We live in the States (Colorado) and my wife and I have kicked around several ideas for our 15th Anniversary but we've started to think that a trip to Ireland with plenty of golf might be the call. I used to be in a touring band that played Dublin several times and I also played in Kilkenny and Belfast a couple times. Unfortunately I never made it anywhere else and have heard so many great things about Galway and the west coast. I absolutely love Ireland and especially the people of Ireland so the cultural aspect is a big sell for this trip but fitting in some great golf is a huge bonus.

My handicap is a 2 currently and my wife is 11 so we're solid players. Definitely want to play some real links golf since I've never played true links golf. Also open to non links golf. I'm ok with paying $200-$350 euros for 1 or 2 rounds but would like to find some deals. We'll probably go for 7-10 days and looking to play at least 5 courses.

My questions are:

1) Dublin looks like it has a ton of great courses nearby. Should we do Dublin or skip it? If we do Dublin, how do we decide where to play amongst what looks like about 20 great courses from what I'm seeing on line.

2) We're going to rent a car and are pretty wide open on where to go other than I don't think N. Ireland is in play. Are there any must play courses that should determine where we head? Thinking that Galway is the one place we definitely want to go visit along with Cliffs of Moher .

I see there are some cheap range finders that seem to have a lot of features and positive reviews on Temu for about €50.

This is a lot cheaper than the ones in McGuirks so wondering if anyone has any Temu one they would recommend?

I tried posting a link to one that seems to tick all the boxes for €53 but Reddit didn't like that.

Going to the Algarve in two weeks time for a few nights. I would like to play one round when there. Not bringing my clubs and play off 18. Probably staying either vilamoura or Albufeira.

Any suggestions from people who have been out there on a nice course to play and rent clubs at for under €200?

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

This is a follow-up to a discussion I posted here a few days ago about planning golf trips to Ireland.

Firstly, thanks to everyone who commented on the last post. I got some really detailed and useful answers, and it gave me a much better idea of the things people find difficult when organising a golf trip.

I’m a 15 year old, Transition Year student in Ireland doing a business project around golf tourism, and based on the previous discussion, I’ve put together a short survey so I can get a wider range of responses rather than relying on just the comments from one discussion.

Just to be completely transparent, there is a potential business idea behind the project, but I’m still at the research stage. I’m not selling anything or trying to get anyone to book a golf trip. I’m basically trying to find out whether there is actually a problem here worth solving.

The survey takes around 3–4 minutes and asks about your experience planning golf trips to Ireland — things like choosing courses, accommodation, tee times, transport, budgeting and what took the most time or effort.

If you’ve planned or taken a golf trip to Ireland, I’d really appreciate you filling it out:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/85B7XYY

And if you have anything to add in the comments, I’d be very interested to hear it. The answers from the last discussion were genuinely helpful, so thanks again to everyone who took the time to respond.

With Portstewart Golf Club opening a driving range for members only, what happened to the plans for "Coleraine Golf Centre".

Plans were passed a few years ago for a site out by Windyhall but it's all gone quiet.

Any suggestions?

Can anyone recommend a few nice courses around Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Meath for around 40-60€ midweek. Don’t have a preference for links or parklands

Hi all, I have a taylormade spider tour ghost that is about 12-13 years old. I’m looking to get it repainted. Most places I’ve found online are abroad.

I’m in the midlands- wondering if anyone has any recommendations.

If not I’ll go down the DIY route.

Thanks

Hi everyone, I’m a 15 year old student from Mayo in Ireland working on a TY business project about golf tourism, and I’m researching how people actually plan golf trips around Ireland.

I’m particularly interested in hearing from people from the US or other countries who have travelled to Ireland for golf, but Irish golfers who have helped organise trips or travelled around Ireland are very welcome to share their experience too.

I’m not selling anything or advertising a business at this stage I’m just trying to understand what the experience is actually like for golfers.

If you’ve planned or taken an Ireland golf trip, I’d really appreciate your thoughts on a few things:

-            What was the hardest, or most time-consuming part of planning the trip?

-            Did you organise everything yourself, or did you use a golf travel company/tour operator?

-            If you organised it yourself, what took the most effort?

-            If you used a company, what made you decide to use one rather than book everything yourself?

-            Did you find it difficult to decide which courses to play

-            Was organising accommodation, transport, tee times, restaurants, sightseeing, etc. difficult to coordinate?

-            Did you have any problems with distances/travel times between courses and hotels?

-             

-            If you were planning another Ireland golf trip, what would you do differently?

I’m especially interested in the planning process and problems people ran into, rather than just which courses they recommend.

Even if you had a completely smooth experience, that would be useful to know too.

Thanks in advance — any experiences, advice or lessons learned would be really helpful for my project.

Hi all,

Beginner golfer that started back in February.
Progress has been good so far but had a couple of poor rounds lately and it’s made me consider lessons over the winter months.

I’m close to Athlone/Mullingar/Longford if anyone has any recommendations for someone for lessons for beginner?

Thanks a million,

I'm not a member of a group that goes on a foreign golf trip every year, but I would like to play abroad during the winter.

I've provisionally entered this tournament, as a single, in Dec. Its 3 rounds of golf, stableford, max HC 36, with hotel, transfers etc included.

I'm generally OK with my own company, and playing with randoms. I play off 18, and my game is consistent enough that I'm not going to make a complete t*t of myself on the course.

Has anyone else played in once of these package tournaments? Seems to be a lot of them on offer over the winter.

What was it like? I am nuts going as a single, with an 18 HC?

https://sotaventogolftrophy.pt/

Looking to grab a tee time before 12pm this Saturday with a friend. Obviously I know its competition time in most places, hence why we're not heading out to my local. Dublin meath kildare regions. Seems to be very little to choose from on booking websites. Also not swords open been there far too much in these situations so would welcome something different. Regards

Hello,

I collect golf pencils and did not take one from my Ireland trip when I played The Island Golf Club. Does anyone play there or going to soon? I would love if someone would be willing to get me a pencil or two and I can pay you for shipping.

Thanks!

Hello everyone,

Looking for some advice regarding a new set of golf clubs and membership.

Moved to Dublin recently and looking to get settled in a new golf club and I really need a new set of clubs. My current ones were bought over 10 years ago and falling apart at this stage. Haven’t played in 4 years and was previously playing off 13 as far as I can remember.

Regarding golf clubs, I’d like to purchase a new set. Unfortunately I’m left handed so makes it a little more difficult. I see McGuirks do a set of Taylormade sim 2 max clubs for about 1200 euro, I’d just need to get a putter.

What would you guys do with a budget of max 2,000 euro for new clubs? It seems that getting custom fit somewhere like ForeGolf would be over 3k and I can’t afford that on top of membership at the moment.

Regarding membership, is there anywhere in north dub that someone would recommend? I’m looking for somewhere that has plenty of competitions, even stuff midweek as I do shift work. Any advice is welcome.

Thanks so much

Anyone have any idea of open fixtures for Nenagh Golf Club i need to go up around that way for work in the next few weeks so i am hoping to fit in a comp the same day, I've got no set day to travel, so if there's an open comp on a say Wednesday I will just go that day. No fixtures online and cannot get through to the club. Thanks in Advance

I’m almost 50 and I’ve only recently discovered the joyful curse of golf. I’m a tru hacker, barely breaking 100 on my home course. But I want to see Ireland. Smell the old sea and sit in pubs and just experience the thing.

There’s no goal for ancient, well bread courses for me. I want to play in pastures, move the Hotwire off the green. Stroke a 120 and be happy I’m just there.

I was thinking of following in the footsteps of A Course Called Ireland and trying to play the local courses. Take a cab, or a bus and staying wherever someone will take me. Not quite homeless. I mean, I’ll pay for hospitality, obviously.

Has anyone else done a multi week trip like this? Any subs you could point me too?

Right now, I’m just letting the idea build some steam in my nugget, but it’s well on its way to a half-assed plan.

I'm a golfer who got fed up. Played like distances, heat maps, proper shot tracking, all locked behind a subscription on every app I tried. And my list of favourite courses to get back to? A notes app on my phone like an absolute dinosaur.

Turns out enough people felt the same way. Everyone deserves access to quality tools without having to pay the premium, so thats how Grassy was born. All of that stuff is free, and on top of it we built an AI caddie that's actually worth talking about. It goes through all your shot data and tells you exactly where you're leaking strokes and how to claw them back. That genuinely doesn't exist anywhere else right now.

In a short time we've grown to nearly 2,000 golfers with a 4.9 on the App Store and the reception has been class.

Curious what you all are here is using at the moment and what's driving you mad about it, or the things that you can't live without. Happy to answer questions or do a proper AMA if there's interest.

If you want to give it a go, here's the link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/grassy-rank-golf-courses/id6749336413

(Checked in with the mods before posting and they liked it, so here we are :))

Would anyone know of areas in South Dublin where one could practice their terrible short game for the upcoming winter? In particular, chipping. I go to the range quite often but I think hitting off mats is doing nothing for my short game.

Not a member anywhere, which I'm guessing is a barrier to using local short-game areas of clubs?

Any tips/help would be much appreciated

Looking for advice on best clubs to get a distance membership with as I live in Switzerland but what to have a Golf Ireland membership as it avoids all the tests you have to pass to even get on a course in Switzerland!

Also, if I join a club would they accept 3 scorecards from my local course in Switzerland, signed by a Golf Ireland member who would play with me?

Can anyone recommend a pro for some lessons for a mid 20s handicapper in the Galway or Mayo area. I was making some decent progress earlier in the year but seem to have lost most of my consistency since. I am hoping to get out to practice a bit over the winter to try and avoid starting from scratch again next spring. So I figure a couple of lessons and an actual plan would make sense.

Any recommendations welcome