simon's reflections

A 4am start out of Gatwick was my self-imposed punishment for arriving late on the tour. In only a few hours I was bombing down the appalling roads from Cork airport to Waterville in my crappy little Peugeot. And by 11am I had met up with my golfing companions – a motley crew of varying age, golfing handicap and facial hair. The course at Waterville destroyed me, but it was just fantastic to be out there playing on such a great course.
In order that Christian and I didn’t feel out of place as the younger members of the tour, Steve E had thoughtfully booked us into Castlerosse Hotel For Children for the next few nights! Embarassingly, the kids (who seemed to outnumber the adults by about 4:1) seemed capable of staying up much later then us; I’m sure many of them were better golfers too!
Further famous courses were to follow over the proceeding days: Tralee (a beautiful course designed by Arnold Palmer), Ballybunion Old (the course oozed history and nobility, although the clubhouse looked like social housing project from the outside) and Lahinch (without doubt the wettest game of golf I have ever played).
The craic was tremendous throughout the tour. In Killarney, every evening began with a pint or two of the ‘black stuff’ before heading into town to the Smoke House – a fantastic little grill with lovely waitresses and a fantastic arrangement with the next-door pub allowing us to bring our pints through when our table was ready. A shiraz-merlot usually followed the pint - exquisite with steak, and excellent value. Our hotel in Lahinch on my final night served excellent fare, and thus there was no need to leave the premises (fortunate, as the entire town seemed to have closed down for the winter!). On Ken’s suggestion we rounded the meal off with Grand Marniers, a classy end to a classy holiday.
I flew out of Shannon airport on Friday afternoon (a day earlier than the others due to baby daughter duties!). My golf bag was soaking, as were my clothes. As the flight took off, a stream of water poured onto my lap from the door seal (I was in row 1) and I was kindly asked by the stewardess: “well what do you expect me to do about it?!”. My cabbie from Heathrow to my house attempted to rip me off by claiming we had agreed on a price £10 higher than was the case. As I entered my driveway – still soaked, dragging my torn golf bag and suitcase behind me - I longed for the warm honesty of the Munster folk, the ease of their hospitality and the excellent companionship of my five golfing compadres. Then I opened my front door and little Amelia charged towards me and jumped into my arms. And everything in the world was right again.

Photo: Simon briefing the boys at Ballybunion!

tour pics....

I’ve posted a batch of tour photographs in a facebook album. Just in case you’re not on facebook, you can view them by clicking here. They’re not particularly elegant, but they do give a flavour of what we were up to!

Photo: early morning at the Castleross Hotel, Killarney.

tour reflections

The trip was simple wonderful – and certainly exceeded all my expectations.

The courses were even better than I’d ever imagined. Despite being wet and very windy at times, we’d have certainly settled for the weather we ended up with – it wasn’t cold at all and we did have some beautiful sunshine at times. It would be pretty straightforward outlining a long list of golfing highlights but my own personal memories related to the non-golf stuff:
1. Some of the inventive team names: “Teama Maria” (named after one of the waitresses at the Smoke House restaurant in Killarney) and “Team Taches” (Simon+Christian shaving off their beards so they join Barry as a team of moustached golfers – see photograph!).
2. Ken’s new golf umbrella disintegrating in the gales at Waterville within a mere 2 seconds.
3. Simon+Christian dancing an Irish jig beside the 18th green at Lahinch in the pouring rain – we’d agreed this would be the forfeit for the losing team!
4. The idiosyncrasies of the “Sat-Navs” in each of the three cars and how Ken’s mapreader sent us all along a single track road (complete with grass running along its middle) for several miles after the Shannon ferry crossing.
5. Driving along the headland road as we approached Old Head Golf Course and being “blown away” at its improbable location and stunning scenery.
6. SteveE’s collection of Irish CDs which kept us happy on a various journeys and which will now forever be associated with the tour (eg. The Pogues, The Chieftains, The Corrs, Enya and U2).
7. Playing pool in a Lahinch bar and being entertained by Christain issuing instructions/team tactics to Ken.
8. The stunning beauty of south-west Ireland.

9. The excellent glasses of Guinness and the BushMills whiskey!
10. The really wonderful company of SteveE, Ken, Simon, Barry and Christian and the various incidents that kept us all entertained.

Just wonderful times.

homeward bound....

SteveE and I (plus “the Beast” and five sets of golf clubs!) meandered our way from Lahinch to Waterford on Saturday – via Limerick and Tipperary. Stayed overnight at the same Travelodge we’d started at a week earlier (complete with a gang of noisy youths outside our bedroom window until the early hours – tooting horns, revving engines etc). Up early yesterday and drove to Rosslare in plenty of time to catch the 8.45am ferry and managed to have breakfast on board before the ferry had even left port! Back in Bristol by mid-afternoon – with SteveE having another couple of hours before he could get back to his home comforts in Chinnor.
Photo: SteveE catching up with news on the ferry – with Wales just coming into view on the horizon.

tour winner

Handicaps had been agreed at the beginning of the week (after months of careful pondering and negotiation) and these were then adjusted as/if necessary on a daily basis (winner’s handicap reduced by one, loser’s increased by one).
These were the final placings after the five rounds:
1. Ken; 2. SteveB; 3. SteveE; 4. Barry; 5. Simon; 6. Christian.

Ken was therefore the winner of the Claret Jug (complete with the engraved names of all the courses we played) and SteveE, typically generous to the end, presented everyone with a medal to commemorate the tour.
The result was quite a close in the end. SteveE led for the first three days but Ken’s consistency won through in the end and he ended up winning by three Stapleford points – in other words, just one hole either way could have made a difference over the 90 holes played through the course of the week.
Photo: Ken and the trophy!

friday: lahinch

It was a depressingly early start to the day. We could hear rain falling and had an early tee time booked (Simon needed to fly home this afternoon). We arranged to have breakfast in the hotel at 7.15am before driving the very short distance to Lahinch Golf Club – arriving in the car park before anyone else and in utter darkness. It proved to be a VERY wet round of golf - we all agreed that we’d never got quite as wet before on a golf course! The one positive note was that the wind had subsided a little (which probably meant that the rain wasn’t blown away!). Overall some of us were a little disappointed by the course (but perhaps it was the fact that we played under leaden skies, heavy rain and no sunshine?). Much to my surprise, I ended up winning the day again, with Ken coming second, Barry third and Simon fourth.
We all went straight back to the hotel to have baths and warm up. Simon had to depart soon after lunch (big hugs all round!). The rest of us played pool in a local bar before enjoying another great meal at the hotel before getting an early night – Ken, Christian+Barry departing very early the following morning to catch a flight home.
Photo: SteveE in Lahinch GC car park at “dawn” (in the pouring rain!).

thursday: old ballybunion

Woke up to pouring rain and high winds. One weather forecast we saw talked of two inches of rain and winds gusting at 60mph. It was all very depressing as, for most of us, Ballybunion was the key day of the tour. Amazingly, the rain had stopped by the time we teed off – then resumed after four holes but only lasted for 45 minutes or so and we were able to complete our rounds in the dry! Fantastic golf course – everything that we’d anticipated (and more!).
Ken won the day, with me coming second, Simon third and SteveE fourth – leaving Ken just two points ahead of SteveE as far as the overall leadership was concerned.
We drove north, caught the ferry across the River Shannon and ended up at Lahinch by nightfall – staying at the Atlantic Hotel. The rooms were far more basic than Castle Ross but we enjoyed a really beautiful meal in the hotel (and the odd glass of Guinness) before bedtime.

Photo: Barry on the 18th tee.