I also live in Bristol and play at The Kendleshire 
Drop me a message!
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Played Royal County Down on Friday. What a course! Weather was pretty poor (20mph wind and on and off heavy rain) but I couldn’t have had more fun.
Bring on the GB&I golf season!
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£100 atm which seems a steal! Anyone any idea what the GUI rate is they reference online?
It was a steal, though you play off very forward tees so you lose some of the strategy / views from further back tees
Not a clue about the GUI rate but fire them an email. I emailed them to arrange my round and they were great.
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Late to the party here…
Live between London & Belfast (Native) and play out of Portstewart. Learned about 15 years too late that golf is about keeping it on the short stuff and not trying to rip the logo off your Pro V1 392 (shoutout “drop and stop”).
Now in my 30s, I like trying to keep it in the 70s, old-school ping bags, and a pitchy 7 iron from 120 yards.
Fav. course in N.I. would be Portstewart early in the morning when the dunes and undulations look insane. Love/hate Portrush and naively think RCD is easy as I’ve won my matches each time I’ve played there (awaiting a slap from fate the next time I play). Honorable mentions would go to the usual suspects in Belfast.
Don’t tend to play in London as bang for your buck tends to be weak in terms of public offerings (just my opinion). Instead, I try to play as much as possible at Huntercombe in Bucks. (just amazing…greens have to be seen to be believed!)
Can’t recommend Cheltenham/Stroud enough either… Cleeve Hill/Cloud GC and Minchinhampton Old GC (both under £15 off-peak) get some serious plaudits from Doak et al. on the GCA forums (worth a look if work is dull). VERY under-rated o/n from London is 2 days of 36 at each and a few ales thereafter.
Enjoyed reading the posts above…thanks for keeping work bearable…crack on!
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GUI rate last year was £70 which they only offer on a few tee times per week which I think fall on a Tuesday afternoon and a Friday afternoon from 4pm although it may be different times this year so the quicker you email them the better the chance of getting a time that may suit you!
Superb golf course and very welcoming club on the 3 occasions I’ve played there.
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Welcome! I’ve never managed a round at Portstewart but always gaze longingly on my way down to the Strand.
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Thanks for the info @stevo1885- that’s even more of a steal! Work means i’m pretty flexible so I may give it another month or two and let the course recover a tad more from the winter and hopefully have all the tees open (cheers on that front @AndyDowney).
PortS plays best in July/Aug/Sept…would be happy to host later in the year!
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You can book your time way in advance so I’d be emailing them now and seeing what they still have available for the summer if I was you mate. I emailed in January last year and there wasn’t a lot of times still available
Must get a run up to Portstewart again sometime as I’ve not played it in couple of years now. Are the changes they made for the Irish Open actually in play for us mere mortals or was it all just new championship tee boxes they were building?
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My experience was probably fairly similar to @Soly’s experience from his NI trip (https://nolayingup.com/2017/04/26/nlu-podcast-episode-80-northern-ireland-golf-trip-jamie-kennedy/) (https://nolayingup.com/2017/06/06/royal-county-down/)
The big losses are #4 when you play from 160/170 yards and flat rather than 210+ yards up in the dunes and #9 where you tee off from below the level of the main tees. The wind was so strong that with the wind a lot of holes had to be 3/4/5 iron off the tee to avoid running out of fairway. Either that or driver, lob wedge into holes which isn’t the point of links golf!
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I’ve had my eye on Minchinhampton Old for a while. I was in the area in the autumn and drove up for a look around and loved how open and bleak it felt, but I couldn’t make any sense of the holes across the common. Definitely going back to play it.
I stopped in to the New clubhouse as well. Don’t bother.
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Completely understand that, first time I played I hit (intentionally) completely the wrong direction on about 50% of the holes on the front 9. Back 9 is not more straightforward but generally you can see where you want to hit.
I’d recommend Ran’s recent (ish) review https://golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/england/minchinhampton-golf-club-old-course/
Cleeve is as good (except it has sheep not cows as greenkeepers) also a bit more hilly although the holes fit the land so well. 13-17 are some of the best holes I’ve played.
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Cheers- will get on that!
The main build change was reshaping of 14, which plays well off all the tees now- the newer blue (champ) tees are playable but pointless into the wind. Fun on a rare calm day. I think the best change was removing most of the sea buckthorn bushes and other non-native grasses. The course feels a lot more exposed, looks much more natural and judging/trusting distances is harder as the land blends more naturally. Definitely worth the trip, lmk if you ever make it up!
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I really enjoy the new Minch courses and the clubhouse is alright too!
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Also late to this… Living in Dublin and in 8 weeks or so I’ll be almost living within a couple of drivers of my golf course.
Member at the island and happy to get anyone out if I can.
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Wasn’t aware they do a gui rate. Annoys me when Irish courses don’t (my own being one of them I believe).does Portstewart have a gui rate?
There isn’t one advertised but a phone call to the office may yield answers. Definitely think more should be made of it for most clubs!
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It just seemed a bit like a big flat field when I looked at the New courses. Like a Marriott hotel course. And the carpark was full of Volvo estates and Jaaaaags, if you know what I mean. A LOT of Pringle jumpers in the clubhouse.
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Welcome!
I think an Irish Refugee get-together could be pulled together very easily! The Island always looks amazing in pictures.
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Can I come? I’ll bring my passport so I don’t get stopped at the border like a filthy Brexiter…
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