45. Quick Update

Quick Update

It is the morning of May 28, 2016 and I am on a flight from Copenhagen to Dublin, where I will meet Pat (who is flying to Dublin from London).  She has been touring English gardens and attending the Chelsea Flower Show.  We fly from Dublin to Boston this afternoon.

Since you last heard from me regarding my Blog, I have been busy playing lots of golf…even for me.  As per my past posting I arrived back to NC from my last round the worlder on May 2.  Then early on May 10 I started my trek from NC to MA…with some golf stops along the way, and arrived in Boston the afternoon of Friday 5/13.  That Tuesday thru Friday I played six courses:

           

§  Chevy Chase Club (MD)

§  Saucon Valley CC-Weyhill (PA)

§  CC of Scranton (PA)

§  Mountain Ridge CC (NJ)

§  Liberty National GC (NJ)

§  The Whippoorwill Club (NY)

Three days later I left Boston for a trip to England, France, Ireland, Wales, and Sweden with 11 days of golf, playing 17 courses (16 18-holers and one 9-holer). 

Somehow I got my entire itinerary in, despite a variety of “Perils of Pauline”, including:

§  a variety of traffic jams in London, Paris and around Dublin

§  coming very very close to missing one flight

§  being “forced to move too far left in a tight lane, and side swiping my rental car against a side barrier (car mechanically fine, I was fine, but car not so pretty)

§  having DHL mis-ship my suitcase I shipped all the way from Wales to England (to avoid dragging it to Ireland for one day)…then dealing with their legions of bureaucrats…ongoing tale (and the “Qantas worst service award” has been replaced by the “DHL worst service award”)

§  playing in some of the British Isles sometimes awful weather (including having to get off a course due to lightning…a rare occurrence in GB&I

§  catching a cold about three days ago.

Along the way I met a bunch of wonderful people (the only bad ones were some of the DHL folks), played some fabulous tracks and some not so good ones.  Details will follow in other blog updates (I am way behind).  Here are the courses I played (in chron order) and why, in terms of my bucket lists, they were on the itinerary (unless noted, the course is in England):

§  Southport & Ainsdale: 2 Ryder Cups

§  Alwoodley: World Top 100 Ever, MacWood Spoof

§  Moortown; Ryder Cup

§  Lindrick: Ryder Cup & Curtis Cup

§  Les Bordes (France): World Top 100 Ever

§  The Belfry-Brabazon: 4 Ryder Cups

§  Celtic Manor-2010: Ryder Cup

§  St. Pierre-Old: Curtis Cup & Solheim Cup

§  Burnham & Berrow-Championship: MacWood Spoof

§  Dun Laoghaire-Upper & Middle 9’s (Ireland): Curtis Cup (in 2 weeks!!)

§  Killeen Castle-JWN (Ireland): Solheim Cup

§  Royal Worlington (Nine Holer): MacWood Spoof

§  Royal West Norfolk: MacWood Spoof

§  Addington: MacWood Spoof

§  Liphook; MacWood Spoof

§  Barseback-Masters (Sweden): Solheim Cup

§  Halmstad-North (Sweden): Solheim Cup

I do not want to go into course descriptions here…I will simply leave it with short note regarding the best of the above 23 courses—

§  --Very Best—designated Hidden Gems: CC of Scranton and Royal Worlington

§  --Next—Alwoodley; Burnham & Berrow; Royal Worlington; Liphook

You may have noted that there no Ryder, Presidents or Solheim Cup Venues among the best.  Fees paid by these venues have provided critically needed financial support for the European Tour and the LPGA, and this has meant that the financial factors have driven the selection process far more than course quality.

OK, so now you must be wondering where I stand with my Bucket Lists…here goes:

§  World Top 100 Ever (Eight Sources)---total of  286 courses (all still existing), and have played 283;  three missing located in Barbados and Canada (1 each in Quebec and Nova Scotia);

§  MacWood 1939 Spoof World 100—total of 101 courses of which 5 no longer exist; have played 95 of 96 remaining courses and last one to play in Quebec, Canada;

§  --US Open Venues—two left, one in MA and one in IL

§  --Cups Ever (Walker, Ryder, Presidents, Curtis, Solheim), total of 110 courses and I have played 101.  Have completed all Walker Cup and Presidents Cup Venues, and have completed all overseas venues for the other three, so all of my remaining nine are all in the USA (CA-2, CO-2, IA-1, MA-1, NY-1, OR-1, and WV-1).

My plan is to hopefully complete the first three by end of July and take my time with Cups Ever. 

I am a tired puppy right now…but am fine aside from the cold.  Truth is…I’ve had enough of the phrenetic, rushed trips I have taken previously.

44. Last Golfing Day of Trip—in Scotland—May 1, 2016

Last Golfing Day of Trip—in Scotland—May 1, 2016

Flights from Dubai to London Heathrow and then Heathrow to Edinburgh went well…except, we have to “ding” another airline, this time British Airways.  On the DubaiàHeathrow flight, I was again flying Business (my round the World ticket all in Business), and this leg was on a Boeing 777.  Business class seats for this flight were 8 across in business class…never  before seen 8 across in Business on any airline (American Air is 4 across on a 767 to Raleigh-Durham).  It was very packed and crowded.  As Mrs. Barry used to say in 8^th grade… “Oh my, how the mighty have fallen!” 

Arrived in Edinburgh around 11pm, and baggage was slow coming off, there was a long line to secure my rental car, and made two wrong turns getting to Gleneagles (a 55 minute drive if all goes perfectly).  Ended up arriving at about 1:45am…and I have an 8am tee off tomorrow!  Good thing this is the last golfing day of the trip!

Gleneagles Centenary, May 1, 2016:  Designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in about 2000, this course hosted the 2014 Ryder Cup that ended with the US getting trounced and the infamous Phil Mickelson/Tom Watson “entanglement” (for lack of a better word). 

My clear recollection was that the course was not greeted with very positive reactions at that time.  Furthermore, my conversations with other golf course affectionato’s over the past few months produced much stronger negative reactions.  But there I was at 8am on the first tee...with the temperature hovering around 45° (F this time as compared to almost 45°C in UAE), the winds at about 20mph and gusting higher, and the rain pelting down at a medium rate.  Of course, since I had a buggy, things couldn’t be too bad.  Only problem was they were restricted to cart paths and in most cases, the cart paths were well above and far from the fairway.  So, hole by hole playing was tougher than if I had a push cart, but it did save me on the walks from green to tee (which were considerable in some cases).  Conditions were better than at County Louth three weeks earlier, but not by much (and the golf course was not nearly as good).  Three positive things can be said about my round.  First, I finished strong (3 putting for bogey from 12’ on par 5 16^th, up and down from greenside bunker for par on par 3 17^th, and stuck gap wedge to 18” for a birdie on par 5 18^th).  Second, I was able to get the round over with in 2:45 (three twosomes ahead of me waved me through on first 9 holes) which was good for survival in the weather.  Third, I appear to have survived it.  And, the ensuing 94 (smooth 49 on front) certainly will not bring my handicap down.

And to think, the wonderful King’s Course was right nearby, not to mention a whole bunch of great ones in East Lothian.  Sometimes even I question my judgment!!

Dalmahoy-East, May 1, 2016:  Fortunately most of the rain had stopped after my first 9 holes, so I had pretty much dried out by the time my round at Gleneagles finished.  I was scheduled to play Dalmahoy-East, a course owned by Marriot Hotels and located about 5 miles from the Edinburgh airport.  Dalmahoy’s East Course was host venue for the first Solheim Cup staged in (and won by)Europe (in 1992).  It was originally designed by James Braid and opened for play in 1927. 

I arrived at Dalmahoy around 12:30pm and was able to move my tee time up to 1:20.  This is a good parkland course.  Fairly open and hilly, it is long  (7334 yards) and reasonably tough.  There was no rain during the afternoon, but the winds kept blowing at 15-20mph and I doubt the temp rose above 50°.  I was definitely tired and frankly these two courses were somewhat of a downer for the final 36 of this trip.  But I got it done.  Also, somehow finished fairly strongly again, and had an ugly 91 for the round.

The 18^th at Dalmahoy-East is fairly cool.  The final green sits right in front of the hotel, which is an old Scottish castle…see pic below. 

18th at Dalmahoy-East with Hotel (Castle) behind green

Off to airport and caught earlier flight to Heathrow.  By the time I reached my hotel, I was very tired, and immediately hit the sack.  Next morning arrive LHR for nonstop flight to RDU…on AA with 4 across in Business.

And of course best end to trip was seeing Pat at RDU!!  Good to be home and great to be home w her!!

Next Travels: Two trips on the immediate horizon.  First we are heading up to MA for the summer.  Pat is flying on 5/12, while I am driving up next week, stopping at some east coast courses on the way.

Then the following week we both go back to GD&I.  Pat is going to the Chelsea Flower Show with a good friend Sharon Lawson and I am going back on tour for about 12 days, leaving May 16 and returning with Pat and Sharon on May 28.  My schedule calls for me playing two of my remaining five “100 Evers” (Alwoodley in England and Les Bordes in France) and six of my seven remaining “MacWood spoof” courses (one of which is Alwoodley), plus as many of the “Cups Ever” list I can fit in.

Allow me to focus for a minute on “Cups Ever”, which includes the Walker Cup, Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, Curtis Cup, and Solheim Cup.  To date, there have been a total of 148 of these “Cup” events (Walker-45; Ryder-40; Curtis-38; Solheim-14, and Presidents-11) with another 15 future venues announced to date.  These 163 events have been/will be played on a total of 110 venues, located as follows:

            USA                67

            GB&I              33 (England-14; Scotland-10; Ireland-5; Wales-3; N Ireland-1)

            Cont. Europe    6 (Sweden-2; France, Germany, Italy, Spain-1 each)

            Australia           1

            Canada              1

            South Africa     1

            South Korea      1

All of these 110 still exist, and I have not played 21 venues (which have hosted a total of 29 events) located as follows:

            USA                11 (CA-2; CO-2; IA, MA, MD, NJ, NY, OR, WV-1 each)

            GB&I                8 (England-4; Ireland-2; Wales-2)

            Sweden             2

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Finally, some pictures from this past trip that I should have included in earlier posts:

John Cornish, Pilot, RL, and moi after Landing in Scone April 25

RL, Pilot, RM, moi, and John Cornish at Scone Airport Terminal April 25

Lava Fields #1...count the bunkers!

Lava Fields #4 (par 3 over lava bed)

Lava Fields #15 (par 3)

After the round and outside the gate (so I think legal to post*) RM-moi-RL-JC

*checking w the lawyers!