The 1st tee of Ardglass Golf Club backs up the
clubhouse, a nearly 700-year-old castle, and points the golfer toward a prospect
as exhilarating as it is dangerous: a drive over 40 feet of imposing black cliff
bordered by the Irish Sea on the left. Add first-tee jitters and loitering
spectators to this mix and the scene is unforgettable.
Set on a thumb-shaped peninsula 35 miles south of
Belfast, Ardglass would surely be better known
if not for its proximity to Royal County Down, just a few miles away across the
bowl of Dundrum
Bay. Especially for
visitors intent on making a beeline between County Down and Royal Portrush to
the north, Ardglass is off the main-traveled road, and therefore off the
itinerary.
In 1896 the Reverand Thomas Macafee, who served as
Ardglass’ Presbyterian minister and appointed himself its one-man chamber of
commerce, saw that Portrush and Newcastle had benefited from their association
with golf. He oversaw the steering committee that brought Ardglass Golf Club
into existence that same year.
The club began with seven holes that turned the
geography to good advantage, leapfrogging their way southward from the castle.
By the turn of the century, two holes were added, but it was not until 1970 that
the second nine was built.
Tony Jacklin and Christy O’Connor Jr. were among
the luminaries who helped christen the modern incarnation of this links.
O’Connor, after playing the 397-yard 13th into a brisk wind, said the
combination of weather and No. 13’s compact green made it one of the most
difficult and memorable two-shotters he had ever
experienced.
