From the warmth of the Costa Sol in April, we headed back to Ireland on June 23 for five additional rounds on the Emerald Isle.  Dodging heat domes is a new sport that seems to be necessary as this horrible weather is occurring  with additional frequency in Europe, I was hopeful that the weather would turn back to my preferred state of moderate temperatures and little sun.  I had just left a business trip in Paris and escaped in time as 90 degree temperatures descended on Europe as soon as I left.

Playing in Ireland is a unique experience as weather conditions will dictate play especially on links land.  Wind would be a big factor and if spurred on by precipitation, you had better own a good pair of rain gloves to keep the golf grips playable.  Without the gloves, playing in the rain will be a miserable experience–it might be miserable anyway but at least you’ll be able to hit the ball.  The focus of this trip was the Southwest where we would play, Old Head, Dook, Waterville, Ballybunion and La Hinch.  Accommodations would take us to the town of Killarney, Limerick and the seaside town of Kinsale.  We would be fortunate to avoid the heat but we did not avoid high winds and rain.

Waterville:  We had 9 holes of punishing, driving rain, 40-50 MPH. wind–followed by 9 holes of punishing, driving wind which never quit.  I loved the course and hardly remembered it from the last time I was there in 1991.  Despite the tough conditions-everything was in front of you and you know what you have to do facilitating your concentration.  The rain gloves were on from the first tee shot and the front nine was a test of survival.  I was able to play from the men’s tees despite the weather–at one point the wind blew so hard that it almost took my breath away as I hadn’t this experience since my memory at Prestwick over 20 years ago.  You don’t forget circumstances when you the wind almost takes your breath away.

Old Head:  We had a brilliant weather day, which turned out the best weather we would see for the entire trip.  The pro shop cited that this day was one of maybe 2-3 days of an entire year devoid of significant rain and wind.  I had played Old Head about five years ago in a driving rainstorm where they actually closed the course after we completed our round.  I brought my second book to the Pro Shop as a gift as they provided me with excellent photographs of the course for the book cover.   My second book, Through the Green, features the famous 12th hole on the cover of the book.  The professional was quite pleased to receive the book as he wasn’t there when I first played there.  I had the achievement of my golfing  year with a par on number 12 with three precision shots and a short chip and one putt.  I believe that the 12th hole might be the toughest hole on planet earth.  I saw the 17th and 18th hole for the first time as it was raining so hard during my last visit, I had no memory of these holes.    The 17th hole was quite difficult as the wind picked up,  but a fabulous hole to complete the round.

At Ballybunion, we had some spitting rain but a steady dose of high winds blowing from 20-40 MPG throughout the round.  Due to the significant carries to the fairways with the accompanying winds, I decided to enjoy myself and played many of the holes from the red tees   On this day, I would play from about 5800 yards with the regular tees at 6200 tees.  With these winds, distances had to be continuously recalibrated as the course played a lot longer.

The Dook course was very playable and the weather was pretty reasonable for the day without significant wind or rain.  Itts a course that would yield to some reasonable scoring, but I didn’t particularly score well as I had significant difficulty with greens that seemed to resemble fairways.  The greens were horrible, in my view, and perhaps I should have putted with a 7 iron.  I’m sure Dook course management would be cutting these greens in subsequent days.  This situation reminded me of Mission Hills in Shenzen, China where the greens were so bad, I actually tried putting with a 7 iron.

La Hinch:  You either love this course or you hate it.  Players in the group sang its praises at our group dinner after the round.   I hated the course when I played before and I still hate it.  Hate is too strong a word for any golf course, but I’ll succumb to it here due to the number of carries and blind shots.  On this day, the blind shots were exacerbated  by a constant wind of 30MPH throughout making club selection very difficult.  Diistances don’t mean very much here

I had a doctor’s note stating that I would need a golf cart,  but Ballybunion and La Hinch didn’t care about that note.  You either walked the course or sat in the clubhouse for the next five hours.    I told the officials that I wouldn’t be able to play if I had to walk the course.  Their reaction was a polite shrug of “too bad” you’re not going to be able to play response.  In deference to our group, I moved myself to the last tee time so I would not hold up any players as I had no idea if I was going to be able to complete walking the 18 holes.  I surprised myself and made it round the course walking for two consecutive days–my new hip responded well to the challenge.

More details on these courses and the trip in the weeks to come.  Credit to  our group that  sent me the key  image for this post–very special and most appreciated.