General History Of Ballybunion Golf Club

THIS IS BALLYBUNION GOLF CLUB

… thankful for the priceless gift of dunesland that nature has bestowed on it. Proud of its origins and past. Humble in realising that it must ever advance hand-in-hand with Father Time in outlook and development and ever a cordial host to visitors from near and far.

The Limerick Chronicle of August 19, 1893 and the Kerry Sentinel in its Gossip Column (of all places) of August 26, 1893 carried the same news item . . .

“The opening meeting of the Ballybunion Golf Club in Ireland was held on the 18th inst., at the Castle Hotel, when it was decided to request Lord Listowel to allow himself to be nominated President, while Mr Carling of Newcastlewest and Mr Creagh of Listowel were elected Vice-Presidents. Mr Morden of Ennismore and Mr D’Arcy of Ballybunion were chosen Hon. Secretary and Hon. Treasurer respectively. A vote of thanks was then passed to Mr Hewson, who very generously permits the use of the links to the club free. Twelve greens have been laid out upon the links – a number which might be easily increased to the standard eighteen, should the members so wish. The greens all lie along the sandhills. The turf is of the springiest and the course offers every variety of golfing interest”.

GENERAL HISTORY

In early 1897, an article in the Irish Times, headed ‘The Golf Links of Kerry’, dismissed the recently opened Ballybunion course with some contempt as “a rabbit warren below the village, where a golfer requires limitless patience and an inexhaustible supply of golf balls.”

This provoked a tart rejoinder in the same paper in March 1897 from P McCarthy, General Manager, Listowel and Ballybunion Railway. The course, he claimed, was “quite first class and a sporting course, laid out by the professional who had laid out the links at Lahinch and Dollymount.”

The Irish golfers guide of 1897 names this course designer as James McKenna, who did this work “at the instance of the Lartigue Railway Company.” It is interesting to note the connection with present day Ballybunion as he was the grandfather of the Ballybunion Golf Club Secretary-Manager until 2008, Jim McKenna.

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PATSY’S STORY

In recent years, one of our members, Patsy A. Costelloe, who has since passed away, undertook some research into the club’s history and course design. Here’s what he found:

‘From local information, I believe that the first layout of golf holes in Ballybunnion took place in 1893. The men involved were officers of the Black Watch Regiment – Capt. M. Westropp, Limerick City Artillery and Capt. E. W. Willington, The Prince of Wales Regiment (Royal Canadians) stationed at Maryboro’ (now known as Portlaoise) who were holidaying in Ballybunnion at the time and were staying at the Castle Hotel where the first meeting of the first club took place on the 18th August, 1893.’

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MILESTONES

Through the decades:

* 1892 A professional, thought to be James McKenna, lays out the original Ballybunion course
* 1893 Ballybunion Golf Club committee meets for the first time and first clubhouse is opened
* 1897 P. McCarthy, General Manager of the Listowel-Ballybunion Lartigue railway line, becomes secretary of the Golf Club.
* 1911 Tom Allen is appointed Club Steward. He held the post for 56 years
* 1924 Lartigue railway line ceases operation.
* 1927 Course is restored to original 18 holes. Work undertaken by Messrs. Carter & Sons, Raynes Park, London.

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LOCAL HEROES

Pat Mulcare (1945-1996)
Pat earned his pocket money and learned his golf as a caddie. In 1965, at the age of 20, the club gave him his first handicap of 10 and he won the Captain’s Prize that year and retained it the following year off a handicap of 6. In 1968, he won the first of his 72 International caps for Ireland. Pat won the East of Ireland Championship on three consecutive years (1971-73) and won the South of Ireland in 1971. He also reached the quarter-finals of the British Amateur Championship and set an amateur course record of 67 in winning the local scratch cup in 1969. In May 1975, he had the honour of representing Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup against the US at St Andrews.

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Ballybunion Golf Club – An Illustrated Centenary History 1893-1993 by John Redmond

Ballybunion, the Town of the Saplings, derives its name from one individual, possibly a steward or land agent named Buinnean or Bunyan.

The town and its hinterland is rich in history with associations to Mesolithic times. Early Iron Age pins and Roman coins have been found, as well as stone-lined long cists with skeletons. It is also steeped in a Norman tradition and was the scene of the faction fighting phenomenon in the early 19th century.

Today, Ballybunion is a lively holiday town by the Atlantic sea shore, whose population of around 1,200 increases hugely in the summer season. It has many amenities, notably a golden beach, towering cliffs, intriguing caves – and, of course, a world-renowned golf links.

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Shifting sands of time

The old proverb says ‘time and tide wait for no man’ and it’s never more true when it comes to seaside golf courses. The battle with the elements is a constant, coastal erosion always an existential threat for custodians of the links.

Ballybunion Golf Club has suffered more than most from the impacts of erosion and the power of the sea. Severe winter storms in the 1970s forced the club into urgent action to save its seaside holes and a programme of coastline protection involving sea armour and protective rock was instigated. That programme has been ongoing ever since and has been a major success. However, with the new 21st Century threat of global warming looming ever larger, it’s a fight the club has taken steps to intensify in the coming years.

The extent of coastal erosion at the club can be seen in two aerial photographs taken 71 years apart, which also reveal many changes to the town of Ballybunion and its famed links. In the first, taken in 1951 (courtesy of Mairéad Carroll) and from Ivan Morris’ book ‘125 Years of Golf at Ballybunion’, the dramatic levels of erosion are visible on the former second hole (now the seventh) on Ballybunion’s Old Course. However, when it’s put beside Jacob Sjoman’s spectacular recent aerial shot of the new seventh green, it’s clear that the club’s efforts to prevent further erosion have been very successful.

Interestingly, the two photographs also reveal that the extent of the wind and wave damage is not as severe as many would have thought. The current cliff edge looks to be on the line of the pathway in the 1951 photograph so the cliff has retreated between 10 and 20 metres since then.

And one positive consequence of that erosion is that the seventh hole is a much tougher test for the golfer with the out of bounds on the right now a factor in every shot from tee to cliff-edge green, making it one of Ireland’s great seaside holes.

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