's anyones fault (besides the lad in front of you who did seem to be slow enough). We played with a member who said rounds generally take 5 hours due to size of course. I was in a buggy as the father wanted one, but would have preferred to walk it. Ended up walking a good bit with 5 clubs in my hand unless ball was close to the path.

I thought the course was really disappointing, didn't think it was in good shape at all. Fairways were sparse, teeboxes were rough. Greens were slow, bumpy and just generally in bad shape. Played it a few times now and that's the worst it has been. Lovely design, just badly maintained. Certainly would not be in a rush back, especially not with the trek out & back as well.

It's such a small world! I stuck my name down on my own on the sheet and ended up playing with two guys who grew up with my brother in law.

I think the index 1 was his peak. Where he hit his drive I'm not sure I'd have bothered looking. And still he didn't play a provisional and had to come back. By the next tee box he had to wait to tee off again. I wonder if the course was moving faster would he have played faster too.

5 hours for a standard round is too much. I'm often a defender of people not rushing on a course. And I think people need to accept that rounds take longer than they did 20 years ago for a couple of reasons. But that being standard is ridiculous. They need to do something to tackle it.

wardides

blue note wrote: »

It's such a small world! I stuck my name down on my own on the sheet and ended up playing with two guys who grew up with my brother in law.

I think the index 1 was his peak. Where he hit his drive I'm not sure I'd have bothered looking. And still he didn't play a provisional and had to come back. By the next tee box he had to wait to tee off again. I wonder if the course was moving faster would he have played faster too.

5 hours for a standard round is too much. I'm often a defender of people not rushing on a course. And I think people need to accept that rounds take longer than they did 20 years ago for a couple of reasons. But that being standard is ridiculous. They need to do something to tackle it.

Yeah it was the index 1 where we came down and he was hitting again with his playing partners waiting on the fairway. I cannot fathom why people do not hit a provisional even if you only think your original may be in 5% of trouble. It takes 30 seconds, and especially considering you can play up even if you just want to play safe or whatever.

5 hours is too much alright, but walking that track, in a 4 ball I can see it taking that. 1/2 minutes between some tee boxes.

Member I played with had good knowledge of the club anyway. Mentioned it was 30k to join at the start. Privately owned now and big focus is on society/green fee golf. Bought the course & land for 1.6m, including the houses (find that hard to believe however, just due to the land size). Assuming he bought the club & houses and land is leased maybe. Issue with the houses was they were originally owned by the hotel as lodges, and something happened with Wicklow council meaning they are registered as hotel/holiday homes, meaning they must be vacant a certain amount of time a year. Apparently the reason they cannot be sold. According to the member that was the story anyway.

n.d.os

What's the story with the abandoned houses on the course?