Dunmore East
Location: On entering Dunmore Village, turn left at Anchor Bar.
Contact: Secretary - Mary Skehan. Tel/fax (051) 383151.
Course: 18-hole parkland. Back tees - 6,665 yards, par 72, SSS 71; forward - 6,347 yards; women's - 5,874 yards, par 74.
Design: Jim O'Riordan/Michael Skehan.
Opened for play: 18-hole layout opened in 1996.
Green-fees: £10 weekdays, £12 weekends.
Accommodation: Haven Hotel,Dunmore East. Tel (051) 383150, fax (051) 383488. Glanville Hotel, Meagher Quay, Waterford. Tel (051) 855111, fax (051) 870307. Dunmore Holiday Villas - Jean Kelly (051) 383699, fax (051) 383787. Bed and Breakfast - Carraig Liath (Jim and Kathleen Burke) (051) 383273; single £18.
From my position on the high ground close by the 16th green, I could look down on the charming little cove where the ambassador's curiosity was aroused, 100 feet below. In such a delightful setting, it wasn't difficult to understand how the sight of golfers celebrating the annual captains' drive-in, became an irresistible attraction for Jean Kennedy Smith.
They still talk with great affection at Dunmore East Golf Club about that red-letter day on February 1st. Indeed it was the way the occasion was described by the women's secretary, Maura Kenealy, in a phone call about the incident, which prompted my visit there.
Following local directions on my arrival in Dunmore, I took a left turning at the Anchor Bar and was soon climbing up towards the clubhouse. Once inside, the club captain, Richard Hurley, eased me towards the framed letter on the wall.
On the official notepaper of the US ambassador, Mrs Kennedy Smith wrote on February 4th: "Dear Mr Hurley, Thank you very much for hosting my friends and me during my recent visit to Dunmore East. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with you and the other members of the club. How fortunate that we arrived just in time for your party!
"I would also like to thank you for the lovely blue golfing sweater you gave me. It fits perfectly and I will be sure to wear it the next time I'm golfing, which I hope is very soon. I am also looking forward to returning to your club for a game, so be sure to practise your swing. With my best wishes, sincerely, Jean Kennedy Smith, Ambassador."
Each of the club officers in turn, offered some intriguing information about an area that was clearly dear to their hearts. Honorary secretary Jim O'Riordan, who designed the new 18 with the help of the owner's son, Michael Skehan, identified the distant Hook Head Lighthouse as part of the spectacular view from the clubhouse window.
In a manner of speaking, I had gone by Crooke to get that view of Hook, so putting a fresh twist on the old saying, by Hook or by Crooke, attributed to Oliver Cromwell on his arrival here as an unwelcome guest. Then the lady captain, Nancy Kelly, piped up: "We have seen the QE2 at anchor out there - a magnificent sight."
Dunmore East GC was founded five years ago as a nine-hole layout before being extended to 18 in 1996. In that short time, it has transformed the local fishing community by introducing villagers to the Royal and Ancient game. More than 50 of them, men and women in the middle years and older, are now savouring their first experience of golf on a parkland stretch measuring 6,665 yards.
It is a proprietary course, owned by Jack and Mary Skehan who once raised dairy herds there. And the manner of its development is utterly fascinating as an example of the way things can turn full circle.
"My father farmed this land before me," said Skehan. "And I can vividly recall as a young lad, seeing him trying to level out raised areas of ground that were once golf tees and greens. On later investigation, I discovered that there was once a nine-hole course here, probably built by the British military."
Skehan went on: "More recently, when I had been in farming for 30 years, I decided it was time to do something else. That was when I thought back to my childhood and the old golf course that was once on the land. And with so many holiday homes in this area, I felt there would be a future here for a golf club."
As it happens, Skehan has other sporting interests. I was directed towards adjoining land which is the home of the local cricket club. Then a vacant, five-acre site, left of the 13th green caught my attention.
"Myself and other business people have formed a consortium aimed at building a 50-bedroom, £3 million hotel and leisure complex there," he explained. "It will be linked to the club as a tourist amenity and we hope to have it completed within the next two years."
It was only on hearing the Welsh accents at the clubhouse bar that I realised the tremendous potential of the area. Here were a group of rugby supporters who had travelled on the ferry that morning from Fishguard to Rosslare.
Weren't they leaving it a bit late to be driving to Lansdowne Road? "We're not going to the match," replied one of them, whose sweater proclaimed him as president of a rotary club in Pembroke. "We came here to Dunmore to play golf this morning and we'll watch the match on television this afternoon. Then we'll have more golf tomorrow before heading home."
Dunmore have their priorities right. Indeed it was a refreshing change to come across a club which was not promoting its "championship course", with all the usual aspirations for the staging of major fixtures.
Even if the layout had been decidedly moderate, I figured that the members could hardly go wrong in a club where the captain's motto for 1998 is: "Pleasure, leisure and inter-action." And the warmth of their reception left me in no doubt about the sincerity of those words.
But the truth is that they have a very fine course with a truly spectacular finish. Small wonder that they take issue with a report in The Examiner claiming that the clubhouse at the Old Head of Kinsale offers the best view in the world. With a panoramic view of the mouth of Waterford Harbour and the Saltee Islands on the horizon, Dunmore would, in golfing parlance, take the Old Head to tie holes.
In the event, the experience of countless championships has proved that the strength of a hole is determined not only by its design, but by its position on the course. So we have the celebrated short 16th at Cypress Point, the "ET" 17th at Sawgrass, the considerably longer 17th holes at Portmarnock and St Andrews and the 18th at Pebble Beach.
At Dunmore East, nerve-ends begin to tighten at the 196-yard, par-three 14th, played sharply downhill towards the sea. Then there is the 436-yard 15th, where an elbow of the cliff-edge has to be traversed off the tee.
Next comes the delightful, 100yard, short 16th where anything too timid or left will find a watery grave, 100 feet below. It seems that when a local fisherman was emptying one of his lobster-pots, he came across a conger eel in some discomfort. Only when the creature disgorged an errant Titleist, did it regain its customary bonhomie.
The 17th is a tricky, 321-yard par-four to a small target that could prove to be quite elusive in fresh winds off the estuary. And the 143-yard 18th completes an inward par of 36 with a one-shotter, just like Mallow, St Pierre and the Mahony's Point course at Killarney.
Five holes - the sixth, seventh, 14th, 15th and 16th - negotiate the cliff edge, but there is more than spectacle on offer. The club promises "fresh, clear sea air" and the possibility of starting a round to the sound of the local church bell. It also offers remarkable value to the visitor with a weekday green-fee of £10.
Club officers and rank-and-file members of Dunmore East, still marvel at the amazing coincidence that brought a curious US Ambassador to their clubhouse celebration. Perhaps it was destiny's way of introducing their hidden gem to the outside world.
