Ballycastle – Golf Course Review

Golfer’s Tips

• For the golfing historians out there, or just golf geeks generally (guilty as charged), the very friendly pro shop will indulge you in a story (and wooden golf club evidence) of a very early golf meeting which suggests that Ballycastle was one of the first golfing venues in Northern Ireland.
• Fairly rare to have a graveyard as an out of bounds hazard, but on the short par 3 3rd hole you are hitting between this and the main road that runs between the parkland and links sections of the course. Suggest you take more than enough club which takes the OOB churchyard (over a small stone wall) out of play, providing a wider margin for error.

Signature Holes

• 7th – wonderful hole which makes full use of the unique positioning of the edge of the course above a beach and across the coastline from the dramatic headland of Game of Thrones fame.
• 17th – known locally as “the Pitch”, a unique par 3 perched on top of the hill before the descent down to the green some 180 yards but 100 feet below you – club selection is very much tested!

Review:

Purist golf in Northern Ireland, with beautiful coastal views and links elements, but with a twist.

Ballycastle won’t be top of the list if you’re looking for golf in Ulster, the big names such as Royal County Down, Portrush and Portstewart will always dominate and rightly so. That being said, if you want a reasonably priced round on a thoroughly interesting course then you can do a lot worse than Ballycastle.

The course is famously split into thirds, the first few holes are good parkland holes winding around the church on the other side of the road, which is followed by some standout links holes running alongside the beach, with the closing holes a challenging set of holes running along the clifftop and back to the clubhouse.

The views on the middle third are superb, including some Game of Thrones scenery for those that are interested, but it’s also a good golfing course with challenging and well thought out holes throughout. For me the early parkland holes are perhaps a bit weaker and more run of the mill, so for this reason Ballycastle is marked down below a rating it would get for the obvious quality and views of the coastal element of the course.

Well worth a visit, would definitely play again for the views and the diversity alone, a real hidden gem.

• “Top 100” Ranking: 10th (Co. Antrim)
• Golfer View Rating: 66%

Ballycastle Golf Club

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