Rudo Golf---still
out there but have not kept blog up to date
It has been almost 10 months since my last post. Am presently in Scotland on a BIG
trip (more about that in a minute). Between
my last post on 8/8/14 and up until the start of this European trip, I played a
total of 53 new courses (bringing my lifetime total to 719), including visiting
to play in Columbia, South Africa, France, Spain, Morocco, and Belgium. Plus in the USA, I have played new tracks in
MA, PA, SC, FL, NC, MD, and NY. These
journeys would have been more extensive, but my travel plans were put on
temporary hold in November for the insertion of two stents into my coronary
arteries. As a result, one trip to
Florida was delayed about 6 weeks, and an extensive trip to Asia/Australia/New
Zealand was delayed till late 2015 or early 2016 (subject to negotiations with
Da Boss). In any case, the stents seem
to have given me a new lease on life. It
is an amazing procedure that is now almost routine. I was out of the hospital the next morning
and was walking around about 2 hours after the procedure was completed.
Lots of catching up to do…and will do that gradually and in
an abbreviated fashion (I can hear you cheering now) as will be some of my
descriptions of courses on this trip.
And no pics for now…this trip is too exhausting and busy to deal w that
stuff.
Am still being guided (Pat might say driven) by my bucket
lists. At the start of this trip in
terms of “World 100 Lists” I needed:
--9 more courses to be the second person to play all of the
Golf Magazine World 100 lists (“GM World 100 Ever”) which totals 190 courses.
--8 more to finish Golf Digest 2014 World Top 100 (their
first world list)
--15 more to complete Darius Oliver’s latest Planet Golf Top
100
--2 more to finish the final Links Magazine World 100 (dated
12/31/14)
--9 more to finish the Golf Course Architects Survey Top 100
--6 more to finish the Top100Golf websire listings published
in ’14, ’12, ’11, ’09, ’08, and ‘06
--3 more to finish the first two editions of Rolex’s Top
1000 (courses with scores of 100 or 95…87 courses in Edition II and 88 in
Edition I
--in total, there are 261 courses that have been on one or
more of these listings, and at the start of this trip I had played 219, one no
longer exists, and I needed 41 to complete this bucket list.
In terms of USA Top 100’s (as always, using my definition of
a “merged” list of Golfweek Classic and Modern), I stand at having played all
but 61 0f the courses that have ever been included on GM, GD, or GW’s top 100,
the final Links USA Top 100, and the current Top100 Golf website. Given my rapidly advancing age and focus on
the overseas lists, it is not clear whether this is doable…but only time will
tell…trust me, I am still working it.
GB&I and Continental
European Trip
As of the start of this trip, with the progress made over
the past 10 months, of the 41 courses worldwide I need to complete the 261 course
“World All 100 Ever” list, 23 are in GB&I (Great Britain & Ireland)…16,
and Continental Europe…7). Plus, as of
the start of the year, there were another six courses on the Continent (plus
one nearby in Morocco) that I needed to play.
So, at the start of the year I had the large task of playing some 30
courses for the first time in GB&I, Continental Europe and Northern
Africa. I covered seven in Morocco,
Belgium, France and Spain during an 8-day journey in April…leaving me with 23
to go now.
Planning for the current trip started in earnest in February
with a flurry of emails. As I was
already deep into setting up the April eight day trip, there were a lot of
balls in the air at one time. Somehow,
they have all landed in good formation.
The trip was a result of Pat planning a trip to London and
The Cotswolds’ (garden tours) June 3-12 with some girl friends. I of course strongly encouraged her to make
the trip hoping that I might be invited along.
When that did not happen, I was forced to make alternative plans…and golf
seemed like an interesting possibility. And,
as she wanted to play some golf as well, I reluctantly agreed to extend my trip
so that we could play golf from June 12-21 in SW England, Wales, and in Surrey,
west of London. Always willing to
sacrifice for her!!
So I left Boston on May 27 (one week ahead of her departure)
with first stop…Dublin, Ireland. There
are so so many great tracks in Ireland, it was tough to limit my visit there to
8 days. I had previously been to Ireland
(referring in this case to both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland)
five times, with my first visit in 1980 and last in 2014 (finishing the 2013
Golf Magazine World Top 100 at The European Club). But some had been very brief, and to date I
had only played 13 courses there (compared Scotland with 9 visits to date and
29 different courses played).
My list of 41 course to go for the “World 100 Lists” goal
included 5 tracks in Ireland (The Island Club, Rosses’ Point, Carne, Doonbeg,
and Old Head), so their inclusion was mandatory. To those five I added Portmarnock and
Lahinch, primarily because my memory of both was that they were very very
strong, but frankly, that memory was faint.
Plus, my good friend Fergal O’Leary (who hails from Ireland…bet you
never would have guessed that) basically threatened to dismember certain parts
of me if I went to Ireland and did not play his home club of Portmarnock. I chose to ignore Fergal’s sage advice and
also added The K Club, since it would be fit into the schedule easily and I
knew I could play it with a cart (known as a buggy over there) making the 36
hole day much more manageable. As you
may recall, The K Club hosted the 2006 Ryder Cup (the Euro’s stuffed us there)
and I might want to add a mini bucket list of all Ryder Cup courses ever, so I
figured why not. In summary, while I get
high points for following Fergal’s guidance with Portmarnock and Lahinch, most
of those points get wiped out due to my stupidity in wasting a few hours at the
K Club…More about these and others follows.
Island Club—May 28
Went directly to the course from the Dublin airport. Arrived DUB around 11am…flew thru Heathrow
(long story why) which is a pain in the butt.
Met my host, Humphrey Kelleher (a former Captain of The Island Club and
good player) and his friend, Pat O’Leary (Fergal’s dad). After a quick and good lunch, we headed to
#1…a dauntingly narrow par 4, lines on both sides by very high dunes (not Royal
Country Down or Trump Aberdeen high, but quite high in any case). As I got over the ball on the first tee, I
realized that I would be playing with 9 new sticks, which were delivered to TCC
the day before…the Fed Exp truck arriving as I putted out on 18 and about 90
minutes before Pat took me to Logan airport.
Wondered how these would work, but suffice it to say that I have hit them
well (although I did pull that first drive left).
I loved The Island Club.
My one question is, where has it been…it is rarely spoken of in
conversations regarding great Irish tracks but it absolutely belongs. It was originally conceived in the late
1880’s but major architectural changes were not made until the 1980’s and 90’s. For decades, members arrived at the club via
a small boat from the village of Malahide (the Club was then on a true
island). Today it is a very strong track
(made much tougher by 20-25 mph winds on a bright sunny day), built among
wonderful sand dunes, with healthy turn throughout, and a wonderful collection
of holes. Rather than bore you by going
through some of the best holes, I will bore you by giving some overall
impressions:
--the land
is marvelous…aside from the massive sand dunes, it ground pitches and rolls in
every direction, making for difficult challenging stances, and wonderful
sights…great links land, not man made;
--front
nine consists of 1-8 being eight straight par 4’s, followed by a par 3 9th;
one might expect this layout to be boring, but I had no sense of that (felt a
little like front nine of Main course at Brookline)…the holes play differently
from each other but “fit” together beautifully;
--the 13th
green (best hole on course…long tough par 3) and 14the tee (may be toughest
hole with fairway about 20 meters wide and sloping LàR…and yes I hit the
fairway and got my par) both sit where the old clubhouse was…across the estuary
from the town of Malahide, which a marina occupying a good part of the
estuary. As I looked over, I tried to
think of other courses in the British Isles with such a setting, and could not
think of any (some of course give a feeling of being “part of the town” such as
St. Andrews, Carnouistie, Prestwick…but I could not think of any where a marina
and the town are seen from the course; please let me know if you think of
any. One great club/course in the USA
evokes that feeling…Country Club of Fairfield (CT);
--the 10th
hole reminded be of #1 at Royal Liverpool (Hoylake)…with OB jutting out on the right side for well over 200 yards out
form the tee.
In summary, really great track deserving of far more
attention!!
We had a quick dinner (during which I came close to nodding
off from exhaustion after the overnight flight. Next day would start the grueling part of the
trip.
Portmarnock May 29
Morning
Last played by me in 1979, and almost universally recognized
as one of the real great tracks of the world.
Played with Huntley Lauder of Dublin, a very fine player and good friend
of Fergal’s. We teed off around
8:30am…t’was a little chilly but no too cold, but the winds were up again,
about the same as yesterday. Huntley
played Brookline a few years back with Pat Grant, so we could spend time w Pat
Grant stories, not to mention time spent talking about Fergal…was tougher to do
yesterday with Fergal’s dad in the group J.
Currently #54 on Golf Mag World 100 (highest rating since
2000 was #34 in 2001), it is #36 on the Golf Architects Survey, but unranked in
Planet Golf’s 100. So what gives
here? My sense is that Portmarnock is
one of the great championship courses anyplace...as well as one of the great
clubs. It has, very simply, no
weaknesses. Conditioning is outstanding
(real fast and firm , etc etc). Holes
are very very tough, yet very fair.
Surrounded on 3 sides by water, if sites magnificently and
majestically. Simple a great collection
of pure, true links golf holes, that challenge but do not totally “beat you
up”. It’s land, however, does not
provide as much drama (sand dunes, massive pitches and rolls, in
fairways, etc.) naturally found at places such as Royal County Down,
Lahinch, Shinnecock, etc etc…and which tend to linger in one’s mind
longer. Yet there are few better pure
golf courses anywhere. This is a tough
one to resolve...me thinks a top 100 needs a mixture of both types. I know that as I have aged, “fun” has become
far more important that pure difficulty or ability to test. But ultimately, picking a top 100 position is
like picking a spouse (or like picking the top 100 spouses?????). At this point, I think it is time to move on.
K Club—Palmer May
29 Evening
Since it was on the way between Portmarnock and Rosses
Point, I figured why not go play another Ryder Cup track (since I might want to
have played all Ryder Cup courses, ever.
Well, this dumb sxxt blew it again…like he did playing National outside
of Paris in mid-April, and totally contrary to Fergal’s advice. K Club, was boring, super tough from the back
tees, and a classic “cookie cuttor. Only
good news is that I was able to get a cart and zip around playing it in about
2:45. Pain is less painful when it
doesn’t last as long.
More later…
No comments:
Post a Comment