County Louth Golf Club

County Louth Golf Club or "Baltray" as it is more affectionately known is situated 4 miles from the historic town of Drogheda at the mouth of the river Boyne. With the river to the south and the Irish Sea to the east, this is Links golf at is very best, with only the muted murmur of a ships engine to break the sounds of nature, as it quietly wends its way up river to the port.

Rated in Golf Digest's top 100 courses in the world as a "hidden gem". It is one of the top twenty five courses in the British Isles and it is in the top six in the island. Sometimes ferocious and other times benign, it provides competition for all handicaps. In today's language it could well be described as "user friendly". County Louth Golf Club has a tradition of hosting major National and International events both Amateur and Professional including most recently the 2009 3 Irish Open and 2004 Nissan Irish Open.

History

The club was formally started at a meeting in October 1892. Just before this, Mr G.H. Pentland, who resided at Blackhall, Drogheda and a Mr Gilroy, a retired banker of Scottish origin had laid out a few holes around the Mornington end of the Bettystown burrows. This did not meet with the approval of many of the locals and one day these gentlemen decided to take a boat across the river to explore the possibilities at Baltray.

The first course was laid out by a Scottish professional and in 1914 was reconstructed by Mr N Halligan and Mr Cecil Barcroft. In 1938 the course was redesigned by Mr Tom Simpson and the course has changed little in the intervening years.