County Louth Golf Club (Baltray)

Favorite Hole

No. 14, par 4, 188-332 yards

This hole immediately vaulted up my list of favorite short par 4s. The elevated tee gives you the course’s best view of the Irish Sea, and the hole’s main features are a series of small mounds in the landing area and the most extreme green on property.

Off the tee, players are presented with a couple options: lay back short of the moguls in front of the green and have a simple wedge from a flat lie to the controversially severe green, or go at the green and hope you don’t get a bad bounce or end up hanging on one of the fronting mounds. This short par 4 introduces an element of chance with the ground features that front the green, and the severity of the putting surface creates a difficult recovery from anywhere around the green.

Did I mention there isn’t a bunker?

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Overall Thoughts

As I mentioned in the introductory section, Baltray is one of the Emerald Isle’s more underrated links courses. In the grand scheme of the island, most praise is heaped on places like Royal County Down, Lahinch, Royal Portrush, Ballybunion, and Portmarnock. Of those I have played, Baltray is probably the one I would most want to marry. That’s not to say that it’s the best. It’s just the one that I have found to be the most conducive to, and pleasant for, everyday play. Some of those qualities are probably what keep it from receiving the rave reviews and stunning social media-ready imagery elicited by the aforementioned courses. Baltray inhabits a more subtle piece of ground than many of Ireland’s most famous layouts. The smaller features at Baltray provide slightly less drama, but an argument can be made that this yields superior golf, as the features can be played over rather than simply alongside.

An example of this is the stunning third hole, a par 5 with a green sitting right behind a small sand dune. This dune is only about 10 feet tall, but it still obscures the approach into the green. Any shot intended to reach the green in two must be landed well short of the target on the backside of that dune, from which it will bounce onto the putting surface.

Contrast this design with the likes of Portstewart’s front nine, which mostly plays through the valleys between its jaw-dropping dunes instead of incorporating them directly into play.

It makes for two very different versions of golf. The large-scale dunes are mesmerizing to look at and, when used strategically, are daring to challenge. Baltray’s smaller features are a pleasure to play over and along, and with more plays you learn the nuances of exactly where you need to land shots to get certain bounces off the more subtle mounds and bumps.

Along with the wonderful canvas provided by the land itself, Baltray boasts a refined example of golf course architecture from Tom Simpson. Renovated in 1936, Baltray is one of the few links courses across the British Isles that can claim a unified vision of golf architecture from start to finish. Many courses in this area were built and adapted through the years with work from many different individuals and architects. At Baltray, the golf is designed by Simpson, whose writing and portfolio offers some of the most thoughtful and eccentric takes on golf architecture of the Golden Age. Since his renovation, Baltray has seen minimal changes to the core of the golf course. This gives golfers the opportunity to see the brilliance of Simpson, arguably the greatest architect unknown to most Americans.

One area where Simpson’s skill is particularly on display is on the greens. Baltray has a wide variety of green types, with some sitting at grade while others are propped up. While each is unique, they all feel tied together (though No. 2 is non-original) and part of the same family. The aspect of County Louth’s greens that left me endlessly impressed is how artistic and elegant the non-elevated greens were. They all featured beautiful tie-ins with elements in the green surrounds, while dainty slopes created supreme interest and influence on play.

One of these greens is the opener. The first hole has a green that’s particularly difficult to photograph thanks to small and subtle features, but it’s an extraordinary one to play. In front, the left side seamlessly ties in with a mound short of the green. In the rear, the right side has a subtle falloff that can wreak havoc on a shot that’s even just a tiny offline or long (speaking from experience), and in the middle sits an influential spine. Respectively, each of these features generates a great deal of interest in the front, middle, and back sections of the narrow green.

The greens that sit up higher at Baltray are equally as elegant as the ones that sit low on the ground. These greens often sit in natural dunes to provide the elevation change from the existing environment. Where there weren’t dunes to place greens, Simpson was able to use mounds to mask the artificial nature of an elevated green. This phenomenon can be seen on the wonderful par-5 sixth, which has one of the most punishing greens on the course. It repels in all directions, which makes for a terrifying wedge shot. This green should look silly relative to the other greens on the course, as it’s just out in the open with nothing around it. But its artificial nature is masked with the mounds in the run-up to the green, some of which create blind angles from the fairway.

Like any truly great course, Baltray has a handful of the most exceptional holes in the world. From Nos. 3 through 16, there’s no weak link. These holes traverse a range of terrains, from some of the flattest topography on the property to some of the most dramatic, like the dunes that house 12 and 13. My personal favorite stretch is Nos. 3 through 8. This stretch of front-nine holes showcases the immense variety that Simpson was able to create throughout Baltray. The third, as mentioned above, is an epic par 5 with an approach playing over a dune ridge to a green located immediately on the backside.

The fourth is a sensational short par 4 with tremendous features in the approach of the green, which sits at ground level. To hit it, you must find the right side with this approach, as the contouring will divert balls to the left.

The fifth is a short par 3 which tests both distance control and accuracy. Any shot that is a little off-line or the wrong distance will mean a difficult par. This target repels hard to the left, thanks to the green’s right side being nestled into a sand dune.

The sixth is a par 5 with one of the most punishing greens in golf. Getting up and around this green in two hardly ensures an easy birdie chance.

Another one of Baltray’s wonderful one-shot holes is the seventh. The green sits on an angle from right to left and repels balls on both the front and back side. From the tee it appears rather unassuming, and then you get to the green you see how challenging the hole is.

The final hole in this stretch is the mid-length par-4 eighth, which features bunkers and dunes that create a neck in the fairway. A bold play is to attempt to thread these bunkers, but it’s not a wise choice. The green is a beauty, sitting at the natural grade of the ground and subtly falling away from players in the fairway.

This six-hole stretch highlights the vast array of design tools and features that Simpson was able to utilize at Baltray. Just on that run of holes, three greens sit at grade while three are propped up by dune ridges, two natural and one artificial. There are wildly eccentric greens like the fifth and docile but still memorable ones like the eighth. That’s the aspect of Baltray that will stick with me most: the incredible variety of features and questions that are asked from hole to hole. It’s a course I can’t wait to get back to, as it’s clear that I’d learn more and more about it with every trip around.

2 Eggs

Course tour

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