Narin & Portnoo Links — Attraction in County Donegal

Devastated. Unless you are a 30± h/cap please don't waste your money. A group of five ladies with handicaps ranging from 10 to 18 went in good faith to play the open on Easter Sunday. A week or so earlier we had been told by the pro shop over the phone that 'we were in for a treat' following on from upgrade revamp of course. We have played this course just about every year for the past 10 years or so and absolutely loved it. We handed over €52 each for the worst golfing experience of our lives. New greens that were worse than temp winter greens. Aprons of uneven, unsettled turf. Vast patches of fairway playing like bunkers. Greens where you tried to lift the pin from the hole but the sods around the hole would come away. Score cards with differing indices. Score cards where one of the holes advised a zero where a yardage should have been in evidence. Card purportedly in yards but the markers, where provided on course, in meters. GPS useless as course not recalibrated. No course signage so got lost on a number of occasions. But probably saddest of all is they have destroyed the course. All the signature holes that we loved all gone now as they dumbed down the course experience for ladies - drivable par 4s!, any bit of challenge all wiped away as they have created a bland, unexciting, unchallenging experience. The course is just not fit to play right now and when we expressed to pro shop staff our sincere disappointment at how violated we felt (we felt we were literally robbed), despite a sizeable audience present, there was absolutely no effort at all by them to compensate. They refused to return our green fees, even a partial refund. And so our Easter break ended on a low. We didn't submit our cards because we don't think the tees could possibly be ilgu compliant and so we would have returned unreliable scores to our home clubs. Céad míle fáilte not in evidence here. Terribly...

Sitting on a gold mine of a golf course and scenic location but the golf club's owners/management clearly don't have a clue how to run the place. Firstly, the green fees ridiculous - many keen golfers who are accustomed to paying to play quality courses will be outpriced here and the reasons to follow will underline why they will also be disappointed with the overall experience. The 'pro' shop staff clueless and rigid (with no golf professional by the way as the last one was forced to leave), unwelcoming and unreasonable guest/member rates, parts of course unsightly (greenkeepers shed and toilets behind 4th green are a disgrace if they want to command such a green fee), the more popular, fun holes are closed most of the year due to 'maintenance', zero atmosphere in clubhouse bar/restaurant, recent catering change completely out of step with what the holidaying golfers, locals or tourists visiting a golf club should would expect (haute cuisine, no kids allowed and no licensed TV package - I've never known a golf club on planet earth not being able to show golf events on a bar TV like The Open, The Ryder Cup etc.) The course and the land it resides on is something to marvel at, but lamentably, it's run by people resembling morons who are evidently...

Narin & Portnoo Golf Club

It’s such a blessing to travel and play a great course on a warm sunny day with a light breeze, and it sucks when course conditions are tough (and you bring your C game). I played N&P on July 25, 2021 during a rare heatwave and an even rarer pandemic. There was bright sunshine the duration and the wind didn’t pick up until the back nine, when it was about a one club consideration. More significant was the dryness of the course from tee to green. There was a great deal of bouncing and rolling on the super hard fairways and greens, which is amazing when you gain yards on a drive, unless those yards lead into the rough, and you lose your ball, or your perfect pitch shot rolls off the back of the green, down a hill, and into the weeds. That’s the rub of the green, as they say, and today the green rubbed hard, the wrong way, a lot. The design itself is delightful. It’s the kind of course that has many memorable holes. The route winds around and over the dunes and offers several photo ready views of Narin Beach, the sea, and other places whose names I don’t know. I would definitely like a do-over here. There’s no time on this pass, but maybe some...