The Island Golf Club — Attraction in Fingal

I'm sad to say that after two weeks of golfing in Ireland, with The Island positioned to be the grand finale, I was a little let down by my experience.

Firstly, the good - My caddy was fantastic. Young but proficient and knew the course exceedingly well. He and I were on our own for my round, and the conversation was pleasant. He was patient with my mediocre play and he didn't lead me astray. The course itself was solid. Challenging, interesting, fun. Fairways were a little beat up in areas, but greens and tee boxes were tidy and tight and views were nice. Not as hilly and dramatic as some of the courses on the west coast, but it was scenic. Also, had a great latte in the dining room before going out and was served by a kind and attentive server.

Now for the not-so-great. I was there early and had a relatively early tee time. The signage is near-absent and there was no one outside (despite having to call to be buzzed in through the gate) so I made my way inside through a side door nearest the parking lot and wandered my way to the ladies' locker rooms where there are NO GUEST LOCKERS FOR LADIES. Ugh. Had to wander further along to find the awkward back door to the pro shop asked about a locker. The manager/pro person was wise enough to apologize and acknowledge that "seemed a bit wrong" given that there are men's guest lockers and they kindly offered to hold my stuff at the desk. I'm glad they offered, but I didn't feel great about having to do that. Then, in another let-down, I was informed the driving range is closed on Tuesdays so... no warmup for me and, boy, it showed. But now I had an hour to kill so decided to get a bite, but my breakfast of a fried eggs and toast was greasy with broken yolks and cold toast. Glad I ate something though, because the halfway house was closed. There's no water on the course and no drinking fountain in the clubhouse, so bottled water was the only option. The locker room was still rocking a heavy dose of 1990's yellow maple and tired carpet and while the bathrooms had been updated, the shower floors could have been cleaner. The staff were nice and seemed to be trying to make me feel welcome, but I couldn't help but feel that this was the least impressive experience of my 5 rounds of golf in Ireland, especially considering the price tag. If I had played this course first, I might have not felt as disappointed, but going from Ballybunion (350 Euro) to The Island (295 Euro) was a monumentally different experience that I couldn't reconcile against the relatively...

I have to give these guys 3 stars for one major reason.

Eleven of us came to Ireland to play a variety of amazing courses over a week and a half. We saved the Island club for the final day (This past Friday) b/c we know it is special.

We were enjoying our round and then the staff allowed a twosome to slide into the middle of our group play at the turn. It really jacked up the flow of our round. I was in the front group (a threesome) and now had two very unskilled golfers running to their ball behind us and slowing down our friends who were now behind this twosome that was allowed to jump into the middle of our group play at the turn. Our buddies had been in two foursomes behind us and now had to wait on every shot while these two “line jumpers” from the turn hit it all over the place.

When questioned about why this was allowed we were told these two hackers (probably 25 handicappers) were V.I.Ps. That was the part that was extremely insulting. First off, we were the guests that paid close to $4,000 US as a group to play here. Second off, these two “VIPs” were dressed like they were homeless.

What’s even worse is the course was FULL. As a threesome we were waiting a tiny bit on the group in front of us. Then the “Ranger” comes out proceeds to ride to the foursome group in front of us (who were not part of our friends) and hassle them about holding up the course. That was not the case b/c the group he was hassling were not super fast but had been having to wait from time to time on the group in front of them on so on. My point is the group in front of us was NOT an issue. The course was full and it was a Friday but there was descent flow to the speed of play. The issue was that the staff let some line jumpers in at the turn! That’s what really threw the flow out of whack.

Also we had reserved caddies but when we got there they told us we would get one caddy for every two golfers. I said - NO WAY. So I decided to rent an electric trolley but NOOOOOOO the trollies were reserved for a future group. LOL. So I just carried my own bag.

Overall - 5 star course with a 1 star staff - at least on that was the case on this...

A friend and I played The Island yesterday as course two of our six-day trip. The course itself is fantastic and definitely a real tester: missing the fairways will more likely than not result in horrible lies or lost balls, but the holes are fair and the scenery is spectacular. The clubhouse and pro shop staff were also lovely. Special thanks to Nial (hopefully spelling this correctly) for providing such a warm welcome to the club.

While our round was mostly enjoyable, there were two frustrations that felt out of place given the cost to play here:

The range was "closed for maintenance" so we did not get to hit any shots before teeing off at 1pm, but it had reopened by the time we finished the round. Given the price of admission and how demanding the course is, it was very frustrating to go into the round cold, and midday seems like a strange time to close the range.

We went out as a twosome behind two (at least) foursomes, and we ended up waiting 5+ minutes on every tee box as the group ahead cleared the fairway (or greens on par 3s). That itself was not an issue, but the caddies for the twosome behind us consistently felt like they were pushing us to tee off as quickly as possible and regularly came and waited right on top of us at the tee and even walked out in front of us on a few occasions to get distances for their players while we were still waiting to hit.

Maybe this is an Irish thing, but it's not particularly enjoyable to feel like you're being crowded and rushed to hit AFTER you've had to wait 5 or 6 minutes to tee off because there's a group in front. This happened consistently throughout the round, and again, felt out of place given the quality of the...