Dward13

I arrived early at the course with my with and young son to have lunch before my round. The welcome we received was super and made us feel relaxed immediately (even the Lady Captain came over to say hello!). After lunch I meet my caddy Mick and we walked to the first tee discussing tactics; "I'm here to have fun" I said. "Right you are" was his reply. As I stood on the first I felt a little underwhelmed and it was certainly one of the least interesting tee shots I've ever faced. This quickly faded as I rounded the corner to hit my second shot. I was meet with an absolute masterpiece of a green carved into the dunes. From here on I was in love. This is an exceptional course which leads you through a myriad of sand dunes and affords you the odd moment to stand and reflect on the beauty of the surrounding area. The course is not easy and requires committed, well thought out shots but offers so much reward if executed correctly. If playing this course for the first time a caddy is an absolute must. I had an excellent caddy for the day who guided me round expertly. This course should be on the list of all golfers seeking a true links experience.

As you walk from the club house you are treated with an exception view over the lough in front of the hotel. This continues as you walk over the winding wooden bridge to the first tee. The first is a gentle hole which leads you up into a well crafted second, (don't forget to look back at the top of the second fairway), through the woods. The views from the 6th tee and the approach into the 10th green are worthy of gracing any golfers Facebook page. This in a nutshell is was this golf course offers; beautifully scenery. It does not however, offer a rewarding golfing experience. I am a fan of Faldo designed courses and I completely get what he has tried to achieve at Lough Erne. He has developed a championship course to test the pro’s and he has done this well. As an amateur I found it simply too overindulgent to the principle of challenging golf. I play off 2.7 and would dread to think how the 15 to 20 handicappers would fair around here. I found the course simply too punishing in many places. I love playing a course where you can stand on the tee and draw up a plan to make birdie. Here, the plan will be to avoid bogey and as resort course this is not what tourists are looking for. The greens are needlessly laden with humps and bumps that do nothing other than restrict pin positions. Even during my round I found a few pin positions that were questionable. I also walked around all the greens and found old pin positions that were placed in the most ridiculous of places; some on slopes! I suspect this is the main reason the course is not as busy as it could possibly be given the fantastic reputation (and deservedly so) of the attached hotel. Ultimately, this is a course which offers visiting golfers little in the way of golfing satisfaction. It is well worth visiting if you are in the area but not at the expense of some of it’s peers that are within a few hours drive.