No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 45: Barry O’Hanrahan on Ireland Golf Trip

Episode Date: July 6, 2016

Barry O’Hanrahan from the A Good Talk Spoiled podcast joined me to debrief on our three day, four round ball striking fiesta in the greater Dublin, Ireland area. The courses we played were the Island Golf... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 45: Barry O’Hanrahan on Ireland Golf Trip appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. I'm Chris Solomon. I'll get to my recording shortly with Barry O'Hanrahan from a Good Talks oil podcast. But first one to forewarn you this podcast is going to be a little bit different than most of the podcast you're used to hearing on this channel and

that there's not going to be PGA Tortoc. This is merely a summary of awesome weekend we spent in the greater Dublin area last in late June playing for the best courses in the area. The Island Golf Club, K Club, Port Marnick and Colleen Castle. We wanted to debrief on this trip. I'll give you guys some feedback on what some of these courses are like. I did a similar podcast after my Scotland trip last summer and received some strong feedback on that and got a lot of questions from people that were planning their own trips. So hopefully this gives you a little bit of inspiration. If you're in the area to ever

check out these courses or to perhaps plan a trip to the area. But again, Barrio Hanran is a co-host of a good talks bowl podcast, great podcast. He and his fellow Irish golf addicts do a weekly podcast about all things golf, their own games, PGA tour, European tour. It's fantastic. Listen, we're going to play this recording of the audio on both our podcast and theirs. So thanks guys for tuning in. Be sure to check out their podcast and get a chance and please let me know if you have any questions about any of the courses. Thanks. Barry, we've had about a week to decompress from about as good as good of a four day golf, three day golf trip you could have four rounds of golf. We started at the Island Golf Club. You picked me up at the airport Friday, Friday morning, in Dublin, Ireland, when straight

to the golf course. Was it your first time playing the Island Golf Club? I don't remember. No, it wasn't. It was the second time. I was lucky enough to play it before. A really good friend of my father's is a member there. I had the privilege of being invited.

It's not one you get out too very often actually. It's kind of a hidden gem in terms of Dolan. Those at Noobators know how amazing it is and those that don't know about it, they may have heard of it in whispers on the wind as well. But yeah, I love to knock off course. I don't think there's a week hole on it. Well, explain exactly why it's called the island and what you told me as well about how back in the day people used to get to and from the golf course. And yeah, so it's, it's to the north of Dublin and it, oh, it looks back towards Malahay at a time. There's an estuary there and it effectively was in islands back in the day. People used to have to get a boat to the course to go

playish and a boat to get back to the course. So it was kind of a day trip or depending on the weather you might be stuck there overnight which is great if the bar is fully stopped but not so good if it isn't. So yeah, we went directly there and it kind of a rather prevalent theme for the weekend or theme for Irish Golf in general. Had a bit of weather elements to deal with. It was dumping rain when we got there. When inside had some lunch, had to have a Guinness, and then it cleared up for us for a while. We batted the elements there for the Front 9.

But so this is a link style golf course, and I'm guessing most people listening probably aren't that familiar with the course, but I know we'll talk a bit about Port Marnec here in a little bit as well. You like to say that just how different these two links courses are in themselves, but how would you describe the Island Golf Club from a link's perspective? Yeah, good points to two, the mark quite different. I mentioned that in our own podcast last week.

quite heavy on the dunes. The sand dunes are quite tall there. I guess some of them would be 50-60 feet high easily, if not taller in places relative to the fairway. So it's quite undulating in terms of its fairways and how the holes are kind of framed by the gigantic dunes in places. So in contrast to Port Marnock, which we'll talk about a little bit of Port Marnock is quite flash. I don't know if you're going to find a dunes more than 10, 15 foot high there at any one time. So yeah, what did you think about the island? This was your first experience of Irish golf. I brought you to a bit of a classic. Yeah, I mean, it was kind of exactly how I pictured it. I mean, I played almost all the golf of my life in the US. I did a Scotland trip last year, kind of.

I'd say learn the ropes to link golf. I don't know. I definitely can't say I learned to link golf. I got familiar with it enough to know that it takes, it really does just take many, many repetitive rounds to get used to these kinds of courses, to the kind of shots that you have to play. You kept telling me, like, when you're playing Link's Golf, just throw the Yardage Book out the window.

Like, get a good idea of what the Yardage is, but you can't be afraid to hit a five iron from 150 sometimes. I found the Island Golf Club just to to be really really challenging in a good way The dunes that you mentioned I love the way that they frame the hole and almost every hole from the tee box It's like a picture us picture perfect moment or a photographic moment But it's hard to really capture the depth of it like with on an iPhone camera or whatnot But it does frame it really well But man it was punishing off the tee. Those dunes that you were describing, they aren't shaved and they are not ricocheting the

ball back into the fairway. So a premium was on driving accuracy there and it made me not want to reach for the driver too often and regret when I did reach for it. But I don't mind that in Lynx Golf. I don't mind taking a three iron. I tried to describe this in how I wrote up my post on the golf club, but it's hard to really describe how. When I'm playing a link style golf course like this, I don't desire to have a wedge in my hand from a green

light special shot into the green because the wedge shots in themselves can be even harder to predict than getting a six iron into a green because you might think you can lob it over a bunker or lob it into a certain part of the green but then it hits a green hard and runs off the back whereas sometimes you're better off just playing even even in front of the green not even up all the way onto the green from further back because it's yeah it's just kind of hard to describe how you don't, you don't desire to get it as close to the hole as possible. I don't mind hitting three iron, six iron into a par four, whereas a normal American style

golf course, I would reach for the driver every time and try to give myself as short of a shot into it. But that's what makes it really fun is you got to kind of get creative and think, all right, if I hit three iron here, but if I hit it well, it's going to run out in this fairway. But man, if I miss this fairway, I'm gonna be punching out and hitting eight iron probably onto the green. But I just, I played horribly.

I don't really play my golf anymore. It was my third round, the last 10 months after dislocating my shoulder. And I was not ready for that challenge. I'd love to get another crack at it. I think I could do a lot better out the second time around. But I thought it was a fantastic challenge. So much fun. The Greens rolled true. The fairway services were fantastic. We had a great company, great for some. I don't deal well with rain, as you could probably

tell from my score, but I loved it, man. I thought it was fantastic off course. Yeah, we did have one reedy box squall that came in with the windows whipping, maybe like 50 kilometers an hour, the rain was almost horizontal and you were facing a 12-20 footer, I think, and ended up fore-jobbing it. I can't even blame the wind on that. That was just being a mental midget and not being able to concentrate, but I did feel better. I mean, I'm just a complete wuss when it comes to the rain,

but I did feel better than even you guys were like, yeah, this is a pretty bad rain storm. Yeah, it was a good opportunity to hunker down for a few minutes on the tee and just waded out. It's not easy to play golf in the rain at the best of times and wind, but that was particularly nasty. So, yeah, I thought any particular star day of holes, actually, off of the in the rain at the best of times and wind but that was particularly nasty so and yeah that any particular stardate holes actually that's there were a few out there in that golf course you know you could name a whole lot of them but there was a couple that

really kind of caught my eye on the back nine the um the 14th which I've always described as the fairade being as wide as a strip of salotype. It is a really fascinating hole. It just looks like they tried to fit a hole where it shouldn't be yet. It's still a really cool hole. I think at that point, I had kind of given up on my score and I actually did reach for driver on that hole, trying to drive the green slightly unsuccessful. But it is, it it's almost it kind of reminds me of number seven at pebble beach yet extended into a par four like it's just a whole fit into this tiny little real estate a land uh... dead straight couldn't be any straighter of a whole but we had

mostly helping when but off the left as well so that whole element of trying to figure out a way to kind of work it back against the wind to be at least able to keep it from running off into the hazard to the right uh...'ll try to get a picture of this hole in the post of this podcast, people like it, and I do what we're looking at. But I'm not, I'm never really that good at the first time playing a course of really remembering specific holes, but except for that finishing hole, man, is 460 into the teeth of the wind. And I don't know what it is.

I mean, I've played in strong winds before I didn't think the wind was that particularly crazy that day But something about being on a links course when it blows that just make it exaggerates this wind I know it's wide open out there the dunes don't really protect your ball that much from the wind But man, I'm pretty I'm confident in saying that par four was not reachable and we weren't even playing it that far back. No, I, what do I hear? Pretty solid drive and one of the best three woods of the day. I think I've kept it at a six foot at high and I still, I think I was still 20 yard short.

That whole was playing monstrous. There is something special about the wind on Lingx golf courses. It just seems to be extra fortified. So even if somebody says that's only 15 mile an hour wind, it may as well be 35 or 40 on a regular parkline golf course. Yeah. And I think I just add so much to the fun of it, you know.

And I mean, I think that the, like, the main difference in, like playing, of course, like St Andrews or in Scotland. I just I didn't feel that terrain was like especially firm. I know it rains a lot in Dublin, but it wasn't I didn't have trouble like compressing the ball against the turf. I've had I've had trouble in the past on Lingscores is compressing the ball. I didn't feel and have any of that experience. So that was I enjoyed that part of it at least. You don't have to change your game too much you're not playing it completely on the ground like you like I was familiar with at least in Scotland but you're still reaching for the putter from off the green and you were yelling at me anytime I reach for

the lob wedge around the green like you're not Phil Mickelson stop you don't know how to do this but my favorite hole is probably the ninth hole after eight holes of hacking and around. You talked me into hitting a six iron from 160 on the part three, which I would have never normally done. Flight it under the wind and while it was in the air, I was a little bit worried about this being my first hole in one and the fact that I hit six iron from 160. I was going to have to tell everyone that, but that was my only memorable shot really

of the day. So, anybody that plays Ling Skull for Has Play knows that you do the artist book just disappears. I don't know if you're keeping an eye on the pro's practicing for the open up a tune, Gray McDowell was hitting a six iron into the postage stand part three, which measures 125. So, it really is, it doesn't matter what numbers on the club. In Ling's golf it's about like flying your golf ball and shaping it to come up with

the best results. And you can check your ego in the club pace before you get onto the first tee really when it comes to distances and clubs. And that's one of the greatest lessons I was ever told about Linz Golf growing up and From anybody more senior and more experienced to me They said forget your ego and golf clubs and hitting certain distances because on one hole You could go hit a three-yard and three hundred yards downwind and on the next hole back into the wind You'd be looking to hit it 160 165 We'll get to we'll get to your 300 yard three ironberry. I know you're bringing that up for a reason.

I know, I know, I know. We'll get to it, all right. But that is a key thing about the Abate Link scarf. You just, it's imagination and it's a lot of fun as well. Yeah, and I feel like in my head, I don't have that hard of a time switching my brains, you know, trying to play those kind of shots. But playing them in your head and executing them are two completely different things. That's just where I was completely rusty. And I feel like, again, like I mentioned,

a second go around that course would go a lot different for me, I think at least half the holes, I'd probably hit a different club off the tee that I did in that first round. The only thing, I don't even know if it's fair to qualify this as a negative because for me, I don't prefer courses that don't punish you too much as far as looking for balls for bad t-shots. I understand that bad t-shots should be punished, but I'm not, I mean, I'm about a three-handy capper now. We're playing with a couple of 20 handicapers. I don't like that when

you're looking for balls in the deep, deep stuff. At the same time, I understand that it needed to be a challenge of the course, but it was not unfair by any means. It's just like a really an unencouraged hit driver. If you had a driver and missed the fairway by 10 yards or so, good luck finding it. that's a main difference. We'll get to that in Port Marnick. Port Marnick had punishing rough off the tee, but you could find your ball. I don't know if we lost any balls out there at Port Marnick. It was just completely different approach, but we'll get to that as well as different style of links. But yeah, it wasn't the worst rough of every town. The Netherlands and not being as good a golfers yourself. I'm more experienced

to going into the roof and finding a golf ball. So I do have quite a talent for finding them. You got a nose for that. After... I need you to explain to my American listeners. It's a joke, I guess I mean a lot of people make about when they go to Ireland. Everyone just says, oh my god, the Guinness just tastes so much better in Ireland. And I think I even made that joke to you when I met you last year, I met you in Dublin, around St. Patrick's Day, and I made that joke to you. And then you proceeded to tell me that it really is different in Ireland. I didn't know this

to this point, but explain to the listeners why the Guinness in Ireland actually does taste better than anywhere else in the world. Um, well I'd like to say it's something like leprechaun magic, but it's pretty simple for me to all of the Guinness that is served in Ireland is made in Ireland. And any Guinness that is served outside of Ireland is not made in Ireland. That's actually made in the Guinness facility in Nigeria. that's actually made in the Guinness facility in Nigeria. So there's a distinct difference, you know, even the base ingredient here. The water is going to be different here than it is in Nigeria. So, yeah, you never shut up saying how good each pint of Guinness was.

And to be fair, they were quite delicious points, especially after 18 holes of golf. They always taste pretty good. Well, even when we met up last year, I was at a bar in Texas, you said we're here, and you asked me, do they serve good Guinness there? So you can even taste the difference in the Guinness from bar to bar, being Irish yourself. Oh yeah, you can see the difference.

Oh, no. No. So yeah, the one that comes from Nigeria is even a separate, it's a different name, isn't it, like, foreign extra stout or something like that? I don't know, I don't drink in this one I'm abroad. No, it's fair. It's very fair. That makes a lot of sense. But anything else from you're in from the island golf club, I think, I don't know, I've rated by like, and I don't want to give ratings on it, but as close to a 10 is I could give a golf course, that was, that was an absolute blast. Yeah, I, it's definitely

a golf course that you would benefit from having a stroke saver to begin with and obeying what the guidelines are in the stroke saver because there's a lot of holes that on the Facebook by the yardage or how they look and appear. You think I can just take out a driver and have a go to, but we learned that to our detriment of having only played that once before. I've forgotten the number of the holes and we took the wrong club off the tee on a few occasions. So, like any Lynx golf course, it takes a little bit of learning, but yeah, definitely get the Stroke Saver and have a preview of the golf course itself on their website before you go out.

What's their website? Theislandcalfclub.com. There's some great photos on it. Anyway, even if you're just looking for a little bit of nice photos of Link's Golf for a bit of golf board. Yeah, it goes to their websites. Yeah, and by Stroke's saver, he means the artich book, or as we would call it, so just to save any confusion out there.

But yeah, their website's awesome. They have 3D flyovers of all the holes actually Which I did look at before I went and played but it did I forgot all about it. I mean got out there I got too excited They ever had the chance to play the Island Golf Club do not pass up this opportunity, but We rested up a little bit on Friday night got some pizza Had a few drinks and then we were off early 820 t-time at the Palmer Course at the K club.

Can you get two more drastically different styles of golf to be played in a 24 hour span? I don't think so now. I agree. It's one extreme for the other. You're going from raw links to kind of pristine parkland. And that really wasn't pristine condition, having only, you know, only about five or six weeks after hosting the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.

So, yeah, it was those greens. I don't think I've put it on any true greens in my life. They, you missed a part, it was your fault. Yeah, I mean, you just, you look up at that first tee box and we played it as far back as they were set up. I think the white tee's were as far they had it. It was about 6,800 yards, what we played it at. It didn't seem that long to me, but I felt, but I was, I figured something out with the

driver and I was in the middle of every fairway, but I felt like if you're missing the fairway there, hitting out of that, it it was just so the whole golf course was so lush it was so green and the rough is really I mean it was I guess I had rained the day before the rough really did grab your ball if you're in it and could sit down and if you're trying to hit a 7-6 iron out of that rough it could be really challenging but the fairways were wide it's an Arnold Palmer design course so it feels a lot like an american golf course uh... my goodness the condition of that that that course and the greens were

out of the greens are actually very easy to read as well uh... very fair they weren't that they weren't necessarily just perfectly flat greens at all it was definitely a lot of break to them but they were there's nothing really tricky about them and like you said i i i that was the most confident I was, I was standing over a 15 foot putt the entire trip. I mean, you could just feel the line very well and you know you're gonna get a super true role.

Not a breath of wind out there, unbelievably lush fairways. I love a fairway. And when you compress the ball down, you just take a huge pelt out of it. They were nice and moist from the rain. I guess you guys get all the time out there, but no one else out there on the course.

That was just a perfect morning. It's really, really fun golf course. I enjoyed every second of it. Yeah, the condition was absolutely fantastic. I was there a few weeks back for the end. Someday of the Irish open and saw how good it was. So when this all came through for us to go play, I was really, really excited to do. It's a very special stage when you drive into it. You feel a real sense of occasion.

We don't have that many courses of that, with that sense of occasion going into here in Ireland. I'm sure there are a lot of over in the States to coin an American phrase, but it's quite a special feeling when you drive into an older state like that here in Ireland and you know there's a beautiful golf course waiting for you, the club has just full of all the ride of cup stuff from the 2006 ride of cup, I won't go into that too much, you know. You had to bring it up. Well you were were going to bring it up anyway. I was. Yeah, I was. That was.

And it's a very cool experience altogether. You start remembering what happened at the right cup. And you'd like to do that a little bit more than once every so often, to go back and play it. Yeah, and like you said, there's like almost like a castle gate like entrance to get onto the property. And once you're there, it does have very private feel. Once you're there, it's just this huge sprawled out green grass,

a big practice area to your right, almost as soon as you get down the path. And from my experience in Scotland, Ireland, the big practice areas and whatnot are not a common thing. That's more of an American thing for golf courses. Is that accurate? That's very true. Not a lot of golf courses would have as extensive a driving range as that. I mean that was a full driving range. Some places might have a practice area which might extend maybe 160 170 yards

but this is a full driving range which is nice to have that helps with the warmup and certainly I think that's where you found your driver really wasn't it? Yeah, that's where I shout out to Travis Fulton, the Torfix, gave me some tips on getting my right leg straight and getting my hip turn more and I did figure that out but the key there is they let you hit off the grass too there's not a lot of the in addition to there not being a lot of practice ranges there's not a lot to let you hit off grass either and there's a great chipping area we didn't take advantage of really and then we warmed up on that putting green and we just both our eyes just lit up when

we put it on those greens They were just the truest surface But the first thing you see when you pull in the property too is this hotel which we didn't get a chance to go in it Is it's incredible looking from the front and then when you get to the 16 in between the 16th and 17th hole They almost made they I think they purposely made the walk between 16 and 17 a little longer and you just have this incredible view of this massive luxurious hotel. It's really, really impressive. And there's not a lot of, I guess, scenery from the golf course. You're looking, you know, you look to your left, looks to your right for the most of the

front nine. You're seeing other parts of the golf course. This back nine kind of weaves its way through a neighborhood, I guess you could say. And then you see this hotel as you get near the clubhouse. This back nine kind of weaves its way through a neighborhood, I guess you could say, and then you see this hotel as you get near the clubhouse. Oh, it's magnificent. It's enormous. They did a big renovation there recently.

I think they spent about 20 million on it and they've added a whole load of rooms. It is. It's seriously impressive. It's the kind of place you'd love to go stay for a weekend. I think with a couple of cheeky rains of golf put in as well. Exactly. And you can touch on in the clubhouse too.

They memorialize the 2006 Ryder Cup exactly the way I see it in my nightmares, which is just the horrible outfits that US team wear or, again, the country's colors are red, white, and blue. The team got off the plane wearing all brown and then one of the days of the cup they actually wore brown pants, not even khaki, brown pants, a brown vest with a brown undershirt and a brown hat. They deserve, you know, they should be commended for earning nine and a half points losing 18 and a half, nine and a half, because that was the worst for Eder Cup team. For those long time, Listern's the podcast. This is not a new topic for me. So, to go in the, in the, in the, you know, walk the same fairways that Brett Wetterick and Vaughn Taylor and JJ Henry walked, it just added a whole

another aura to it. But no, in the clubhouse, they do memorialize. It's actually pretty awesome. You could spend an hour in that clubhouse just going through the artifacts, the pictures. They treat it like it's a museum. I mean, do memorialize it's actually pretty awesome you can spend an hour in that clubhouse just going through the artifacts the pictures they treat it like it's a museum I mean it's it's I mean I probably spent we spent a decent amount of our time before the round and after round was looking to pictures got Michael Jordan up there I think Bill Clinton was there just kind of capturing the whole event all the weather the issues they had that week as well and Darren Clark's's emotional performance after losing his wife, and replica rider cup there,

and it's awesome. I could have spent a lot more time in that clubhouse. Yeah, like honestly though, I think you guys could have been dressed in American flags, and I don't think you would have stood a chance playing it with and I you know a European white-acopteam in Ireland with three Irishmen on the team I I don't know I don't think even the Harlem Glove trotters or golf could have beaten that team That's the thing that that European team was absolutely stacked absolutely stacked I think David Howell is the only name I would look at on that team be like, okay, but it was Hendrix Tenson Luke Donald Donald, Sergio, Colin Montgomery, Paul Casey, Robert Carlson, Patrick Harrington, Paul McGinley, Jose Maria LeFabble, Lee Westwood

and Darren Clark. Sorry, you're not being that team. No, not in Ireland, anyway. I'm only into circumstances of it. So yeah, the cake club, fantastic golf course. I loved it. I'm an interesting top to switch everything about your game from things golf to park on golf within the space watch. 12 hours, 14 hours. Yeah, something like that. And I immediately felt more comfortable on a golf course like that. It felt a lot more natural to me.

That's not to say that I liked it more than Link's style. Or, yeah, we were asked at the end of our final round to rank the four courses. We are not gonna do that. It's not fair. There's four completely different golf courses. And I could wake up, you know, feeling differently about how I ranked it tomorrow than I do today.

But it's well worth it. So we didn't get to check out the, I forget the name of the second course there. This Merfett course. Merfett course. I don't know a lot about that, but they do have two golf courses there as well. But seeing in person some of the 16th and 18th holes to see what Rory did during the Dubai Dirty Free Irish Open this year, that 16th hole is almost an island green bar five and he hit three wood from 270 into the wind and hit it on the green and two put it for birdie Yeah, that's all that is insane that hole is me even looking at a wedge shot on that hole from 121.30 isn't intimidating But from 278 we stopped on how to look at what you were facing and it looked like you were trying to land it on a dinner place. I could have hit three woods in there. I

still would have been short of the creek. I could not have gotten anywhere close to that. But and then yeah, you stuck it to about two feet on 18 from about from closer than where I hit it. Let me just say that, Rory. All right. But that 18th hole come back to the clubhouse downhill a a little bit second shot, over water, great risk reward, par five, three par fives on the back nine, that's a lot of fun. It's a really good finish, isn't it? And it set up so well for a writer copy of the scoring holes on the way in in Matchplay. It's very well designed for Matchplay and it is good for playing an individual right in play as well. It gives you a chance

to save a score that you may have lost earlier on in the range. I can see exactly how somebody like Rory would win it a course like this. He loves it. He loves it soft and he can just take different lines and I think I'd probably give him proper credit to the design of the golf course and that there's a lot of shape to the holes and there is a lot of strategy that goes into you can take driver off almost I think we reach for driver on pretty much every hole. But there is strategy as to what kind of shot you want to play, how much you want to bite off of some of these corners, tremendous benefit if you're able to get it around some of these corners.

But yeah, again, the T's were up from where we played it. There were some, we'll get to Killing Castle where the T's go really far back. But anyways, looking at some more where these pros play from, was pretty absurd. And I love that. So I just love playing championship golf courses. So you can both get an appreciation for how amazing those guys are, yet also be like, you know what, this is, this is just a golf course. It's not like a, a, a impossible task to, you know, to par some of of these holes the birdie some of these holes And it's fun to try to imitate as best you can what they've done up there

I was extremely playable and you like you mentioned there you certainly looked a lot more comfortable on the golf course Like walking around just you kind of seemed like yeah, this is familiar on home here And you shot a pretty good round out today. I think you breathe You can comfortably broke 80, right? Yeah, it's 77 with a quad on the, I got wet. As soon as it started threatening the rain, I made a quad. That's how that, that's how mental the midget I am when it comes to the rain. But yeah, I should have put, I mean, I was playing from the middle of every fairway, hitting, hitting eight iron or less into most of the holes. Whenever I had seven iron or more, it's when I cut myself in trouble.

But I should have put up a lot better number, but man, it felt good to at least get my game back a little bit for a little while. But it would quickly disappear as we got into our afternoon round. We made our way over to Port Marnick. And while I said I wasn't gonna rank the courses, and I'm writing this, actually, I'm doing individual writeups of each of these courses on nolangup.com, but I have a hard time

not calling Port Marnick my favorite of the four. It is such a, like you said earlier, it's such a different style of links from the Island Golf Club. And I loved how much it made you think and what I mentioned earlier. You weren't, we were not really looking for balls at Port Marnick.

You put you, if you hit it offline, the long stuff is gonna grab your ball. You can still play it. You can still get a club on it. Probably can't get a five iron on it. You can get a nine iron on it. But it did add, it just added this whole level strategy. club on it. Probably can't get a five iron on it, you can get a nine iron on it, but it did add, it just added this whole level strategy. You couldn't just go out there and bomb

it wherever you wanted to. And I figured that out the hard way. I think I was on the 10th hole or so, it's 350 yards dead downwind and it played firm out there. I'm like, all right, I'm driving this green. I had a drive off line to the right, it was actually in the wrong fairway. And I'm looking at just an impossible shot back at an elevated green to a pin that you just could not get to. I didn't have a club for that shot, and it just takes you right back to the island club, and these holes that, you know what, I would take a different iron off this tea, or a different club off this tea had.

I've seen this before. Such a fun, cool style of golf, really windy out there. Again, another picture-perfect course, but another really flat, like you mentioned earlier, but I don't know if it was the pictures in the clubhouse, the stories that I've heard from Port Marnick. It just all added to the experience and I'd have a hard time not ranking that number one of all the four courses we played. Yeah, I can't disagree with you there. Was it you that put a gun to my head at the

end of the trip and said, if you had to just play one of the four golf courses every day, which one would it be? That is the one. If I have to, you know, gun to my head, I would say that one. I love that course. I've played it a good few times over the years. It has been a while since I played it, but I love that on any given chart you can be presented with countless options on how to play it, and what club to play, and what ball to play, and what shot should to play, and you can still get the same result. It just does so much imagination and creativity. It's like going out there and Trying to paint a picture of your end rather than play around. I don't know if that makes any sense at all

It works. I can work with that. I work. That's yeah, I can see exactly what you're saying there and that Well first all right, let's go let's get this out of the way tell everyone about the three iron that you hit on the very first hole go ahead We just jumped up without any warmup. Well, we were sufficiently warmed up from 18 hells in the K-club and we got there early and they were very kind enough to give us a warning that if we waited for our tea time, we'd be behind a lot of forebills and could expect a six hour rent. So we were quite happy to go off early. We stood up on the T-Cris, you pulled out your driver, as you always did. We can't.

And I hit three-iron. It was playing really nice day in wind and off to ride. And I hit a good draw and off it went. And all I remember was going, okay, that was good. Instead of the fairway, I'm happy with that and you just saying, why are that ball is running? Why are that ball is running? Why are that ball is running? And we got down there and it was 307. The only reason I know this is because of a cool little system called Game Golf it actually tags your clubs and tracks how far you've hit us. It's GPS enabled, so yeah, that one will be, I better tweet Jason David, he counted as three R and 307.

As I said, I didn't hear any yardages of anything you hit the entire trip, except for that 307 yard three iron. But why not? But that's just kind of the ghost that showed the reward of getting the ball in the fairway there, because I smoked a drive, it got caught up in the rough though and didn't run out and I I think we were almost even almost dead even in the fairway or

I was maybe a little bit ahead of you hitting driver It just it I don't know the shape of those holes to you just have to strategize so much with the wind I think it was the It was the third hole that kind of slightly dog legs to the left the win. I think it was the third hole that kind of slightly dog legs to the left. Short-ish hole, we had a helping wind and off the left and it runs out into a hazard on the right side. My instinct when I'm not hitting drivers is to reach for the three iron, but I played enough things off this point to know that you don't need to hit three iron. I actually hit like a five or six iron off the tee just because I knew it was going to run once it got in the fairway and I knew I couldn't get it around the dog leg to the left because of what the wind was

doing and even if I had the chance of that staying in the fairway were minimal and there's bunkers up there that can sometimes the only thing that are going to stop your ball running in the fairway are these bunkers, these little pop bunkers that you have to strategize around. So I just hit this five or six iron, hit it okay, just went in the middle of fairway and ran out. As you're looking back and smiling, you'll be like, no wear in the US or anywhere else

I usually play, can you play a shot like that and have it be that rewarding where I actually had to think my way through that shot, execute a relatively simple shot, but there I was in the middle of fairway and I had nothing but a pitching wedge in from that point on. But I just got to go as to show the strategy that goes into these courses. Now, well thought out. The more things that we played over the weekends, the more you were hitting shots like that

or making those decisions to play the links shot rather than the stock shot that you just think I'll take driver into par four or par five. And that was, that's a great hole actually take driver. It's a par four or par five. That was, that was a great hole actually. And greeted like a dangerous. Yeah. And there's so many holes like that out there. And you took a picture of it in the clubhouse actually.

It's hard when you're on the property to get an idea of where this course sits. And it really is also just like the island golf club, it sits basically on an island. And it's hard to really get appreciation for when you're there, except for they got a great picture on their website as well, and I'll try to include that as well. But just how it just sits on this unbelievable piece of property

surrounded by water, lets the wind just whip right through there. And we spend a lot of time in the clubhouse after the round to the pictures and the stories and stuff that come from inside that clubhouse. They're pretty remarkable. All the names that have come through that place. Yeah, it's a golf club with an incredible manager history. It was 1894, it was formed. So there's just so many great championships and great players and great stories that have come out of that. And you really feel that in the clubhouse when you're there. It's a great sense of occasion when you're there. It's a very special place. When you do get down by the water, you do realise how open and raw it is.

The slightly inland holds, you could see Dublin, but you would know what the sea is surrounding you on three sides. It's a remarkable golf course altogether, and I wonder if everybody should have a new book at list. Yeah, I think it's rated. I think I saw it somewhere. I mean, these are all these lists are subjective. But I'm glad I didn't know this beforehand, because I would have even been even more excited to play. But I think it's the fourth ranked course in all of Ireland for some golf digest survey that I think ranked only behind Royal Port Rush, Royal County Down, Port Rush, and I forget what else.

But not only the history behind, I think it hosted the Walker Cup in 1991 or something like that. Michael Phil Mickelson played on that team. But all the other championships, this is one that held all the Irish hopes and opens. Is that right? Back in the day, yeah.

That's the thing. Yeah, and they need to have a vote similar to true in a they female membership as far as I know in order for them to be considered to hold the Irish open again. Okay, that's a, we all touch on that topic. You know what I'm saying? That's all we'll say if I thought. Okay, that's a, we won't touch on that topic. You know what I'm gonna say? That's all we'll say about that.

Yeah, that golf course, they have 27 holes as well. You said if we had a chance to go and play a year or nine, you would have jumped at it, but we'd walk 36 that day, so we'd walked and carried 36 holes at that point. And I think, so help me describe this to my American listeners, because I posted one picture on Instagram that had a push cart in it. And it was not mine, okay? I got a little defensive of it, because everyone accused me of being a whisper, having a push

cart. But push carts are a common thing in Ireland. Is that accurate to say? Yeah. Yeah, I carry my bag, I go to carry bag now, but I was pretty tired after carrying for the previous two ends, and I knew Port Marnick was extremely flat, so having a push car, there's no stress with pulling that along or pushing it along on a Lynx course as flat as Port Marnick, so I decided to do it, and I will take all the abuse that comes in. I couldn't care less. I don't I just don't understand the abuse that comes with it.

It's like especially for playing 36 and one day. I know when we played in Scotland, we played three straight days of 36. We either had a caddy or had a had a push cart for at least one of the rounds. Like to carry your bag for 36 holes. I mean, I would say I'm in decent shape right now. I was feeling it by that back nine of that second 18 of Port Marnock and I made the mistake of carrying both rounds. But it may be blasphemous for me to say, but I push cards are allowable. I'll say it. I know every time the NCAA championships come on TV, people freak out about the kids having push cards. But professional golfers have somebody else carry their bag. That's less demeaning.

Having a push card is less demeaning than having someone else carry your bag, I would say. So it's not like, yeah, riding on a golf cart is more demeaning, I would say, than pushing your own bag as well. Push cards are allowed. They're cool. You're allowed to do it. It's fine. I'm signing off on this. I'm with you on that one.

It's all good. I'm ready for the hate on that one. But mentioning some of the names and all the pictures we saw on the wall inside, there's also, was it the 2006 Irish amateur that Rory was Rory, that he win that Irish amateur. I know the picture of him is in the playoff in there. I wish he'd given me the heads up on a few of these history questions. You were citing all this history while I was saying, but I know the picture of him is in the playoff in there. I wish he'd given me the heads up on a few of these history questions

You were you were citing all this history while I was there Yeah, no, I was just remarking at the names of some of the The play the famous Irish amateurs like Joe Carr back in like the early in mid-19 hundreds You know who I would know of but not a huge amount but you see their photo the wall You go, that's pretty cool like they were they were here. They were part of it or they played here before. So your force means a very quick Google here based the Irish amateur and Rory. I'd say if his photos on the wall, he probably won't. Well, it defeats the purpose. It's just to say like, well, that's a guy, you know, Rory is playing here less than 10 years ago. I didn't know that as I

played it. And then I just would sort of listen to the broadcast this past weekend of the bridge stone. They said Dustin Johnson's going over to, he's going to Ireland before going to Scotland for the British open. And he's playing in Port Marnick. They said that on the broadcast. And my ears perked up and I was like, oh wow, I was just there. I mean, I just think it's pretty cool. These, this course is held in such high regard by so many players and it's got so much history there. So, if you ever get a chance to make your way out to Port Marnick again, that does another huge, strong endorsement for me.

It's worth the cost. It's a fantastic, fantastic golf course. And again, another one, those that I would love another crack at. So. Well, we'll see what we can do on the Irish Golf trip, part two. Yep, yep, we're going to do this again, because this was way too fast of a trip, too much fun.

And, uh, yeah, I'd like to be able to tackle some of these courses when my games in it, at least somewhat decent shape as well. But, um, after Port Marnick, we went back, rested up for a night, had some steaks, and then we were back at it again, early tea time, at Colleen Castle on a Sunday morning. Not blessed with the pest weather for Colleen, it rained almost, for the entire first 15 holes it rained. It was just a steady rain, it wasn't a big downpour, but again, citing my mental issues with the rain, it was tough, tough go for me swinging thepour, but again, citing my mental issues with the rain. It was tough

go for me swinging the golf club, but really cool golf course. Again, a complete style change. We're back more towards the K club style courses, a Jack Nicholson Design course, hosted the 2011 Soulheim Cup. And while the K club felt like a big golf course, oh my god, was Colleen a big golf course. And we played it as far back as they had set up, and it had to be at least a thousand yards shorter than the furthest T-boxes. Would you agree? Oh, absolutely. I think they have five sets of T's there, I think. And their big T's are called, you know, they

called them the black teas, but I think that course is like 7, 6, 7, 7, I think off the blacks, which is fine in, you know, warm, dry, American conditions with a firm golf course, but when you're playing it in Ireland where the course is inevitably going to get a bit soft and to air temperatures never going to be too high. The ball is looking to fly as far. That is almost unmanageable for even the pros. We were talking to one of the guys in the pros shop beforehand. He said, the unofficial record or course record off to Black Teas is by Daniel Willis. He shot level par. Top 10 player in the world, Masters champion, best score for those teases level par. I mean, I made the joke to you

when we played it. That the ball just again had some to do with the rain and just the moisture in the air as well, but I wouldn't have been surprised if I found out that we were accidentally playing in we we use yards. If I find out we were accidentally

the course was listed meters. Everything was coming up short. The ball was going nowhere. Everything was coming up short. The ball was going nowhere. It was such a challenge. And to look back to see where some of these T-boxes were, I'm telling you, unfathomable to play these T's. There's got to be par fours out there that are driver three wood that I'm 50 yards short

of on some of these holes. I couldn't even imagine playing this course from the tips. But it's a very fun challenge. It's not it's not a overly difficult golf course I wouldn't say from where we played it at. I played it a little long but again friendly fairways, lush, great green surfaces but a lot more tricky than what we saw at the K club. Yeah these I love I thought as much fun as it was putting on the other greens in the island and Port Marnec I'm quite comfortable on the link screens and I enjoyed that and then the ones in the cake, were so readable and true.

I actually enjoyed these greens, the Japanese ones, the most of all of them because they were, you had to read your pot from all sides and even then, when you made your decision and you hit your pot on the line, you hit it on, there were times where that ball went the opposite way that you thought and It was a real It was a really good challenge and a lesson and you know looking at the entire green rather than just a Declose environment to what your line is on the push and there were there were slopes that came from you know far Size of the green that affected the ball. And I really enjoyed that challenge. I'd love to have a go back there again and try it one more time and see

if I'd learned from the first experience on those greens. But, yeah, typical Jack Nipples challenge, was a most generous off the tee, hit a good second shot, and then to the middle of the green, generally, was the safe play, obviously. And then try to get your two puts. Yeah, I think Jack courses in the US can get a bit of a reputation that's not the strongest reputation. The courses can be a bit, what I'd call Mickey Mouse, or just, doesn't really, and I'm not like a golf course critic, but I feel like he doesn't make great use of the terrain. The golf courses are very manufactured and don't, and again, it's

not trying to be a link style, but the complete opposite of the links where it just feels like the golf course was discovered. These golf courses seem very man-made and very created, which again, all golf courses are to a certain extent, but this felt a little bit different than what I'm used to from the US perspective, and that it didn't look like he was just fitting a bunch of holes into a piece of property. This was a long stretched out golf holes that had the full bearing of challenge. And again, we're reaching for driver a lot on these wide generous fairways and not a ton of punishment off the tee, but you had to be precise with your irons because the greens were very tricky and we kept short-sighting ourselves way, way too many times where it was really soft out there, so

it wasn't that challenging to get up and down from, you know, lotha-ball up and get it to stop. But you had to be really careful going after sucker pins out there. And again, you're hitting some of them some pretty long irons into these holes. But another really challenging, really good golf course. I played my two best rounds at the two parkland golf courses, but hey, that's just a much more familiar style. But the castle, it's called Colleen Castle.

The castle that overlooks the golf course is just awesome. I don't really know how to describe it. You only see it on a few holes, but the finishing hole just finishes right in front of this historic castle I'm not gonna pull another history question out at you and tell me what year that castle is from but It really does deserve the name killing castle

No, it's it's a really good golf course and it followed like you're saying follows a flow of the land very nicely It is spread out and if anybody's playing it, I would recommend not to support cars But at least an electric cart if not a buggy if you're alive. There are times where you're walking a par three if not a short par four between holes. So you're walking a golf course in a half if not near the two golf courses by the end of the 18 holes. I love just those great challenge. There was some seriously deep bunkers around those golf, around the greens. You know, if you shorts out of your style of your in the rough, or in one of those deep

bunkers, you have to have your short game on fire that day. You certainly did. I think Chris kept asking about you know, what was it probably your shot of the round? And Chris's shot of the round was the flop shot in general. I think you played a half a dozen flop shots to within three foot of the hole every time. I had to give you guys a little lesson in what I'm actually familiar with

because I made a fool of myself trying to get up and down around the link screen. So I had to show you I wasn't a complete idiot around the greens. And now that was an absolute lesson. That was like the right hand of Phil Nicholson. But it is, I mean, it's a golf course again. It's kind of built for match play.

I wouldn't say they can move those teas around. There's so many tea boxes out there. They can move those teas around, make it easier, make it harder. The par-fives were gettable, I would say, definitely for the pros. They could definitely get there. And like you said, the greens were just fantastic and a lot more challenging than cake level. I found myself like paying way more attention when somebody else's ball was rolling on

the green just to see how it reacted that I normally would. Even if it wasn't on my line, I just kind of want to see if there is some predominant slope that I'm missing. And even by the time we got to like 17, I think I misread a plow where I missed at 15 feet to the right. So, there's a lot of trick to those greens, but it wasn't gimmicky, it wasn't unfair by any means. It was just, you're punished if you're a long way away from the hole in these greens.

But if you hadn't balled the right spot, you got easy uphill putts, and we made a few birdies as a group. So it was a fun round. I wish we could play a little drier with the ball run out a little bit and not have to worry about umbrellas and rain gloves and all that stuff that drives me absolutely nuts. But, man, another good golf course. And we did all this. That was all in 48 hours.

Less than 48 hours, all these rounds. I got a full-time job. I love to spend a week in Ireland, but I spent, yeah, Friday through a Sunday and then I was back on a flight to Amsterdam. And two fast a weekend, man. And I don't know, you'd be hard pressed to find four better courses in the Dublin area. We're kind of confined to the Dublin area in our time frame to get all these, to get four rounds in. But, man, I think you're the one with all the experience in the area. I don't, I don't, I don't mean this in a way to put down other clubs, but it'd be hard to pick four better clubs.

I would think from your perspective. Would you agree? They were pretty much first choice in terms of what I had in my head when we organized this. Yeah, we got lucky with some really generous people and all the golf clubs can help us organize these. We'll give shout outs to them in a little bit. But yeah, I think we loved it.

We got four absolute monsters. It may seem like we're overly praising these courses, but it really is just the cream of the crop for this area, I think. And again, I would rely on you to give that input better than me, but it just has inspired me to want to check out even more courses in the area, extend my way out west. I want to make it to Northern Ireland and play some of these courses. Just the people that you encounter everywhere,

everyone was super nice. We got to give a special shout out to Chris McCourt, who I had just mentioned on the own podcast that I was going to be making a trip to Ireland. He says, hey, how's 130th the Island Club work? I could just ran him, Twitter follower of mine, and great guy. I love the way that social media has created this world. It's not that weird to meet a dude from Twitter and meet up and play golf.

We had great conversation, great company. Everyone else at all the other clubs was so accommodating to us on a very short notice. People at Port Marnick were especially flexible getting us out early as well. Jeff followed there in Port Marnick. He sorted that out for so it was very cool. Yep. mechanic and killing castle and then we'd cure a linch from iZest marketing. They work with the K-Club and Kira pulled some serious strings late on Friday and he needs to get us out there in the K-Club so maybe appreciate it and lost for everybody that helped us get out to play those great golf courses. Thank you very much.

Yeah, thank you. I can't thank you guys enough because that was a truly, truly special weekend. I feel like I'm a bit spoiled when it comes to Irish golf now, already. I feel like in my head now, I imagine that's what you do every single weekend, which I'm guessing is not the case, but man, I can't wait to make my way back there. If hope this helps anyone that listened,

if you're planning an Irish golf trip, and if you have any other questions, feel free to shoot Barry or I or question, and we'll be happy to answer and give any feedback we have on these courses. But yeah, again, a lot like similar to my Scotland Golf podcast and summary of playing there last year, Ireland is worth a look as well. And it's also, it just seems so much more affordable, too. I mean, well, this is pretty Brexit. Actually, Brexit happened while we were there. But the pound has dipped a lot since then, but the pound is usually makes like Scotland Golf.

It's a lot more expensive. Ireland is, it's a more affordable and zero sacrifice from a golf perspective. It may not have the history of all the open championship courses and whatnot, but man, is it some awesome golf? So check it out if you get the chance. Anything we missed, Barry? and what not, but man, is it some awesome golf? So check it out if you get the chance. Anything we missed Barry? No, we could definitely do another three or four Dublin trips, fill them with four

golf courses on each weekend, and still be of the same quality. Dublin is just, you know, within an hour of Dublin either sides, there are just so many golf courses, it's incredible. I mean, Ireland for the size of it is, I think smaller than New Jersey, and we have over many golf courses. It's incredible. I mean Ireland for the size of it is I think smaller than New Jersey and we have over 400 golf courses, so You know that we could definitely do another couple of Dublin trips before we kind of go up to the you know the North trip the Northwest trip the West trip the Southwest trip. Yeah, yeah It's not enough time in the calendar, but I'm I'm caught and trying to carve out a week this fall So I'm not doing a rush trip like this one and not that it wasn't a blast

But I just feel like it needs it deserves more time needs more time and It's very doable. Yeah, right the size of the country is not too big. It's easy to get around and For Americans, it's a little bit intimidating to be driving on the wrong side of the road at least for me But that's the only downside I think of getting around so My friend we're gonna have to plan this again soon. Stay in touch. We'll hopefully circle back up here in a couple of months for some more Irish golf. And yeah, thanks to anybody for tuning in and again send us any questions that you may have. Thanks Chris. Cheers, babe. Cheers all the best. Be the right club, be the right club today.

That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different? I'm gonna go to the next one. Expect anything different.