As many of you are aware there is a considerable amount of organisation or administration behind the scenes to ensure we have golf arranged every day. That said our meticulous planning at the beginning of the year has given way to a more care-free-go-with-the-wind approach. It has got to the stage that as I write this we have nowhere to play tomorrow (after the Belfry today).
In Ireland I took the reigns in organising the itinerary. Life was helped by the good folk at Failte Ireland hooking us up with a few B&B vouchers but 27 days of golf were to be arranged. About half of these were arranged prior to arrival after a number of letters were sent to club secretaries. Half of the courses were ??TBC?.
This is where, what I now call, our fairy godmothers come into the picture. Three different folk in Ireland helped us out immeasurably through calling on their contacts to help out the kiwi boys. Without them our Irish leg wouldn??t have been what it was.
The first such soul was Kevin Markham ?? the chap we played with yesterday at Druids Glen. For example an email came through from Kevin one day late in our Scottish leg with tee times at about 7 Irish courses. When it came up on the iPhone whilst driving along JP and I still shake our head with disbelief.
The second lad was Tom Cotter from the Slieve Donard who not only put us up there but put us in touch with plenty other folk around ?? including the gregarious Aine (Onya) Morgan who, today we met and thanked her for putting us up at Carton House. Now I??d give you a huge spiel on Carton House but I am under orders from Bart to keep the blogs short.
Carton House was quality, deluxe 4 star lodge 20 minutes out of Dublin. It is luxury. And there are some amazingly cheap deals there for weekends away which surprised me. We bumped into a group of about 25 guys across from London for a boys weekend ?? half of which are from NZ (one said he??d email me about getting him and his lads out to join us for a game in London and I haven??t heard back so mate pull your finger out and flick me an email!).
Back to Carton House. If you can rewind back one dastardly blog post and recall poor Gretta hanging out in golf clubhouses feeling sorry for herself after too much Guinness? Well that feeling was fixed by the tonic that is Carton House. The biggest (and most comfortable) bed you??ve ever seen. A bottle of wine on arrival and a plush spa facility and I was back in the good books.
We met Aine in the morning to say a huge thank you, for a tour of the property and a spot of lunch (after a breakfast that Gretta could write an entire blog post about) and then it was time for the golf of the day at the jewel in the Carton House golfing crown ?? the Montgomerie course.
This is where the third fairy godmother comes into this blog post - and he??ll be particularly scathing at me calling him both a fairy and a ??mother?? ?? but Eamonn Kinelly thanks a million mate! Eamonn works for a company called Golf Vacations Ireland so has a few contacts in and around the world of golf from helping punters like us travel around Ireland golfing and enjoying the fantastic culture here.
Eamonn and I took on Jamie and Ruaridh ?? Eamonn??s son in a best ball match. The weather was poor and I??d say that normally we??d all be fair weather golfers enjoying the comfort of the warm clubhouse. But we zipped around in GPS fitted carts having a crack at this Colin Montgomerie lay out from the back tees. The course would be described as an inland links course with huge pot bunkers (each about 3 times the size of the gems you find on the more traditional links courses) widish fairways and exposed greens. With the wind and rain it was a real test and despite some fine golf being played the scoring was well above our handicaps.
Despite the conditions the match was a well-fought one. And it came down to this ?? this story is for you John an avid follower of the blog from the famous course in Aussie called Kingston Heath. All-Square on the last (a short par four actually the 13th hole after we started on 14 so as to get a clear run at the course). Jamie standing over a birdie putt, Eamonn in the bunker for 2 ?? with a shot. Eamonn knocks it just out of the bunker in the collar. JP misses his birdie putt. So Eamonn, needs to sink his putt to win the match and 2 putt for a half leaves it 10 feet short! I look on in disbelief. But never to fear we collectively line up the putt and agree on a line a cup outside the left. A downhill sliding left to right ?? the hardest putt in golf ?? to halve this epic battle. Now with all respect to Eamonn, I did not expect him to ever give this putt enough borrow ?? and I was resigned to yet another best ball defeat. But then something marvelous happened. Without a bit of hesitation yer man hit the perfect putt which took the borrow and rolled right into the hole. Match halved.
That golfing interlude done we went inside for a Guinness with a couple of random lads Declan and Gavin who??d been following the blog and saw we were playing here today and popped around the corner for a chat and a beer. Very random but also very cool and these were more top blokes - it pretty much sums up Ireland.
To sum up the evening we went out in a place called Lexlip to the pub which was the home of Guinness ?? where Arthur Guinness originally started brewing the stuff before he purchased the now famous brewery in the middle of Dublin. Good chance to chat with Eamonn without the wind and rain hurtling at us! Thanks to everyone involved in another cracker of a puregolfing day.
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What did I tell you? Eamonn has holed more miles of putts over 20 feet than any man alive. It's infuriating! He runs a great business and really cares about the clients he has travelling through Ireland and Scotland. Glad I could contribute to the cause. JC
Posted by JC, 01/10/2010 5:36am (3 years ago)
Chisholm Park
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