8. England and Scotland June 3-5

England and Scotland June 3-5

OK, after flight from Cork Ireland to Birmingham England, a drive of about one hour to my hotel.  Facing the tough part of the trip from June 3-8, with schedule to play 36 on 6/3, 18 on 6/4, and then 36 on both 6/5 and 6/6.  This will be the test.

Notts Golf Club Morning June 3

Played Notts GC (also known as Hollinwell) early (7:45 or so) on June 3.  They arranged to get me out before an outing sponsored by Bentley.  Hoping to get a hole in one and perhaps win a new Bentley!!  This is a heathland course near Nottingham, and of course very close to Sherwood Forest…Robin Hood and all that stuff (strange juxtaposition with a Bentley outing but who am I to ???).   Club founded in 1894 and moved to this location in 1901 on a course designed by Willie Park, Jr. and revised by Tom Williamson in 1912.  It is astounding how much land this club owns…the land could easily hold 27 holes.  While it’s opening hole is a somewhat ordinary par 5, things quickly get much better with #2 and #3, and from about #6 on, the course is excellent.  Secret here is the old one…great land that naturally provides definition (no big earthmoving projects here) with the pitches and rolls that makes golf in GB&I so good.  While there are lots of trees on the entire property, they generally do not affect play and the turf is superb. Hit ball well (41-43=84) and really do like these new clubs. Course was on GM World 100 as #87 in 1985 but has not appeared on any other World 100.  An example of how there are now so many great tracks around the world (either with some of the new courses or renovations of classics), it is so tough to make a World 100.

Silloth on Solway Afternoon June 3

After the round, spent a few minutes with the Secretary and then headed north on a long drive to Silloth on Solway in the northwest corner of England, just below the Scotland line.  Drive took longer than planned as horse drawn carriages were making their way to the equivalent of a county fair about 30 miles south of Silloth.  Play I had to stop once for a 15 minute nap as the schedule was getting to me.  Good news is those naps work!!  Arrived around 3:15 after a 4 hour journey, and was able to get off on #1 just before a whole bunch of locals were planning to play. 

Put simply, this is one of the World’s great fun courses!! It is (as least to me) a true Hidden Gem. Like many other greats, this one is not easy to get to, but absolutely worth the journey.  It is courses like this one that makes exploring in GB&I, as well as playing all the Top 100 lists worthwhile.  Originally opened in 1892, the course was later revised by Willie Park Jr. and Alastair MacKenzie…a pretty sound pedigreed.  Plays firm and fast, sitting right on the Irish Sea, it is perfectly and so very naturally positioned on fantastic land.  Greens are both turtleback and bowl-like in shape, it also has several blind shots which I love (and I know others hate…but what do they know).  It reminded me of the brilliance of Royal Dornoch in many ways.  Very simple and low key club…absolutely worth the visit.  Best holes are #3, 5, 9, 10, 13 and 16.  It is about a 2 hour drive south of the Glasgow airport and simply terrific.  As far as I am concerned, as true Top 100.

After finishing the round, drove the 2 hours to Glasgow airport where I was staying that evening.  Certainly a long day...but a fabulous one.  Few things in golf are more fun and rewarding than finding a hidden gem!!

Machrie Golf Club June 4

Up early to catch a 45 minute flight (25 minute fly time) from Glasgow to Islay Airport in the Isle of Arran (Arran, not Iran) SW of Glasgow and directly west of Troon/Prestwick (but since Machrie and the airport are on the western coast of the Isle, Troon, Prestwick and Turnberry are not visible from Machrie).  Rated #89 in the world by Darius Oliver in Planet Golf, this place is like a museum, at least it still is but not for long.  The club and property were purchased in 2011 by Gavyn Davies, a former BBC Chairman, and his wife Baroness Sue Nye.  They are in the midst of renovating the course.  At least as of June 3, it was fairly much like the old Machrie and was like playing in a museum.  Blind shots galore, incredible land and views, firm firm links land..what more can one ask?  The bulldozers are in the process of changing it, so you better hurry (especially if you love places like Prestwick, West Berwick, etc etc etc) and love the old game…and are a little crazy.  Yes, I know…those comments are joyously redundant.

I fully understand why the changes are being made but fear something very precious is being lost forever.  So happy I got my chance at it before the bulldozers had done much damage. 

Getting back to the real world (if there is such a thing), flight back was 2 hours late.  So I got in my car at GLA at9:30pm, facing a 1:40 drive to near St. Andrews to stay in a B&B.  Was able to email the owners who stayed up for me as I arrived at 11:15pm…with the plan to play The New Course at St. Andrews at 7:15 or so Friday.  Who planned this trip anyhow?

New Course at St. Andrews and Royal Aberdeen June 5

My internal alarm clock beat my iphone and was at The New Course first tee by 6:50am.  Not busy at all, so was able to go off alone a few minutes after 7am.  Strange that I have never played it, but with it rated #56 on the recent survey of Golf Course Architects, I had to get it done.  Through the years, many have said they thought The New Course was a better course than The Old, but frankly, I did not see that.  Yes, it has wonderful exposure to the River Eden estuary at the turn, #9 is a wonderful par 3, #10 a very tough par 4, and being and playing in St. Andrews is always something special, but frankly, I do not understand how it can be put in the Top 100.   Perhaps the hectic schedule of the previous 48 hours affected my vision.  Who knows?  In any case, after the round, I was able to take a short walk around which, as always, was a real pleasure.  Of course, the grandstands are just about all up in preparation for The Open Championship next month.

Drive to Royal Aberdeen too another 1:40.  While, Pat and I played it in May 2013, that round featured the worst weather I have ever experienced on a golf course.  I wanted to get back and hopefully see the course instead of trudging head down through sideways rain, sleet, and cold northerly winds gusting to 50mph.  We had a beautiful if windy day (20mph which felt still by comparison), and I love the course.  This time the wind was from the south, so it played downwind going out and dead into it coming back.  Strangely, I fired a 44-40=84 under those conditions, which was very satisfying.  Very much like Lahinch…both a great championship test, exciting to the senses, and lots of fun.  Really happy I came back to see it.

Stayed near the airport…as the busy pace continued with a flight from Aberdeen to Amsterdam The Netherlands scheduled for the next morning at 6:00am (ugh!!)

7. From Dublin west and north then south...almost circling ireland

Drove about 75 miles in a northwesterly direction to my hotel.  Good stay in Dublin…always wonderful to pick up a hidden gem (Island), and congratulation to the Golf Course Architects survey for their inclusion of The Island Club at #78…missed by all the others.  Also thought about three really good folks I had the chance to play with, Pat O’Leary and Humphrey Kelleher at Island and Huntly Lauder at Portmarnock.  And especially neat to meet Fergal’s dad.

Now…back to the business at hand.  Looking at the weather forecast for Saturday-Monday, it looked like I might get washed out (or blown away or both) all three days.  T’was not looking good.  Figured that perhaps there will be some breaks in the weather which with likely no-shows, might afford me the change to get in some quick 18’s wherever possible.  Key was to stay flexible.

Saturday May 30 Rosses Point

Left hotel early Saturday morning for 50 mile drive to Rosses Point (also know as County Sligo GC).  Weather was looking better, and due to cancellations, was able to play at 11:30 instead of 1:10.  Wind was blowing very very hard (probably 30 mph + higher gusts) but looked like rain would hold off for a few hours.  Fabulous surroundings.  A mountain named “Table Mountain” lies nearby and is strikingly similar in shape and size to Table Mountain in Capetown South Africa. 

Played w 2 guys from Chicago (Keith..a lawyer, and Jeff retired businessman) who were finishing trip.  Loved this course.  Very hilly in spots and I was walking it (w caddy).  Originally designed by George Combe and opened as a 9-holer in 1894.  Was stretched to 18 holes around 6 years later by Willie Campbell, and then remodeled by Colt and Allison in 1927. 

First hole is reasonably uphill and 2^nd is really really uphill and 3^rd downhill (reminding me of 2^nd  and 3^rd  at Gullane #1).  Started hitting ball great on front (had a 39).  Loved course.  It is also undergoing a bunch of renovations led by Pat Ruddy (founder/builder/architect/Mr. Everything at The European Club in SE Ireland…who grew up in the surrounding area and played it many times as a kid).  I very much like what Pat is doing here…some of which is the typical and necessary pushing of back tees back, but others are enlargements of greens, new greens, and other more sophisticated enhancements.  Looks like it had another 1-2 years to go and then this should be a true world class top 100 track (it is close now in mu always humble opinion.  Outstanding piece of land with fairways that pitch and roll in every direction, and some huge sand dunes.  Truly outstanding holes are par 4’s #14 and #17…14 looks fairly innocent from the tee (which is at the base of a large dune), a burn/creek runs diagonally across the fairway…requiring decisions of the tee regarding tee shot direction and lay up or blow over decision (easy decision for moi L), and a green tucked to the right behind a small dune with a false front that must be 12+ yards deep…and from experience I can say that it does repel shots that don’t reach the crest (and even does it 2x).  Hole reminded me of great #15 at Gozzer Ranch…which also looks innocent from the tee.  #17 is simply heroic.  457 from the back, turns slightly left, and while only slightly uphill for tee shot, 2^nd shot is a monster…way uphill with a huge hill/dune surrounding the green on 3 sides.  Tee shot must me right of second is totally blind…blocked by another dune.

As we left the 17^th green, the skies opened up (was still blowing real hard) and but we played 18 quickly and got back to the clubhouse without much damage.  Flexibity got me the earlier tee time and it worked.  Now the question was…what about the plans for 27 at Carne Sunday and 36 at Lahinch and Doonbeg Monday?

West to Carne and South to Lahinch & Doonbeg Sat 5/30-Monday 6/1

Carne:

Hit the road again after 4pm for drive to northwest corner of Ireland…a new course in Carne, called Belmullet GC, or more usually Carne.  Has 27 hours…an 18 (Hackett Course) and a 9 holer (Kilmore).  Drive was just 85 miles but took just over two hours due to rural roads and rainy/stormy weather.  I passed by my hotel and went straight to the club, arriving around 6:30, to find this rugged beautiful course with rain coming down sideways and the wind blowing fiercely.  It was clear even to this numbskull that golf was not on the schedule for that afternoon.  But the weather looked to be OK (but even windier) Sunday morning, so I got myself the first tee time and a caddy and cart reserved.  And thinks looked like they would be OK for Doonbeg Sunday late if I could get there in time (and not exhausted) and perhaps OK for Lahinch late on Monday (which looked to be the worst of the 3 days).  The plan was in place and sacrificed the 9 hole Kilmore at Carne, but that was never key to my plans.

Up early, stuff in the car and over to course (5 minute drive) before 8am.  Winds are a good 40 mpg in exposed areas…course sits on top of a hill with nothing within miles to dampen the winds.  Was about 50 degrees but felt much much colder in that wind.  I went out wearing 5 layers!!   Caddy was a 14 year old kid named Cormac…who was super and worked his tail off.  Hit the ball very well again, but even the slightest error with a wind against of across ended with disaster.  And this place has lots of disasters lurking.  Lots of 12-18” high thick rough…but fairly generous fairways.  Truth of the matter, even though I hit it well, I went without a single par through 17…but did pull off a birdie on the par 5 18^th to finish with a smooth 48-45=93 (and that is for handicap purposes…limit of double bogey per hole).  Wind was simply brutal and it was tough keeping hands warm enough to play. Rained only for about two 5-minute stretches so it could have been far far worse.  Finished feeling like I had just been through a prize fight (and lost).  Frankly, the conditions were so bad, it is hard to evaluate the course itself.  It is very very dramatic and I think would be fun to play in 15 mph winds…question is, how often is it that calm there.  Hard to reach a final conclusion based on a visit of about 18 hours, but frankly, an important question.

To the car!!! We’ve got 160 miles and 4 hours to get to Doonbeg.  Drive took every minute of the forecast time and maybe a couple more.

Doonbeg:

Arrived Doonbeg around 4pm.  Very busy and very very windy…but party cloudy bright skies.  Donald Trump (that other guy from Jamaica, Queens, NY who has done OK) bought this pace last year and has been very busy transforming it.  Course was originally done by Greg Norman.  Opened in 2002.  Norman, who is not known for creating easy tracks certainly was not looking to change that philosophy here.  It is built amongst and near some terrific dunes hard on the Atlantic, and its most famous hole was the very shot (about 100-110 yard) par 3 14^th, where the green say near the top of a large dune right above the beach.  I use the past tense here because the dune was very much affected by a massive storm a couple of years ago, and the 14the green had to be closed down, as it was structurally unstable.  The Donald had fought to restore it but has been stopped (at least to date) from using the buffering technique previously used with much success at other Ireland west coast locations.  For now, the old 14^th remains closed and a new one had been built…very good but not nearly as dramatic.  Time will tell on this one. 

They have built a beautiful clubhouse and hotel (I did not stay there).  Thus far, about 8 holes have been renovated…and done very well…rest to be done next year.  Too early to tell how this place will play after it is all done, since more renovations to come.  Also, the new greens are very slow as the grass is being kept long while they grow in and get their strength.  So greens are very very slow but that is clearly a necessary temporary situation.  Afternoon was extremely windy…probably 40-45 mph.  Best hole I saw was #4…a 656 yd par 5 from the tips, with a huge yawning fairway bunker ( since it is the dead middle of the fairway that name fits perfectly) that requires about 310 yds from the tips to carry.  I just missed carrying it in 2.

The staff was super.  The head pro, Brian Shaw really knows his stuff, knows everyone there (members and staff), and is very focused.  Really good guy and could not have been more accommodating to me.

As I said earlier, it is too early to tell, but early signs are good.  Several of The Donald’s  key folks have assured me that Doonbeg (and Trump Aberdeen) will come in with sandy colored grass.  Here’s hoping so…it would make for some terrific places.  Overall setting is outstanding

For now, I will wait and see what happens.

Lahinch

After my second 18 of the day at Doonbeg, it was a 45 minute drive to Ennis, to what turned out to be a very funky “hippy-skippy” hotel.  But the room was nice and I needed some sleep…it was along day and I was very very lucky.  Got about 10 minutes of hard arin at Carne, and the same at Doonbeg.  Winds were very difficult, but somehow got in all 36.  Never expected that at the start of the day.  Forecast looked terrible for Monday morning, but indicated it might stop raining by 3pm Monday on the west coast…which would be fabulous.

Next morning, forecast looked the same.  Figured member-member event at Lahinch might have been cancelled and perhaps I could play earlier than planned if the forecast happened.  Drove to Lahinch and hung around waiting on the 2^nd floor of the clubhouse…while heavy rain simply pelted the place…coming down sideways.  About no one was playing (memb-memb cancelled) and then rain finally stopped around 3:30.  I got out around 4pm.  Had pre booked a caddy and a cart both of which seemed necessary given the elements.  T’was a wise choice.  Had not played Lahinch since about 1997 and literally forgot how good it is.  It is a rare combination of a true championship test, and a fun, exciting track to play.  It is hard enough to create a course with one of these two attributes…to create one with both is simply amazing.  Lahinch, like many great tracks, gets off to a somewhat slow start on #1 & 2, but then quickly starts roaring on the 3^rd and continues on a great roll on holes #4 and #5 (The Dell).  It is in wonderful condition and was a joy to play despite winds that made it, at times, almost unplayable.  If you haven’t been there (or if you haven’t been there for w while), it is a must see and must play.

I left Lahinch thinking how lucky I had been weather wise…since on Saturday morning it looked like no golf Saturday through Monday, and I ended up getting all four courses in.  Very fortunate.

Old Head

After the round, drove about 80 miles south to a hotel on the way down to Old Head…leaving a 50 mile drive to Tuesday morning.  Arrived at Old Head around 9:30 for my 10:30 game…and it was blowing harder than what I had played in the prior three days (not surprising given how exposed Old Head is…sitting on top of a headland extending 2 miles from the southern edge of Ireland.  The golf course is unlike what it looks like in any pictures I had seen…it is very hilly, and the pictures, usually taken from a helicopter make it look very flat.  So my decision to walk it with a caddy (rather than taking a cart) was at times one that I somewhat regretted, but in the end, I felt fine after the round.  A few comments on the course…it is as dramatic a setting as I can remember…and it is a reasonably well designed course.  It is NOT, however a “links” track…the fairways and think and lush like a typical US course and the greens, while firm, are very receptive to a well hit shot.  Since links courses were at one time covered with glaciers and/or sea water, it would be hard to imagine sea water rising to the level of this headland (in places about 300’…these are cliffs that make the 8^th of Pebble feel like it is just above sea level), although I am sure Al Gore is forecasting it to happen within the next 10 years.  And, in reasonable weather conditions (<15mph), the course would be very playable.

The wind was incredible.  At exposed areas, it was difficult maintaining your balance at address, often the wind would “grab” the club during a backswing, and the ball oscillated on both the greens and on tees.  All things considered, my 45-40=85 felt pretty good.

Ireland Summary

A superb and fortunate 6 days…playing 8 courses many in the midst of a major Atlantic storm hitting Ireland’s west coast.  Met some interesting and wonderful people, played some of the world’s great courses again (Lahinch and Portmarnock) and saw for the first time several very special tracks including Island and Rosses Point.  Picking favorites in this type of crowd is always difficult but here goes, in order:

1. Lahinch

2. Portmarnock (also best championship venue among the 8)

3. Island Club (one of those rare “hidden gems” golf architecture nuts love to find)

4. Rosses Point (also higher potential w Pat Ruddy’s work proceding)

5.  Doonbeg (too early to really tell…will it be green or brown?...how will other changes come out,,,also has great potential if it lives up to its promise)

6.  Carne

7.  Old Head

8.  K Club (a distant 8^th)

Seven interesting and wonderful; tracks.  More to explore (hopefully) on a return visit with Pat.  Ireland is a very special place.

But now…time to move on to England, Scotland, the Continent, and Wales.  And I need to get less verbose…falling way behind on this reporting (it is now the morning of June 11, and I have played and need to report on another 12 courses already!!).

6. Update June 4, 2015...back at it

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 9^th; 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 13^th 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 10^th 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…