a
CONTACT

 
-
COMMENTARY
& OPINION—
REAL LIFE
INTENSELY
COMPRESSED
select
———
-
2010
TRAVEL
PACKAGES
& PRICES:

BRITAIN & IRELAND:
select
• SCOTLAND    
• 2010 PRICES
UP TO 19% BELOW 2009 LEVELS!
•
•
• IRELAND       
• 2010 PRICES
UP TO 12% BELOW 2009 LEVELS!
-  
•
• LONDON        
• 2010 PRICES
UP TO 19% BELOW 2009 LEVELS!
-
-
• ENGLAND       
 • 2010 PRICES 
UP TO 19% BELOW 2009 LEVELS!
••
• WALES        
• 2010 PRICES
UP TO 29% BELOW 2009 LEVELS!
select
Booking Your Trip to
BRITAIN/IRELAND
select

-
•
select
SCANDINAVIA:
select
• DENMARK 
ct• NORWAY .   
ct• SWEDEN     
ct
• 2010 PRICES     
UP TO 23% BELOW 2009 LEVELS!
select
Booking Your Trip
to SCANDINAVIA
select
•
select
NEW ZEALAND:
sa
• NORTH ISLAND
• SOUTH ISLAND.
• 2010 PRICES     
UP TO 33% BELOW 2009 LEVELS!
select
Booking Your Trip
to NEW ZEALAND
a
———
a
Got Yours Yet?
ORDER A FREE
'VACATIONS'
CATALOG!
select

select
——
select
DEALS AND
SPECIAL OFFERS
select
——
select
GET A FREE
TRIP PROPOSAL!
select
——
select
SUBSCRIBE TO:
HomEzine
our
FREE
TRAVEL
NEWSLETTER
sent by e-mail!
Each issue includes
the latest Deals,
News and Features!
See the
CURRENT ISSUE.
select
———
select
CURRENT
FEATURES:
select
ADVENTURE
select
GOLF
select
LODGING
select
PEOPLE
select
———
select
CONTACT:
HOME AT FIRST
(800) 523-5842
info@homeatfirst.com
a
HOME AT FIRST

a


— Golfing Gems on the Emerald Isle —

Seaside, but not a links. Traditional, but not old. Built by a strong
membership, but reliant on visitors’ rounds. Bantry Bay Golf Club
is a delightful mixture of contradictions, just like Ireland, itself.
-

Bantry Bay Golf Club: when the winds aren't a factor, the grand views may distract your concentration.
Bantry Bay GC Photo.
--

Bantry Bay Golf Club
Donemark, Bantry, County Cork, Ireland
Tel: +353 (0)27 50579
Email: info@bantrygolf.com
Web Site: www.bantrygolf.com/

          Golf courses, like restau-rants, colleges, and prisons like to drop names of famous guests, diners, graduates, and inmates. Bantry Bay Ireland’s two great claims to fame are the failed landing of an Irish independence army under the fascinating Wolfe Tone in 1796(an invasion supported by the French navy), and the region’s delectable molluscular morsel, the mussel.
          One mile out of Bantry to the north, spread along the cliffs and slopes above Bantry Bay, is the inlet’s namesake golf course, with three more names to drop: Christy O’Connor, Jr., Eddie Hackett, and

Aerial view of Bantry Bay Golf Club. The front nine is to the left.
The more dramatic cliffside holes are along the back nine.
Bantry Bay GC Photo.

 Christy O'Connor, Jr., hoists
the senior Claret Jug—one of
two he won during his playing
career. Today the popular
Galway golfer designs courses.
He collaborated with the late,
great Eddie Hackett to create
the Bantry Bay course.

Dan Rooney. The former two are the illustrious course designers who put together this handsome track for the club, founded in 1975: O’Connor the flamboyant native Galway golfer-turned-course architect and Hackett the unassuming minimalist golf designer whose simple purity of concept touched dozens of courses grand and modest across Ireland until his death at 86 in 1996. O’Connor’s got seventeen tournament wins to brag about, including a couple of Geritol Jugs from consecutive Senior British Opens (1999 & 2000). Now, at 60, he has a collection of bigger trophies: design credits for Palmerstown’s PGA National course (Co. Kildare), the Galway Bay Golf and Country Club (Co. Galway), and more than two dozen other Irish courses adorn his resume. As for Eddie Hackett, his is a legacy ready-made for any Mt. Rushmore they decide to chisel for golf course architects. Count these landmark linkses among Hackett’s better-known achievements: Connemara, Enniscrone, Waterville, Rosapenna, Carne, and—the crown jewel—Donegal (Murvagh). In recent years Nicklaus, Palmer, Robert Trent Jones, Greg Norman, and Tom Fazio (among big name designers) have plied their wares

in Ireland. Not one of their singular works has dethroned little-known Eddie Hackett as the master in Ireland: the aggregate of Hackett’s work must rank with any single architect’s career output: Ross, Braid, Mackenzie, Dye, Morris, Park, et al.
          Oh, yes, we mentioned Dan Rooney. The erstwhile second generation owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers left a satisfying note in the Bantry Bay guest book: “Ireland’s best kept golfing secret.” That’s a healthy recommendation for American golfers who are also pro football fans—aren’t they all? It doesn’t hurt that the recently

The 10th green at Bantry Bay Golf Club:
the course's signature Pebble Beach hole.
Bantry Bay GC Photo

-

-

THE COURSE AND SOME NOTABLE HOLES:
The Bantry Bay Golf Club course is decidedly seaside. Indeed, some fourteen of its holes offer views of the open waters of Bantry Bay, along with the rugged Cahas and other ranges strung along southwestern Ireland’s Beara peninsula that forms the northern perimeter of Bantry Bay. But the site of the course is not the sandy dunesland that defines a true links. Rather, Bantry Bay’s position is characteristic of rich, sloping, farmland connecting a hilly plateau to the water’s edge. Several holes have ponds and small water

The 11th fairway at Bantry Bay Golf Club.
Can scenery be considered a hazard?.
Bantry Bay GC Photo

• Hole #6, Par-4, 400 yards: This moderately long par-4 is the number two handicap hole at Bantry Bay. Its challenge comes from the tree-lined out-of-bounds lining the left side of the tight fairway, a narrow throat between two ponds at the elbow of its dogleg turn to the left and a large bunker guarding the right side of the green. The challenge at 6 is made greater anytime strong crosswinds come off the bay, daring golfers to hit into the wind, but also into the out-of-bounds line and the ponds.

The 6th hole at Bantry Bay Golf Club.
Bantry Bay GC Photo.

• Hole #10, Par-4, 389 yards: One of the three ocean holes at Bantry Bay, #10 asks for a drive off the tee into the wind right to the elbow of the dogleg right where Ireland drops into the Atlantic. A second shot must parallel the coastline and fight any sea breeze to the small green snuggled into a protected rise overlooking the crashing waves. This beauty is the course’s Pebble Beach hole, and the 7^th-rated challenge at Bantry Bay.
-

The 10th hole at Bantry Bay Golf Club.
Bantry Bay GC Photo.

• Hole #12, Par-4, 431 yards: The #1 handicap hole at Bantry Bay is this longish par-4 with prevailing sea breezes behind the drive off the tee into a wide fairway with an out-of-bounds bordering a shoulder of rough to the left. The trouble at #12 really begins with the second shot to the green from the elbow of the dogleg right. Placement of this shot must be carefully made, as a large pond guards the approach to the green and clumps of trees and two strategically place bunkers circle the small green. Brave is the golfer who tries to fly this collection of hazards and drop his shot softly on the twelfth green.
                                                                    The 12th hole at Bantry Bay Golf Club.
                                                                                                                                                            Bantry Bay GC Photo.

• Hole #16, Par-4, 453 yards: There is more to this par-4 than its extreme length to challenge golfers. Its tight, tree-lined fairway requires both length and accuracy off the tee. A second shot must play through a slight dogleg right and across a creek that slices through the neck of the fairway. The green is small and wedged between a black forest of trees leaving only the front of the green open. To be long, right, or left at this green promises an unwelcome number on your scorecard.

The 16th hole at Bantry Bay Golf Club.
Bantry Bay GC Photo.

-

THE REGION: Bantry is the principal town in southwestern County Cork and the last town of real size in this remote corner of Ireland. Bantry’s pleasant location on the

Sign at end of Beara Peninsula.
Photo © Home At First

relatively protected inlet of the Atlantic Ocean called Bantry Bay has made it an attractive goal for vacationers for decades. The bay provides Bantry with superb scenery and the harvest of mussels and other seafood that has provided the town with an international reputation. Southwestern Ireland is a remote part of the island with five peninsulas that protrude into the Atlantic far from the mainland: Mizen, Sheep’s Head, Beara, Iveragh, and Dingle. Each peninsula has its own character and is worthy of exploration. Bantry Bay, the Atlantic inlet between the Sheep’s Head and Beara peninsulas, is ideally located as a base for touring Mizen, Sheep’s Head, Beara, and Iveragh (known for the famed Ring of Kerry touring route). While touring introduces you to some of the most special geography and culture of Ireland, other activities in this part of the island draw visitors here,

especially walking/hiking/climbing in the dramatically beautiful maritime mountains of the Beara and Iveragh peninsulas. Horse riding and fishing rival walking and touring as top activities in southwestern Ireland. And, of course, several regional golf courses provide different levels of challenge.

-

Coming to Ireland to play golf? Why not let HOME AT FIRST make your advance tee-times at Bantry Bay Golf Club and many other Ireland golf courses as part of your pre-reserved Ireland independent fly/drive golf vacation. There's no extra charge for this service. Click the link for more information about HOME AT FIRST's travel program to: SOUTHWESTERN IRELAND.

]
Want to learn about other courses throughout the British Isles
including some of the greatest tests of golf in the world? See our
IRELAND, SCOTLAND, ENGLAND, and WALES
Course Guides for more information.
A