northern ireland... days 2 & 3

i am posting the last few days in sections because i didn't have access to the internet to post each day. so please bear with me. days 4-6 will get posted this evening hopefully. but as you've probably noticed, the pics are already up. browse at will.

day 2 – july 16, 2007 – royal county down golf club

i woke up this morning VERY excited. not only was i about to play the top course in ireland, i was playing one of the top courses in the world. some experts even have royal county down golf club ranked higher than st. andrews and pebble beach, right behind pine valley, augusta national and cyprus point. at the completion of today’s round, I will have another check off the “top 10 golf courses of the world played” matrix. and with 4 checks edges out my “women of the world” matrix. i get around.

after some discussion, big jake and i agreed that i should leave his place around 8am for my 12:10pm tee time. give myself plenty of time to get there leisurely. newcastle (where the golf course is located) was approximately a 2 hr drive from dublin minus traffic (and the local knowledge of driving on this island). to be honest, i was REALLY nervous about driving today. my only experience driving on the wrong side of the road with a car having manual transmission (translate: shifting with my left hand) was my drive from dublin airport yesterday with big jake expertly navigating. i ain’t got no stinking navigator today. and the skinny roads, roundabouts and weird double traffic lights are intimidating. but I must go on. my golf libido is depended on it.

i hit the road about 10 after 8. not too bad. a few quick and easy turns and luise and big jake’s plan was to have me on a highway that should skirt around the city traffic and get me on my way with little delay. jake also lent me two maps—one a street map of dublin and the second a map of the island. i also had my yahoo map directions to the golf course. i was fully prepared for this excursion. turn one—check. turn two—check. turn three… turn three… turn three? damn. missed it. turn around. can’t, one way. circled around. tried. too many one ways. stopped and asked directions. make a quick left and then keep left until you pass a wee hollow and then go through the roundabout and take the third left and then you’ll be back on course. ok. started driving. made the left. kept left. found the wee hollow… i think. what is wee anyway? where’s the roundabout? there it was. which left? this one? ok, made the turn. not the right road. now where was i? stopped to check the map. there i was. i was on the right road. good. kept going. and going. that didn’t feel right. i was driving too long. checked the map again. i was heading in the wrong direction. damn. turned around. ok, now i'm headed in the right direction. drove for 5 mins. i was back where i missed the original third turn. missed it again. but then i knew where i was. got back on track. found the highway. and construction traffic. loads of it. finally got through. i was out of dublin.

it was 9:45am. I made great time.

actually driving in Ireland and the uk isn’t so bad. once you make a few wrong turns, pull a couple of u-ies and make a few 15-point turns you get used to it. one thing is for sure, my dad would’ve had a few heart attacks on this drive. sometimes the road is barely wide enough for double lane traffic with a few inches to spare, and then there are cars parallel parked in both sides HALF-WAY IN THE DRIVING LANES. needless to say I had a few close calls.

the drive from then on was uneventful. i missed a turn or two, but my trusty map always led me back on track. i noticed that once i entered northern ireland, and british control, the speed limit signs, although exactly the same in appearance as those in the republic of ireland, changed. now the number in the outlined red circle represented mph instead of kph. or so i hoped. if not, i’d been doing some SERIOUS speeding.

after my final wrong turn, i took a more scenic route up the coast to newcastle instead of the more direct route through the island, but i figured it was ok since it was only 11am and i had only 11 km left to go. i'd be there by 11:30am – at the latest. i arrived in newcastle at 11:50. according to my yahoo map, i had only about half a mile to the golf course. a couple of turns and i’d be there, ready to tee off. 2 minutes tops. after a few more wrong turns, i was running to the pro shop at 12:05pm, half dressed, club heads banging together angrily at each step. i checked in—just made it. i squeezed a 2 hr drive into 4 hrs. i think that’s a new world record.

i checked in only to find out that i was the last official group to tee off today. and by group, i mean that I’m playing by myself. i was bumped since i was a single and the golf course was full of 4-balls. playing by myself with zero local knowledge and, oh yeah, no caddy. perfect conditions to go low.

i walked up to the first tee. no warm-ups. starter told me to tee away. i blasted my first drive… got all of it… dead left. gone. mulligan, says the starter. first tee, no practice, two balls. ok. second ball—boom! down the gut. big, da lama. huge. nice shot. thanks i said as I headed down the fairway. have a nice round. Thanks I said again. another good shot and two putts later and I was home in 4 on the first hole. birdie. one down. i was going to tear this golf course apart.

8 holes later, i was walking to the 9th tee with a 4-hole string of doubles intact and down to my last sleeve of golf balls. 5 balls missing and counting. i placed apbs on all of them but i wasn't holding my breath. i don’t think the irish are interested in my missing golf balls.

the guys in the group in front of me were on the 9th tee because the course was backed up. they told me that their 4th bailed out mid-round and that i was welcome to join them. perfect - now i had 3 more sets of eyes to watch my ball fly into the heather and 2 caddies to tell me that’s not where you wanted to hit it. truthfully, i was relieved. to prove it, i parred the 9th to finish in at 44. a very dodgy 44.

i have to sincerely thank bill, daniel and rusty for allowing me to join them for the back nine. if it weren’t for their generosity, i would not have enjoyed one of the greatest golf courses in the world. playing a new golf course blind, especially a true irish links course with multiple blind shots is one of the most frustrating experiences in golf. it can totally sour your round especially when you’re dishing out 135 quid ($270) to swing a golf club 80 or so times.

beyond the extra sets of eyes and friendly banter, the back nine wasn’t any different scoring-wise. i rolled in at 45, although a more legit 45. final tally—a very generous 89, 8 lost balls and 3 new friends. and no rain. that was the biggest score of the day.

after my driving fiasco in the morning, i decided to bypass belfast and find a b&b somewhere close to portrush for tomorrow’s round. i realized that belfast really wasn’t that close to portrush and i have an early tee time that I don’t want to miss, like I almost did today. bill, daniel and rusty told me that royal portrush is probably the hardest golf course on the island. i guess i better stock up on golf balls in the morning. there’s nothing like spending $50 on a couple of sleeves of nike one platinums.

a bot of info - if you ever need an energy fix in ireland, i recommend a cocktail of an energy drink called berry red bpm (focus and energy!) and yogurt covered raisons and peanuts. it stopped my head from nodding as i drove down the tight and windy roads to portrush. and as i drove, i could see lightning and hear thunder in the direction i was heading but i never saw rain. and good thing too. when I got to portrush, the road to the city was closed because some schmuck was stuck in his car in a flash flood and the fire department was pumping him out. that severely limited my b&b options. on the way in, i remembered seeing one a few miles back down the road i just arrived from. so i decided to head back and try it. luckily for me, the revallagh b&b had a room. 28 pounds en suite (meaning the bathroom is in the room). not too bad. so I took it.

tee time at 9:40am tomorrow. i’m heading to bushmills (yep, that bushmills) to find dinner and then i’m hitting the bed. i’ve got a long day ahead of me tomorrow—golf, the bushmills distillery, giants causeway, the carrick-a-rede rope bridge and then a drive to londonderry (or derry, depending on which side of the border you’re on). and then I have to find lodging again. wish me luck.

day 3 – july 17, 2007 – royal portrush dunluce links

i doubt anyone finished yesterday’s post so I’m going to keep this one short. today’s round was much better than yesterday’s. an 84, and not as generous as yesterday’s 89 (but still generous). only 6 lost balls. i’m improving. i played with two americans today, graham and jim. and andre carried my bag. he was a golf ball saver.

after golf, i jumped in the kia and drove in the direction of giants causeway. on the way, i ran into dunluce castle. it was a pretty substantial ruin – a lot of the castle still stood. hopefully, i got some nice pics.

it was 2:00pm so I left dunluce castle and headed to bushmills to take a tour through the distillery. i arrived at 2:15 and the tour was at 2:30. perfect timing. the tour took about 45 minutes and ended at the bar where i got a complimentary special 12-year whiskey. it was tasty, so i bought a bottle. the distillery is the only place where you can purchase this bottle. it looks like steve and i will get to drink some good whiskey for a bit…

next on my list was giants causeway – the coastal cliffs and bays created by an eroding island. there were some crazy rock formations on the causeway. after a 5 pound parking fee and a nice 5km hike, i got to see all of them.

like yesterday, thunder and lightning were in the distance, but i had yet to see any rain. so i headed to find the carrick-a-rede rope bridge. i arrived and found out that there was a 3 pound fee to walk over the bridge. i get in line behind a group from a huge tour bus. as i waited in line, it started to rain. lightly at first. then lightning. then thunder. and then it started pouring. i wore my rain resistant jacket, but it certainly wasn’t waterproof. after about a minute in the rain, i was soaked. screw the rope bridge. a bridge made of slick rope after a few flights of slippery stairs wasn’t worth the trouble. i hopped back in the kia and headed for derry-stroke-londonderry – the walled city (that's how the radio djs say it), without crossing the bridge with the other schmucks.

a little over an hour and a cocktail of lucozade energy drink and chocolate covered caramels later, i was in londonderry/derry looking for a b&b to lay my head. it was about 8pm. an hour and 4 no vacancies later and i was in a small town outside of the city at a hotel called an grianan having dinner and falling asleep.

tomorrow the walled city, donegal, connemara and the long drive back to dublin. and possibly an under-21 hurling match in the evening.