No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 55: Ireland Golf Trip

Episode Date: October 21, 2016

By popular request, I debriefed my recent trip to Ireland playing some of the greatest golf courses in the world. This is my first ever attempt at a solo podcast, so please be gentle. I’m... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 55: 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. That is better than most. That is better than most! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up Podcast. I'm Chris Solomon, first warning on this podcast. It is going to be quite different than the remaining of the No Laying Up Podcasts. No PGA tour golf here. I'm just going to talk about my recent golf trip to Ireland.

This podcast actually came very highly requested. I wasn't planning on doing one, but a lot of people sent messages in saying that they'd like to hear a Deep reef on the trip. So if you don't want to tune into the rest of this episode, I will not judge you for it. I've already got your download, so I'm not really that concerned about it. No, I'm not serious on that remark, but it is actually also the first ever solo podcast I'm doing so this could be a complete disaster. Again, wasn't planning on doing this but I didn't do one last week since I was traveling. My guest for this week actually ended up falling through. I won't be, probably won't be able to do one next week and I've only done one since

the Ryder Cup so I did want to get back into the podcast game and do my best to try to describe the trip. What I'm not going to do is tell you shot by shot everything I did on the entire trip. I think I wanted to serve as more of information purposes for the listeners. Maybe you can relate to something that you experience on an Ireland trip that you've been on or I'm hoping that this will inspire some people as well to want to play in a trip like this because it was, it's got some good competition. I've done band and dunes. I've done Scotland. So when I say it's definitely at minimum a top three golf experience I've ever had, it's very likely could be the number one.

And if I'm saying it, I think I need a little more time perspective to really evaluate that. It doesn't really matter though. And I'll get into that too when I get the question, never becomes what my favorite course was. It doesn't really matter.

It's not about the ranking. It's not about like if I look at a top list of courses in Ireland and see the order, that's not necessarily the order of what my favorites were. So it's really about the experience and you'll see if you ever get out to these places and it doesn't really matter trying to try to say what's their favorite, what's your second favorite. They're all just such incredible experiences, but the whole trip as a whole doing it in October. We are a little bit suspicious of what the weather would be like. We hit the absolute jackpot my dad Met me for most of the trip. He and I played five of the six rounds together

Driving the countryside and getting to experience that with my father was a truly truly special and See the look on his face and some of the places that we saw it was was it was it was it was magnificent and I came back just on a complete high and I yeah I want a debrief from it because I want to motivate and give you guys all the information you need to make a trip like this happened because it may be less it may be a lot more affordable than you think it might be and it's it's something that again if you have the chance to do it with your dad or a family member that may not always be there available to walk 18 to 36 holes a day, do it as soon as you can. And this is such a special place to do it,

and I'll get into a lot of reasons why. If I do break down some of my shots or how I played or whatnot, I'm doing it because I think it's important to my illustration of the experience. I'm very well aware that nobody cares about my fantasy football team. Nobody cares about your poker hands and nobody cares about the shot by shot of a round of golf that you played. But there are a few shots and a few holes, rounds, nine holes, 18 holes that you just kind

of take with you as part of the experience. I know for my Scotland trip last year, there's two shots that just stand out in my mind that I take with me as far as hitting a shot, holding it up against the wind, letting the wind take it and having it really work out perfectly. And it's just the kind of shots that define the experience if you ask me. And it's, you picture yourself trying to execute these shots and you fail nine times out of time But that 10th time when you nail it it is it's just it's it's a feeling that you can't really replicate in other styles of golf and Just man just talking about it for four minutes now. I'm already like back on the high from the trip so

I'm gonna talk about the courses. I played how to get around where we stayed how to make an itinerary the courses I played, how to get around, where we stayed, how to make an itinerary. And yeah, so I did a trip to Ireland back in June. I went to Dublin, played four rounds of golf with Barry O'Hanrahan from the Good Talks Boiled podcast. We played four magnificent courses, the Island Club, Port Marnick, Colleen Castle, and the K Club. And while I loved all of those, Port Marnick, Kaleen Castle, and the K Club. And while I loved all of those, Port Marnick probably stuck out the most to me. And it was that that course that I walked away from

thinking about the most and how I would have liked to have played it differently if I you know got another chance at it. So I spent about three months, you know, in between these trips and in the time that I was thinking about Port Marnick, thinking about the conditions that I played it in and what I love so much about. It's a link style course, very old school. It's on this little peninsula that you really have to see an aerial shot of it to give the full appreciation for it.

There is a write up on KnowLangUp.com. We actually have a new special travel section of our website for Ireland and Scotland if you guys want to see individual posts on the courses, but this aerial shot just shows what kind of a peninsula you're on and so the wind really whips at this place. And when we played at the deep rough, the Heather was down a bit. So the point where you could always find your ball, yet it was still punishing. You couldn't walk in there and hit a five iron pier out of that thing. You had to take your medicine, get it back and play,

but you always found your ball. And I love that. I think that's such a huge value to Link's Golf. We're not all professional golfers. We're gonna hit it in the head there sometimes. Searching for balls, especially when you're playing a four ball can be really detracting from the experience.

So I was picturing that, and then as well, I just imagined thinking of the holes, the wind plays such a factor that I'm imagining the same winds again. So on that first tee, I hit driver the first time and I'm like, you know what, it's down the wind hole. I just needed to hit a three iron out there. It's going to run, run, run. I'm still going to have a little sand wedge into it.

So I get on that tee and the wind is different this time. It's a little into us and left to right and and there's water right, and I'm thinking, I don't want to hit driver. I, whenever's a left to right wind, I get wet. I go, I go, I go way right, and it's going to get wet. So I hit three iron, and I ended up having like a four iron into the green. Not quite the same strategy.

Next tall, three iron, again, I'd have three iron into the green. I hit like three, four, and five iron into all the first three greens just because the wind was different and I didn't address my strategy for what the current conditions were and it was a true illustration for how a Lynx golf course can be so completely different in the two rounds you played it. That's the whole point of it. There is no like set way to play the golf course. It's going to depend on a day-by-day basis what the wind is doing. And I wasn't mentally prepared for that.

So the first time in Port Marnick, I'm about a four-handy cat. Before I moved abroad, I was about a one. I don't really play much golf anymore. I shot 85. I still loved it. And I was like, man, if I could do it again right now, I think I could shoot 75 easily. So I try to take that same approach. Like, all right, here's what I'm going to do that differently this time, but I didn't adjust for the easily. So I try to take that same approach, like all right here's what I'm gonna do,

the differently this time, but I didn't adjust for the wind, and I shot the same exact score. I shot 85 again. And this time the rough was grown up some, so there was losing some balls in the Heather. So again, you just, you never know what kind of a golf course

you're gonna get on these places, but I love my second go around Port Marnick. I think I learned even more lessons, and it is one of those golf courses that is a really, I don't know, it's one of those, you need to like play five times, five six times probably before you feel like you know your way around the course, the proper way to play some of the shots, some of the holes. It really encourages you to take putter from way off the green. I can't describe how much fun that is once you get used to doing it. I love

it. You just put the wedges away. There's no need to try to hit a 60 degree off these tight lies. My dad, it took him a long time to learn it throughout the trip, but he eventually started the love doing it as well. And it really does add to the value of it. Before I go, and we're going to talk about most of my trip consists of going out west. The Dublin Brown was, we wanted to play, I want wanted to show my dad Port Marnec, first of all, and my friend Barry, I actually came in earlier than my dad and stayed with my friend Barry and Bray, and we went to the Lentster Munster rugby match on Saturday, which was awesome, and we had a full day of drinking, eating, and doing it the Irish way, and that was was a really really cool experience. Well, go up next day, play it at his club, the Glen of the Downs. I really like that course. It's not it's not gonna it's not gonna rank up with the rest of the courses on the trip,

but it was a great golf course, really fun golf course to play, play with two of his friends. And it was just kind of a good introduction, warm up round, got to see where his club and what like a normal round of Irish golf was like because the rest of the trip was just like a fairy tale. I mean it was like if you know if you're living in Ireland you're not getting to play these top courses every day of the week. So I feel it has to call it a normal course because it was a really fun course. I really did enjoy it. It is still one of the top, it's ranked somewhere in the top 100 of golf courses in Ireland. it. It is still one of the top, it's ranked somewhere in the top 100 of golf courses in Ireland. But it was just a great to get a good glimpse. It's what a normal Saturday Sunday round of golf is like for someone in Ireland. And it was a really cool experience. I really enjoyed that. But then, before I get into much details, I want to do a couple promotional

items quickly. If you didn't bail on this podcast immediately, that means you are somewhat of a fan of it. We would really appreciate if you guys can go on iTunes and leave a rating and review. Every time you guys do that, the podcast shoots way up the iTunes ranking charts. I don't understand their algorithms, I don't really care how they work, but it does help the podcast get noticed by more people, which is really appreciated on our part. We do this, it's a labor of love and any feedback we can get from you guys. It is sincerely appreciated. Our download numbers have been ridiculously late, I'm really encouraged by it and inspired

by it. So we appreciate the love you guys give us and we're going to keep pounding these things out and providing you guys with good content. Any feedback you can provide in that regard is very, very much appreciated. Secondly, I don't know when the last time it was that you went by the NoLangup Pro Shop. First of all, I have almost nothing to do with it. I have give some input on some of the designs. So I'm not like tooting my own work at all when I say that what kneel and the guys have put together in that Pro Shop is magnificent. We have the new No-Lang-Up Polos, which are

Holderness and Born material. They are like, it is legitimately the greatest golf shirt I've ever worn. I have one of each of the ones we've made and I'm obsessed with it. It's the best material. It's $87 in the pro shop that may sound expensive to you, but it is a extremely high quality golf shirt. And if that's not up your alley, we have new visors. We have the performance long sleeve black shirts or back-in style. There's an Anthony Kim Legends never die shirt now.

We have all kinds of torso hoodies, shirts, bucket hats, visors of regular hats, LPCP shirts, I'm telling you, just swing by the pro shop and look at it, it's ridiculous, we have like 10 pages worth of items in the pro shop now, so if you get a chance swing by that, I promise you probably will find something you like. Continuing on, I did do, before I get into the details of the courses, I've done write-ups of four of the five courses we played out west so far. I still have to finish Karn.

But if you want to check those out again, nolangup.com, we have, as I mentioned earlier, we have a little travel thing at the top, a subcategory where you can select Ireland or Scotland and it's got all my write-ups from the Dublin trip as well as the Western Ireland trip. And then there's a Scotland tab as well for the Scotland trip I did last summer. Gonna work on building this out during this kind of offseason period

I know I want to do something on banded and dunes. Some of the golf courses up in Michigan. I'd like to do one on pasta Tiempa out in California. So these posts have been really highly received and recommended or encouraged I guess I've been encouraged to do more of them so I want to keep building those out. And if you have any requests on any courses please let us know if we've played them we'll gladly give a give a write-up on it so all right back to the Ireland trip my dad and I hopped in the car driving on the left side of the road steering wheel on the right side it's quite an adjustment I did a little bit in Scotland. This was the most I'd done it.

I pretty much drove most of the entire trip. It's a little different in Ireland too. They got some of their back roads are a little bit tighter than what I'm used to and flipping to the other side of the road and other side of the car is a little bit scary at times. But most of the drive out west to Kalarni, three and a half hours that night was main highway in roads. No problem at all. We picked Kalarni, three and a half hours that night was main highway and roads, no problem at all. We picked Kalarni to stay in. We wanted to say there are two nights

because we were gonna, it's near Waterville Gulf Lings, which is the first course we played. It's also pretty close to Trilie and Balli Bunyan, which were the next courses on our list. We did not make it out to Oldhead. I know a lot of people been asking me that. Hopefully get that on the next trip. It is a regret that we didn't get to it, it didn't work with our itinerary. And to be honest, I think playing any more of the top courses in the area in this amount

of time, it would have been, I don't want to say too much, it just would have been not properly spaced out enough to really fully appreciate the experiences and I think we were aware of the risk of that even going into the trip playing you know Three four of the top seven courses in Ireland in the course of a four three-day span So we did our best to try to soak it up and and you know people keep asking what my favorite is it is really the the links experiences from course to course do very greatly. And as far as what just how different they are. And it's really kind of a hard thing to put into words and describe. But like if I'm looking at a hole in my pictures, I can see a hole. I'm like, that's waterville. I can tell that's waterville. And I can look

at another random picture like that's Valley Bund and that's an easy one. That's truly that's the hinge. That's car and like the courses stand out on their own and they are all very different. None of them blend together. So your different experiences are kind of hard to rank up against each other. Like, the three courses that I think are in the running for my favorite are Lehench, Valley Bunyan, and Waterville. But again again the more I look back at our round at Trilly, I think I, and I'll get into why, but I think I would have liked to have played that on its own day rather than playing on the same day as Valley Bunyan, because it was just an impossible, possible thing to follow. But anyway, so we stayed in Colourney the first night

knowing it's about an hour and a half drive to Waterville the next day so Waterville is a clean five hours from Dublin. It's about at the opposite end of the Ring of Kerry, the Ring of Kerry in the Southwest corner of Ireland is a rather famous tourist route. A lot of people come to visit just to drive that route to see the sights and so we did a complete loop around the Ring of Kerry that day drove the northwest part in the morning and then the southeast part afterwards. The northeast part was kind of, I mean, it wasn't, it was not the scenic part. I think the southeast part of the route is the much more scenic part, but you get to

Waterville. It's out on this peninsula and against the Atlantic Ocean and we got there and the wind was absolutely whipping and I was liking my chops. Like that was just like exactly the kind of the experience you're looking for. No rain in the forecast, it was cloudy overcast but wind whipping and it added to the experience significantly. I loved it. I loved every second of it.

It helped a lot that I played almost as good as I could play at Waterville. I was guessing right on a lot of the wind shots. At the end of the wind holes, I miraculously played really, really well. And I actually took down a couple notes while playing just of some of the ridiculous yardages of shots that I had to hit. Second hole, I miss hit a wedge that went 170 yards. The fourth hole is a part of three. I hit a wedge, it's 176 yards from the YTs, I hit a wedge on that.

The fifth hole, I had to hit a 7 iron from 126. The eighth hole I hit my T-shot with a 3 iron 300 yards and the ninth hole I had to hit a 5 iron from 156 yards. The 11th hole, 477 yard par five, three iron, seven iron to get there. The next hole coming back into the wind par three, 164 yards, four iron. I had just like a glimpse into the kind of the decisions you have to make on this golf course.

And I love the way, it kind of reminded me a bit, I'm gonna reference Bannon, dude, so kind of reminded me a bit. I'm going to reference banning dudes a kind of bit a lot on this. The way the terrain rolled from hole to hole, it didn't like, it didn't feel like each hole was carved out, it kind of just felt natural the way the holes rolled together. If you know what I mean, like there's not like necessarily walkways between the holes, it's just, I don't really know exactly how to describe it other than then, it just kind of blends really well together. And the tee-boxes were written to the board long and narrow.

And I thought that Gibbs gave the player like a really excellent visual on how to get off the T kind of more of a mental thing. And I think it, I don't know what it did for me exactly. But some of those holes were here at the back of the T-box. It just helped me to have a long narrow T-box in front of me as far as picking out my lines and give me a nice visual representation. I just love playing Link's Golf and taking Irons off the tee. I know that that may sound like laying up, but it's not at all when you're playing a super downwind hole and you can get the three iron out there, 300 yards, and you don't want to hit it further than that. You know, there's bunkers that are in play at like 328 that you got to consider when you got a helping wind and then there's bunkers that you got to like 205 off the tee that you got to consider whether or not you can carry it with a driver on certain holes. It really is that ridiculous of an effect and it's awesome.

So I just love taking irons off some of those T's, shaping the shots out there, watching them run, watching them fight the wind. That to me is just what sticks out as far as just really fun shots that you play in Lingx Golf, that you wouldn't normally play in normal round of golf. And once you're one of those shots that kind of stand out to me was the night toll that five iron I hit from 155. Everything in your instincts just makes you like my five irons my 200 yard club. So we're talking about what I would consider

a 45 yard wind and it's more about the trajectory of the shot than it is the actual distance because I could you know all things considered if my six iron goes my normal ball flight and height I can hit a six iron from that far but the higher up club you go the more you risk the balloon ball like a dreaded balloon ball into these wins is it's like the shot you just fear the absolute most and it happened to me once in this round I tried to hit an eight iron from 120 and it ballooned on me and it went about 95 yards so you have to find the not only have to find the right yard, you have to find the right club to get the trajectory

under the wind or just not get that balloon ball. And so I went up, I was like, I can get six there, but I'm just gonna hit five. I'm gonna play a little bit back and I'm just gonna pierce one through the wind. Hit about the pureest shot I could ever hit and hit about eight feet from the hole and what felt like the hardest wind into my face

in my life. Of course, proceeded to gag the putt, but it's just getting one of those shots that I was so proud of the way I executed it, thought my way through it. And it's just again, one of those shots you can't really fully experience on a normal, round of golf. And just one of those things that makes you really appreciate links to style golf and just puts a smile on your face. And I'm laughing about it, thinking about it right now. So yeah, I'm not going to go whole by whole what the exact courses are like because I think that's kind of what the write-ups are for and what the pictures are for. So I just kind of, again, want to talk about my experience and I played my ass off for 16 holes. I was 4 over par in again just

absolutely whipping wind and sometimes three, four clubs into it and then the crosswinds were actually what I found the hardest. And then I also tweeted the video of what happened me on 17. Beautiful par 3 by the water, one of the signature holes there. The wind is blowing straight left to right out towards the water. I aimed like 30 yards left of the green, hit a little block push at the pin that the wind took 40 to 50 yards right of the green into the water. Complete ejection. Triple Bogey. 18th hole is a par 5. Same wind left to right. Couldn't aim far enough left. Hit it into the hazard. Made Bogey shot 80.

Didn't even break 80 in one of the best rounds I could have put together Still look back while I was upset about how I finished But it was a matter of time before the wind finally got me I look back at that waterville round with with the fondest of memories and I and so What made watervillus of fun to me was again those links to all the elements that we got the wind that we got and Part of me just wonders what it would have been like to experience it with wind down in like a really sunny day because I've seen pictures on the website of what it looks like when it's sunny and it is just absolutely stunning and it is still stunning with an overcast guy but just in a different way. It looks so raw, it looks so

authentic as far as it's designed and the way the dunes are shaped and the way the holes sit and how they fit your eye. But I kind of get into this as well just how much the weather can affect your experience. So again, I would love it could play Waterville again in different kind of conditions. I love to play all these courses again in different kind of conditions. But looking back on the trip, I have different reasons for why I say Waterville Valley Bunyan and Lahinch are my favorites. And to me, Waterville is just the playability of it and the challenge of it.

It helps that I played really well. So again, that's where, you know, if I had played a bad round of Waterville, I may not have the same glowing things to say about it. And we'll get there with Karn, because I did not play well at corn at all. But just fantastic experience at Waterville. If you're, it's a must-do course that's gotta be on your list if you're gonna do a Western Ireland trip.

So we left Waterville after some lunch and had, well, first we had to have a Guinness in the clubhouse. I talked about this on the first Ireland podcast I did. How good the Guinness Taste in Ireland and it is a legitimate thing. It's kind of a meme like how Americans always say like, oh you've never had Guinness until you've had an Ireland. But found out from my Irish friend Barry that the Guinness made in Ireland is actually different than any other Guinness

anywhere in the world. It's the only place in the world you can get Guinness made in Ireland. Everywhere else, the Guinness comes from Nigeria, and it is a different beer. So, again, maybe that mental effect does add to the taste factor of it, but literally after every round, I'm just craving one. I really am craving one with lunch, and I had to have a Guinness. Any opportunity I got throughout the entire week to have Oganis, I kept doing it and no regrets there. It really does add to the experience as well and it's just fun way to wrap up the round, cheers into Oganis in Ireland, to that, to playing one of the top golf courses in the world. Where else can you say you've

done that? So after the round, we drove the rest of the ring of Kerry back and we saw the very scenic part Stopping at times getting out taking pictures just taking in the views It's a little bit cold at this point windy And we actually made our way to Kalarni National Park on our way back as well Popped out did a little bit of hiking there saw some waterfalls If we'd had more time that's something I would have really like to explore more. I know people, like my friends, have done trips out to Ireland where they go to the Cliffs of Moor and Colarni National Park and just do that for their entire trip.

That was like an afterthought of this trip. If we were to space it out a little bit better, and we couldn't, based on schedules, but if we had, you could just do an absolute dynamite vacation as far as combining sightseeing with some of these golf courses and I guess I said there's people that they do they make these trips just for the sightseeing. It is that beautiful And I know one of my friends he's been all over Europe He said his favorite trip he did was Ireland just the sightseeing ring of Kerry colony national park and Cliffs of Moor And he's not even a golfer. He didn't play any golf out here

So it gives you an idea of the other things that Ireland has to offer God it sounds like this thing has been paid for by Ireland tourism board. I swear it is not but it really is that awesome So we made our way back to where we stayed our B&B in Kalarni and there's all there's I think Kalarni is a really good place to stay as a base our B&B in Kalarni and there's all there's I think Kalarni is a really good place to stay as a base or a first base for this trip. There's a ton of B&Bs and hotels all around there. It's set up very well for tourism. You might call it a bit touristy but at the same time you want to be near a city. You want to be somewhere where there's restaurants nearby. For us we weren't planning to spend a lot of time there so we wanted something that was kind of in and out. If you're looking for a B and B experiences, and we did do some B and Bs later in the trip, I think the best way to experience that is if you're planning

to spend a little bit more time there, kind of relax, meet the B and B owners, just talk with them and have that be part of your experience. For us, we were in and out in dark hours. We didn't even see the places in daylight because we were getting up before the crack of dawn to reach some of these places. But I think that's a really good place to base yourself. It's near a dare manners, another club that I think is closed right now for whatever reason, but that's another golf course that's nearby.

So if you use Kalarni as a base, there's a lot to see and do other than just play golf there. So we had some dinner in the city, had some more Guinness, and then we got up super early for our 8am tea time at Bally Bunyan. I had heard a lot about Bally Bunyan, I think it's probably the most famous Ireland course amongst Americans, and they do get a lot of Americans there. But I'd kind of famous to the point where I heard a few things about it that weren't the highest praise. Like I felt like some people that view themselves as really true travelers and Ireland golfers,

like refused to rate Bally Bunyan that high because, you know, they have their own little niche course. You all, you got to see this one. If you've never heard of this course, it's great. It's great. So I didn't really know what to expect with Ballybunion and we had the very first tea time of the day sunrise round and and again this is kind of where I'm going to emphasize that it totally depends on the kind what kind of weather and conditions can have on your experience. It was a little bit windy but not much and as the sun came up over those dunes I can honestly say it was at minimum a top five scenic round I've ever played up there with Pebble Beach pacific dunes,

band and dunes. I don't know I have a hard time really really putting any any other course up in the same realm as far as visually stunning views of the ocean incredible shadows made by the dunes when the sun was at a really low light like all the pictures you see on the website either done at sunrise or sunset it makes it just look fictional we saw it in that light and it was like it was laughable my dad and I were we're actually strolling the fairways laughing giggling about what was in front of our eyes. The golf course itself was really fun and enjoyable. There were some design quirks that I didn't think

were the best. And I wrote about that in the right up as well. The 11th hole is a beautiful stunning hole. I didn't think it was a great golf hole. A little bit more ball sur searching for your balls there. And a few holes on the front nine. You're teeing off on back to back par fives. Actually, you're teeing off directly over the green

that you just played in front of you. This was no issue for us being first off, but I really wonder how that plays with like a full T-sheet. And it was just a little bit quirky in that regard. But once you get out to the seventh hole, it's just this hole right up against the cliff. I mean, it was, it's just like, it smelled different. It sounded different. Like you're hearing the waves from the ocean, and you're playing this hole that just the fairway runs right up to the cliff.

There's a sign that says like, steep cliff, beware. I mean, it was, it was golf perfection. It was Nirvana. We're in the early morning light. We're still sweeping the dew off the grounds. And it reminded me a ton of the fourth hole at Pacific Dunes as far as scenery. And that's one of the most beautiful holes I've ever played. And it's just one of those holes, once we've finished with it, I didn't want to walk away from it.

I didn't want to be done with this hole. But luckily, you get to the back nine. There's even more scenery. There's more high points where you can see the water from. And it's just, it's got all the elements of the links course again that are really fun as far as the way you have to play your shots. It didn't have the same, I don't know what the right word is.

I'll call it like a run-up effect as what we had at waterville, meaning you need to land your ball in front of the green if you want to get it close to the pen. It didn't play as firm and as challenging in that regard. But it was, again, that's just how two links courses that are not that far away from each other can just vary so much in how they play. And you can't, it's not some set formula

that you got to follow for each course. Like you really do have to adjust to the conditions on a whole by whole and course by course basis. But we, I mean, we absolutely loved it. It was one of the best golf experiences I've ever had. 15th hole, beautiful stunning part three, long part three. 17th hole is like a dog leg left that aims you at the ocean to start

from a big elevated tee box. And then dog legs left along the water. I mean, God, it was just, I have, I have a lot of pictures in my post on Ballet Bunion for a reason. It was the most scenic course we saw of any of them. It's the one that just like stands out the most from a visual perspective in my mind and we really enjoyed our day there. I played, I played really well there as well, kind of choked it coming in. I shot a 77.

I was like one under through six holes or something like that and had some chances to be even lower than that. So I made a couple of doubles on the back and kind of struggled my way in, but it's of course it's gonna get you in that regard. And we also noticed that there's these pathways in between a lot of the holes and I wrote about this as well, that these grass tightly-mone pathways are fantastic on your

feet. And when you're walking 18 holes, 36 holes a day, it can be a grind. It really can be a grind. So to have, you know, just a, like a, almost sponge, like feeling on your feet as you're walking through the dunes and through the rough, it really did add to the experience and the attention to detail of these paths. It was just beautiful. You just kind of felt like you were truly in a special place, a place that would show that much care to the areas that you walk between the tea and the fairway and between holes. It really did

add to the experience and I don't really know how the way to describe it other than if I think if you saw it and walked it you would feel the exact same way. So fantastic day, Bally Bunyan and we were not done for the day. But before I get into our afternoon round at Trilly, I want to address something. I think I'm far enough into this. Hopefully at least some people have stopped listening, but Quite a controversial topic that I am willing to be out on a limb on commit to and Say is the correct side to be on it might surprise some of you. I'm not afraid of it anymore. It feels good to say it get it out there I'm all in on push carts. It's cool. It works. All right. I don't don't even consider

mentioning me. Do not at me about this. Push carts are fine. All right. If you refuse, if you are a hater on push carts, the only person I, the only people that I will allow to hear your feedback on are are if you carry your bag every single round that you ever play, then I'll listen to your criticism on push cards. But I want to hear your criticism on caddies, I want to hear it on golf boards, and I want to hear it on golf carts as well. Because we're talking about laziness or we're talking about whosiness or anything like that, comparing a push cart to a golf, an actual golf cart is not even comparable, okay?

When you're walking 18 to 36 holes a day, strapping a bag on your back on and off 150 times throughout the day is going to where you out. Taking these push carts and pull carts through up and down these hills and dunes and fairies, 100% saved us so much energy, you don't wanna go to these courses and take golf cards. It's not part of the experience is the walk.

You have at the same time you want to play as much golf as you can while you're out there, carrying your own bag for 36 holes a day, not that realistic. My father's 57 years old, he's in pretty good shape, but he's not carrying his bag for 36 holes a day. I don't want to carry my bag for 36 holes a day. I did it in Scotland and I wore myself out. So again, if you take a cat, I just don't understand how people

make fun of people for taking push carts yet will pay someone else to carry their bag for them. Like the push cart, and we even got some of the battery ones, which were just awesome. Like you can set it at a certain speed, walk next to it, and it's like you've got a caddy. So I'm willing to be on this side. I don't care what anyone says about the push carts. If you're playing this much golf, it's unrealistic to think that you can carry your bag on all the holes. Done, that's my rant. I'm committed to it. Push carts are huge in Europe. They're big in Scotland, they're big in Ireland. Everyone uses them. No one even thinks twice about it.

Americans, it's time to get over our criticism and our view of push cards as being less than manly or whatever. All right, done. Afternoon round, 240 T-time at Trilie, about a 40 minute drive. If I could have done it geographically different, if I could have done Trilie, then Bali,

Bunyan, that would make a lot more sense as you make your way up the coast. We actually had a backtrack a little bit to play Treli but definitely of course I did not want to miss. We had one of the last t times of the day and we finished our round at sunset after starting it at Bally Bunyan at sunrise. It was as perfect of a day of golf as you can get. I once played Band-In-Dunes and Pacific Des in the same day and I played the old course at St Andrews and Kings Barnes in the same day. Again, not one of ranking the favorites of those three days of golf, but that it belongs in the same category as far as golf perfection. Charlie, you know, all these places are private clubs that have open t times, right? So

it's ran by the members, yet guests can come, pay a fee, obviously, and play. And I just love that atmosphere about Ireland. Like the top private clubs in the United States, you cannot call up and say, give me a t-time. You got to know a member, you got to know somebody that can get you off. That aura of exclusiveness just does not exist at any of these clubs that I played in Ireland. I'm not saying they don't exist. I'm just saying where these ones that we played that aura is completely gone. You feel welcome from the moment you step on the grounds.

It was clear that my dad and I stuck out because members came up to us and just started, hey, welcome to Trilly. Like, I definitely didn't recognize us. They knew we were guests, but couldn't have been nicer. Couldn't have been more welcoming. Starter comes up to us and says, you know, we have a couple of members, four balls going off first. Not sure you're gonna be able to get all 18 holes in.

I may send you guys off the back. If this group coming off nine, it makes the turn. I can't do it, but if they don't, I'm gonna send you off the back because the back is the more impressive nine. And just that kind of care and hospitality that goes into your experience, it's everywhere across Ireland that I've ever been. And it's same in Scotland as well.

People are there to make sure you have a good experience yet at the same time, excuse me, I'm going to go into the weather. At the same time, they're not trying to wipe your ass. They're not looking for a tip. They're not looking for anything for you. It's not fake at all. They just genuinely want you to enjoy your experience. We ended up having to go off the front nine behind the four balls.

I don't recall waiting for more than 30 seconds on any shot any hole. We played the 18 holes in three hours, 54 minutes. Everybody out there walking, no golf carts. Pace to play over there, it's just different. People just get up and they play their ball. It's phenomenal, it's fantastic. I think we were more concerned about, there's a couple of kids that came up after us

that were playing behind us. We were more concerned about keeping pace with the group in front of us than we were about waiting. Truly, fantastic golf course. And it's again, what I mentioned earlier, I kind of wish we had its own day dedicated to it because just because it had an impossible act to follow which was Ballet Bunyan.

We couldn't have got better weather. We got hot at one point playing a Ballet Bunyan. It was so sunny out. Just it was just a perfect morning and we got a little bit of overcast in the afternoon, which again is nothing to complain about when you're playing golf in Ireland, especially in October. As soon as we finished our trip, it started raining in Ireland and I think it's still raining there. We took all the good weather, but when we got to the very end of our round, it's really

the sun popped out, and that same visual effect that I mentioned at Bally Bunyan, as far as the sun hitting the dunes, and the shadows, and the way that brought the course to life from a visual perspective, we saw a glimpse of it at the very end, and now it was kind of like, oh man, I was like, I would die to be able to play this back night again with this kind of sunlight. Like, it, it, and again, I don't really know how to describe it other than like these huge dunes that frame these holes. When the sun hits them, it is like the most picturesque, like stereotypical golf, or just illustration of Link's golf that you could imagine. So I feel a bit spoiled by even remotely complaining about the weather, but I feel like if we'd have had that sun, Trilly would also be up there in my mentions as potentially the favorite

course that we played. The front nine, I don't want to call it nondescript, I think it's just very different than the back nine, very different than the other courses we played, it's pretty wide open. They have like a lot of stone work that is all kind of all over Ireland from, I don't know what era it's from, but it's definitely from a previous area It's kind of marked the edges of properties and to be used to to maintain your farm animals in your cattle With it serves as sort of a fence. They have a bunch of old ones like that and they use that to frame the holes. It's so cool Remind me a lot of a course I played in Scotland called Crayl that just kind of the same little

kind of similar pieces of land and shape and whatnot Also truly had the biggest most amazing driving range I've ever seen We didn't use it. We saw it on not until the back nine It is like the widest fairway and tightly moaned thing you'll ever see in your life I'll see if I can get a picture. I should put a picture of it on the in the post, but Really cool holes on the front. There's a hole where you aim at a castle tower that's right behind the green. Good mix of challenging and easy holes. Again, the wind is 100% factor out there. Then you make the turn and the dunes just come alive. And the frame, the hole is so perfectly. It gives you more challenge than you can imagine.

There's so much more elevation change on a lot of these holes. The 13th is a par 3 that's like an uphill carry to this green that's kind of blot, you can't see the putting surface, but there's a huge dune that surrounds it. And then in front of the green is just a 60 yard cliff of a dune. If you miss short, it's rolling to the bottom of that dune and you're not you're not catching getting your ball. It's too steep of a cliff to go down and get your ball. Such an intimidating shot into the wind. I had a six iron from 140 and again it was one of those shots that I'm taking with me. I just absolutely knotted it, drew it back to this

back left flag and hit off the back dune, came down to about 12 feet and I wrote in the birdie for a really unlikely birdie is one of the hardest holes out there and it's like one of those image shots that I take with me. I think I shot 80 it truly I didn't play great a little bit a little bit tired a little fatigued on that second 18 but some really really fun holes especially on that back nine is a drivable par 4 16th or maybe it's the 15th I'm sorry. Beautiful it is the 15th the beautiful par 3 16th and then a funky little uphill par 4 17 then a uphill par 5 18th really great finish along the water. And again, we just love the hospitality we got there.

And it was just a course that deserves its own day and it deserves its own dedication to it. I'm sure I'm leaving out a bunch from Trilie, but it was kind of a blur of a day and just such a such a special experience. I'm so glad we got to see the course in that light at the end of the day and I have a couple pictures of that in our Charlie post on the website as well so you can see what it really looked like. So that was our day and we weren't done unfortunately. We had about a two and a half hour drive up to our B&B that we're staying in near the cliffs of Moor for our next round on the trip and that was at Lahinch and Lahinch also came highly recommended. It's in the top five of any list you'll see you've got top golf course in Ireland but

had a couple people also emphasize how much they enjoyed Lahinch and it did not disappoint. We were one of the first teatimes 850 caught another amazing sunrise, had great weather again, a little bit more clouds than Balibunyan but amazing course totally different than both of the pre, both all three of the courses we had just played and totally different than Port Marnick, mixture of dunes and wide open holes, I thought it was the most playable dunes we had as far as if you hit your ball in them, you're not losing it. You can mostly find it. It was quite punishing if you were in it, but I think I played the entire round.

I did play the entire round with one ball, did not lose a single ball there. What sticks out for Le Hinch the most to me was it was by far the best round I played on the trip I Stung the ball really well. I potted it. I recovered when I made mistakes and I Somehow made my way around in even par which I mean never had I remotely come close to that playing Ling Skolf and when you do that playing Ling Skolf. And when you do go play Ling Skolf,

you just, you can't expect to shoot your handicap out there. It's such a different style. It's so challenging. A simple 140 yard shot has all these factors to think about that you may not have ever thought about before. To kind of piece it all together. And we had admittedly got a really calm morning, by standards of a link of link scolves as far as wind it was not much of a factor it was a factor at times but I just I have so many shots I'm

taken away from that for birdies for bogies even par and my dad I my dad knew how happy I was about it but he he's pretty pretty flat and emotionally guy He doesn't he doesn't exhibit a ton of emotion on the 18th Korean He just patting me on the back and said that it was one of the best rounds he'd ever seen me play which again just I'm not saying that for bragging reasons other than like that is the experience that I'm Walking away from this trip like my dad patting me on the back, congratulating me on the round. Him going up and bragging to the starter, who was quite, the starter was absolutely shocked

that someone had made around an even par for that day. It was like the perfect day of golf. I just absolutely love the golf course. Unfortunately the post, I talked about this in the post I made on the hinge, my camera or my phone, like, almost completely malfunctioned during this round. If somebody can help me with the problem, the details of it are in the hinge post,

but some of the most scenic holes, I don't even have pictures from. And the one hole that sticks out on my mind is the sixth hole where you just hit this shot, approach shot down the hill, towards the ocean to this green that just sits there, it looks like it's sitting there, meant to be taking a picture of or meant to be a framed photo. So many shots like that, so many holes like that, especially on the front nine.

Lehench is just such a cool place. Two tools I forgot to talk about in the post where it's called the Klondike hole and the you know what I'm gonna screw this up. The fourth and fifth hole are two original holes that were designed and approved by Old Tom Morris that have been completely untouched and it's this PAR5. Normally I don't like blind PAR5, sorry the Klondike and del holes. I don't normally like blind shots. It's this par-five that's a tunnel off the tee. There's these dunes that frame the hole that looks like you can't really miss the fairway. And then you've got to hit a shot over this dune and they have a stone up on top of the

dune that signifies where the pin is for that day. So basically if you're in the middle of the fairway, you got to aim at the stone and just hope it goes well. And I had a good drive, a good five iron over that and chipped on and made a birdie. Amazing, such a cool hole. And there's actually a marshall that stands on top of that dune and directs traffic because when people make their way through the back then you've actually got to cut across that hole to get to the 18th, I think it's the 18th tee box at that point. So you need somebody up there directing traffic, telling the guys in the fairway when you can go,

when the guys are off the green, when people can cross, et cetera. And then you play this little part three coming back. It's actually a double hole. There's two tee boxes and two greens. And I forget which one we, I don't know how to describe which one we played, but it's just a little wedge, part three,

tiny little green all surrounded by Heather. And again, it's amazing that those holes have gone completely untouched. Patty Keane, a general manager there was telling me about it in email and I, you know, that I had not talked about that in my post and missed that. And I definitely didn't miss it. And that just goes to show how many, how many cool things there are to say about LeHinge. Like two holes that are originally designed by Old Tom Morris, I completely forgot to write up in my post.

And I think I wrote 2000 words alone on the hinge. So we talked to a guy in the clubhouse afterwards that you mentioned he was kind of disappointing the course because of lack of scenery. And my dad and I had a good laugh over that, over some beers at lunch. Hey, looking at the scenery that we were looking at, like just kind of jokingly. Yeah, I agree. It's kind of disappointing. Absolutely not disappointing. It is a stunning course, beautiful scenery, and a great design to it. I just love the playability of it. Again, that may be heavily influenced by the fact that I played really well, but I just,

the course suited my eye. I would love to go back there. All these courses I would love to go back and play again, but Lehanch really stands out to me probably mostly because I played really well. But man, I would just have the strongest memories of that place. It was just like, and to this point, again, I don't know, the trip just couldn't get any better at this point. Like it was going so well, the weather was great, hadn't gotten into an accident, head on the roads. And that afternoon, again, perfectly sunny afternoon, we drove 15 minutes from Lahinch and went to the cliffs of Mower. Like something like six million people a year

visit the cliffs of Mower. Like the population of Ireland, more than the population of Ireland visits cliffs of Mower. People make entire trips out of going to go see this magnificent place. And we're just doing an Ireland road trip or an Ireland golf trip and we pop over after 18 holes in one of the top 50 courses in the world. And we go see the cliffs of Moor. Like it's just a little side activity. And they are magnificent as well. We spent a few hours there and we just kind of had to laugh about like that's just a throw-in part of this trip. You know this this place that's worth seeing completely on its own and it's 15 minutes from a course we just played and at the time of our lives

playing. Yeah I mean I don't think I hopefully have given you enough incentive to add the hinge to your list but if that's not enough I don't really know what is. The B&B we stayed at was in Dueling, it was really affordable. I think we end up paying around 80 to 100 euros a night to sleep very comfortably for two people. So, if you're planning to buddy's trip, you can easily budget, you can easily sleep for 40 euros a night. Again, that's about 45 US dollars a night, and you'd probably do it much cheaper than that if you really wanted to

To get it and it's just not that the the B&Bs and the food and everything's just not that expensive our rental car I think was only Maybe 200 euros for five days. So 40 euros a day 45 bucks a day You probably need a bigger car if you did like a buddy's trip of four people, but again, that's like, yeah, 45 euros a day. You can just put it two ways. So basically 20 bucks a day to get around. The gas is not expensive, you get a diesel car. The golf is decently expensive, I mean,

but the as far as comparable to places you're gonna play, even in Northern Ireland or in Scotland, when you're using the British pound, places the top places in the US it is very affordable you know 150 euros green fees sometimes car and I think is actually only 40 or 60 euros waterville you know those courses make it up in the 250 range 240 to 30 range I don't know exactly what the standard regular season prices are. But that's kind of an afterthought. I think the book can deter people from wanting to do these trips is the expense.

And I know flights to Ireland are not cheap, but you'd be actually probably be pretty surprised if you do it in far enough in advance how cheap you can fly the Dublin on. And then once you're here, nothing is really that expensive, other than the greens fees, and even them are not that bad. I just, I feel like a lot of people are turned off by the cost of an overseas golf trip, but it can be done. And again, if you're flying international,

you're not gonna have like, you know, most airlines that you're gonna, they're gonna let you check a bag for free. You're not paying a baggage fee to carry your golf clubs on. I just think that these trips, the cost can be such a prohibitive factor, but I just wouldn't let it rule your thought process. Walking away from the experience that I just had, I would have paid a lot more than we did pay for it. It really is that special. But one last course I know I've been rambling on here. After a hard close to Moa,

we made the trip three and a half hours up to Belle Mullet up in the, I got an on a corner of wet northwest Ireland. It's a play of course called Carn Golf Lings. I'd heard some amazing things about this place. My friend Barry said it was his favorite in all of Ireland. It's a long trip. We stayed at the great B&B up there, had a mid-morning tea time.

There was almost no one out there. I really did enjoy the golf course. It is a tough walk. So back to what I was saying early or about the Valley Bunyan and Lehench, I think the Valley Bunyan and Lehench walkways, what they really stuck out to me as far as how well groomed they were, Karn did not have these in as many places

and it did affect our energy level greatly. Some of the walks between holes, taking a push-cart, up a lot of those hills, was taxing. It was exhausting. My dad, again, he's 57, but in good shape, he was worn out after 18

holes. He didn't care for the course as much as I did. I really didn't enjoy it but I was exhausted after 18. They have 27 holes there. I did opt to go out for nine more and about three holes in. I was regretting it just because my energy was pretty much zapped from playing. This was our sixth day in a row playing golf. And one of those days included a 36-hole day all walking. And the dunes and the elevation changes in these fairways are insane. There's a few holes. Just the most massive dunes you could ever imagine framing the hole. The 11th hole this has this dune that is, my dad had it in the dude. It couldn't stand on the dude to hit the ball. The ball was so far below his feet, so massive,

so steep, incredible visual effects. I felt like Carn was a really raw golf experience, really raw links experience, in that it really embraced the elements of the nature better than any of the other courses we played. It felt like, and they pride themselves on saying they didn't use any bulldozers really to build this course. They didn't move the dunes around, they kept everything natural and built the course

around it. I love that work too, it's benefit and it's deterrent at times. Some hills that you got to traverse are just tough, really tough. I'd heard some bad things about the greens at Karn. We did not experience poor greens at all. I thought they rolled very true, very easy to read. And we got a lot of wind out there too, which again, I embrace, I enjoy that that factor. I think it's a lot of farm to, you know, hit seven irons from

220 yards sometimes and four irons from 150. But I'd neither of us played very well at Carn. I think that we were just a little bit wiped. I think at that point of the trip, it was a lot of golf in a tight period of time. I think under the right circumstances, I would definitely find a way to say that Carn was totally worth the drive up there.

I think if I was to do it again, I would want to play more courses in that area. I know County Sligo and NS Cron are courses that are nearby there that we didn't get to add. I think if you're gonna do that try Fecta it is a thousand percent worth making that trip. Driving three and a half hours up to Belmullet just to play Carn in hindsight probably wasn't our best plan just considering there's also great courses. I know Dunebag and Dukes are two courses that a lot of people have mentioned to me. We didn't get to play on this

trip, but they're still in that same area. So again, I'm a big fan of car, and I would love a chance to play car and again under full energy, and as a part of a trip in that section of Ireland. I think the way we drew out our itinerary, it just didn't make a ton of sense to have that be our last course, that far out of the way from all the other courses that we played. So, and there's a reason like I didn't go up to Northern Ireland on this trip, like you just can't do everything all in one trip. So if I were to do it again, I would say,

Karn, as a separate trip, maybe play with County Slago and as Cron, and I know there's even more courses up in that area that I'm probably not even aware of that would totally be worth its own trip. Because again, I'm being so particular about this in that you're just so I'm so spoiled from having done this trip. The whole experience is just 100% meets the hype, exceeds the hype. To be able to do it with my dad, I mean, he just looked at me at the end of that trip and just

looked me in the eye and said, that was one of the best trips I've ever done. And it really was. I mean, it just worked out so great. We're so thankful for the weather we got. Thankful for all the recommendations we got from people, all the clubs that helped to accommodate us. It was just a miraculous experience. It's awesome. I hope that you listen to this and think, and are motivated to want to do this trip, or if you have the trip already planned, hopefully this has gotten even more excited, or if you've done something like this, hopefully I've touched on a lot of things that helped make the

Ireland trip special for you. So thank you for tuning in to 55 minutes of me just ranting about how awesome my Ireland golf experience was. I'm still going to do some kind of summary post kind of touching on a lot of these points, but I needed to flesh out some of my thoughts. You know, it's hard to write about it. Like I'm literally googling synonyms for adjectives because I feel like I'm using the same ones over and over again. But while it feels like my praise for, every review I've written is strong praise for every course. There's a reason because of that.

Of that, and it's that these golf courses are just truly, truly special places, such awesome experiences. I know that I'm trying to encourage the other no-ling up guys to get a trip scheduled out here. I know they've got a lot of other life stuff going on that makes it a lot more challenging. Not everyone can do this trip, not everyone has the time, not everyone has the capability

to make it all work with their schedules. I do understand that, but just know that I can't emphasize enough how special this week was with my dad, this whole experience. I can't wait to make my way back there. I'm going to try to go back there before I'm supposed to move home to the US at about nine months, but I'm definitely planning to make a trip back out there in the spring. So if you have any questions on any of the courses, any logistical questions, anything, please feel free.

Respond. You can sit. I don't see all my replies on Twitter, but if you shoot a comment on the actual website I will see that for sure. Shoot us an email, direct message on Twitter will work as well, anything. And again, please guys, if you don't mind leaving a review rating on iTunes that helps tremendously, I won't probably have a podcast next week. I'm actually going to be in Nigeria for most of the week. So I may not ever have a podcast next week. I'm actually going to be in Nigeria for most of the week, so I may not ever have a podcast again, depending on how that goes.

Hoping to have a, there's a couple, I could potentially have some really nice guests lined up for this fall, trying to really nail that down. It can be hard to track down some of these guys and get them to commit to times, but hopefully some good times to come here on the No Line. Podcast. Thank you for tuning in.

Hopefully some good times to come here on the No Lighting Up Podcast. Thank you for tuning in. Give it a right club. Be the right club today. That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Better than most. Better than most.