49. Great Britain, Ireland, France, and Sweden May 16-28, 2016 (Part III)

Great Britain, Ireland, France, and Sweden May 16-28, 2016 (Part III)

I was scheduled to play Burnham & Berrow Golf Club’s Championship Course at 9:45am with Keith Baxter, who created www.top100golfcourses.co.uk.  B&B is located in southwestern England, south of Wales and is about a 30-mile drive from Celtic Manor.  Later in the day I was flying to Dublin, Ireland and was scheduled to play at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club south of Dublin.  It was to be a busy day. 

But first, since I was only going to Ireland for about 20 hours, I was shipping my large suitcase via DHL to my Tuesday night hotel in England.  I arrange for the folks at Celtic Manor to arrange the shipment and gave them my credit card number to pay for the shipment (less expensive and much easier than taking the suitcase on two flights…at least it should have been…more in later posts).

Burnham & Berrow GC, May 23, 2016: I arrived at B&B around 8am to meet Keith for breakfast.  Keith lives near B&B but is not a member.  Turns out that in the 1980’s or so he worked for Citibank in London in data processing…we traded Citi stories but of course most of the conversation was about golf.

B&B was founded in 1890 and started as a 9 hole course, which later expanded to 18 holes about 7 years later.  An impressive list of architects contributed to the evolution of this wonderful links course including Herb Fowler, Hugh Alison, Harold Hilton, Dr. Alistair MacKenzie, and Harry Colt.  It is built on wonderful terrain running between well-formed dunes that in some ways reminded me of The Island Club north of Dublin.  You can get a sense of the terrain from these pictures of the blind tee shot on #10 and the uphill par 3 14^th (193 yards). 

 

Totally blind tee shot on par 4 10th

 

Tee shot #14 par 3

I thought the other best holes were 9 (169 yard par 3 well protected by deep bunkers in front—see pic below), 12 (loved the green setting), 17 (a tough tough slightly downhill par 3 over all sorts of mini-mounds), and 18, a brutal dogleg left par 4 to a green well protected by three bunkers right and a slightly raised green which then runs away from you (yes, back nine better than the front)!  

Tee shot par 3 9th

Unfortunately the rains of the previous couple of days left the course in less than perfect condition.  At some point I would like to get back here…perhaps on a trip also encompassing a return to St. Enodoc which Pat and I played and loved a year ago.  Me thinks B&B is a superb course, but I have a sense that St. Enodoc is the best of the courses in Southwestern England.  I had a poor front and a good back nine shooting 46-41 = 87.

After the round we quickly packed everything up and I headed to Bristol airport for my flight to Dublin, which I caught without a lot of time to spare.  The flight was on time and then I had a 50 mile drive to Dun Laoghaire…racing against the sun and a 9:30 sunset (my flight arrived on time at 4:50pm, but I had to get the rental car and drive 30 miles in rush hour.  With the exception of a couple of jam-ups, the drive went smoothly and I arrived at the course around 6:15pm.

Dun Laoghaire Golf Club, May 23, 2016:  Originally known as the Kingstown GC, this club was 18 holes on a smallish (80 acre) tract of land…and renovated by Harry Colt in 1918.  The club sold its property to a real estate developer in 2003 and then built a 27 hole facility which opened in 2007 and was designed by Martin Hawtree’s firm (unclear how much of the architectural work was done by Hawtree himself).  Earlier this month the club hosted the 2016 Curtis Cup Matches.  The course is set in a valley amongst the Wicklow Mountains in a beautiful (but parkland) setting.   The three nines are called Upper, Middle, and Lower; I played the Middle and Upper, which also constituted the 18 holes used for the Curtis Cup.  Cup seemed very active both with golfers and folks getting ready for the Curtis Cup.  Told everyone I met that they would never work so hard and also never have so much fun!!

Course is good, but certainly not a World 100 candidate.  Very hilly terrain, and was in very good condition (although not firm/fast).  As the sun went down later in the afternoon, some of the views especially on the Upper Nine (which I played second) are shown in the pictures below and were spectacular…see picture below from 8^th tee on Upper about 35 minutes before sunset.

 

Par 3 8th Upper Nine

Had a very good 2^nd nine (on Upper) with a strong birdie to finish and shot 43-38 = 81.  Finished 18 about 10-15 minutes before sunset, and then drove about 45 miles north to my hotel located NE of Dublin and near Killeen Castle, a Jack Nicklaus course where I had a tee time at 8:00 the next morning.

Killeen Castle Golf Club, May 24, 2016:  Arrived at Killeen Castle at around 7:30am and the clubhouse was locked up tight as a drum.  A member of the staff arrived at 7:45am and I was able to have breakfast but the pro shop did not open until 8:15 (staff member had car troubles), but was able to get right off.

Visually, this course is something to behold…architecturally not so good.  It is built on 350 acres (if you didn’t know it, most courses are built on 120-160 acres!) on the grounds of an old estate with a magnificent castle sitting right behind the 18^th green (see pic below…and sorry about the camera angle).

Par 4 18th with Killeen castle behind green

The course is a mere 7677 yards (par 72) and recommended pace of play for a four ball is 4:50.  Hosted the Solheim Cup in 2011.  Why anyone with half a brain would come to Ireland to play this course is beyond me (unless, of course, they had a dumb Bucket List to finish).  Anyhow, I was warned by Fergal and others…this one belongs with Celtic Manor 2010, The K Club, Gleneagles Centennial, etc.,…, big, long and boring.  Fired a smooth 46-45 = 91.

The good news was that I had at least two great ones to play in the following 24-30 hours and was looking forward to them with great anticipation…also hoping they would not disappoint!