A quick trip, but an amazing one nonetheless. I met up with Jamie Kennedy of the European Tour, along with his buddy Keith Paterson as we met up in Belfast for a bit more than 48 hours of world class golf in Northern Ireland. First up was Royal County Down, followed by Royal Portrush, and capped off with Portstewart.

In addition to these summary posts, please check out 

 after the trip talking about the experience.

The hype train for this gem on the North Atlantic Ocean has been steaming along well before the R&A announced that The Open Championship would be returning to the Dunlace Links at Royal Portrush in 2019 for the first time since 1951. A lot has changed in tournament golf since Portrush last hosted a major championship event, and significant changes were required to both the golf course, and the layout in general to be able to accommodate thousands of golf fans, players, grandstands, and all of the other logistics that go into a golf tournament. The changes are numerous, and according to some locals, the property has spent more time in recent years resembling a building site rather than a golf course. We were lucky enough to see it in late April as spring was blooming on the northern coast of this small country, and saw a golf course ready to emerge from a construction cocoon into a a big boy championship golf course.

We were afforded the luxury of time that we were not blessed with the day before at Royal County Down, and we made sure to make the most of it. The two hour drive from Newcastle that morning was a disaster for my hangover, but as we pulled onto the property, it magically lifted. We hit some balls on the range, scraped some putts around the putting green, and even hit some chips at the wonderful practice facility.

Our host for the day was David Mulholland, a member at the club, and as we would soon find out, quite the stick. He hadn’t played 18 holes since July of 2016, but the Northern Irish Jeff Knox showed no signs of rust on this day. We joined him and his son for lunch in the Skerries Room, then set out for one of the more enjoyable rounds of golf I can ever remember.

I didn’t want to start out immediately discussing the changes being made to Royal Portrush, and for a couple of reasons. One, I had never seen the course before the changes that have been made and the ones that continue to be made, thus I have nothing to compare it to. Two, the course that we played on this day was so great that I don’t want it to seem like the developments surrounding the course supersede the experience of actually playing it.

The first hole is a bit nondescript. A straightaway par-4 with an uphill approach to the green (shoutout to Keith for stuffing one to a foot for a tap-in birdie on this Saturday). The second is a strong dogleg left par-5 where you begin your views of the sea in the distance. The third is a cute par-3 with generous banks flanking the green that will help bound the ball towards the center, or punish you if you miss. This is where I captured the first footage of the sweet swing of David:


Effortless and repeatable. I’ve never seen someone make golf look so easy. Jamie was David’s only challenger on the day, but more on that a bit later.

The 4th is a strong two shotter, with a tee shot that aims you at the out of bounds down the right, and an approach that heads back out towards the sea. I busted on a drive and still needed a 5-iron to reach a green guarded by dunes. Such a strong par-4.

Your sense of anticipation begins to rise as you climb the tee box to the world famous par-4 5th. Everybody’s cameras came out for this signature hole on a course chalked full of them. There’s a reason I’ve got four pictures of this hole alone in the space below. It’s one of the most scenic holes of golf I’ve played, and somehow manages to look sexier from every different angle you look at it.

It’s a shorter hole, and strongly encourages you to swing away at a driver. Jamie and I were able to get it down within about 50 yards of the green, toss some wedges in, and walk off with some rather memorable 3’s.

This scene was so great that we went back out after the round with the drone to attempt to fully capture it. Just off the property to the right, there was a wedding on the beach. Families were down in the sand with their dogs and their kids soaking up the April sunshine. Waves crashed on the shore and on the cliffs in the distance. Not a lot of words were shared among our group when we reached this point, as we did our best to just take in the sights, smells, and sounds.

The 6th is a strong par-3, pictured on the right below, requiring a mid-iron that must be kept left of the large mound protecting the right side of the green.

Looking back down the 5th fairway, with the par-3 6th to the right

From what I gathered from David, with the agreement to bring the Open Championship back to Portrush, there were a series of changes required by the R&A to be made to the golf course. The most significant change is the removal of the 17th and 18th holes in their entirety, and the addition of two phenomenal looking new holes near the sea. The new holes will be the 7th and 8th holes, and the original 7-16 will be pushed back two holes, with the old 7th hole being the 9th, and the old 16th now being the finale.

Here’s a brief flyover of the magnificent par-5 7th. (The wind was crazy, and the drone was not performing well, so I wasn’t able to take it further down).


It may help that the turf on these holes had been virtually untouched by play to this point, but the holes look 

. Two holes from the Royal Portrush Valley course were absorbed by the Dunlace Links, and I’m going to assume that the changes will be met with 100% approval. The original 17th and 18th holes were rather non-descript, and deemed to be not worthy of a closing finish of an Open Championship. While the views of the sea will be limited due to the size of the dunes framing the right side of the new 7th, the upgrade is significant, and I can’t wait to see them in play.

The 7th as shot above is a long par-5, and the new 8th is a dogleg left par-4 that heads back in the opposite direction. The second shot will be played back towards the Giant’s Causeway and the cliffs you see in the distance. The pictures probably don’t quite do justice to how appealing these holes are to look at in person.

The new holes are far from the only changes being put in play. Several greens have been redone, a tunnel has been installed to be used by players to improve the flow of traffic, and many other logistically minded adjustments are apparent across the property. Despite all of the work being done, on this day in late April, the course appeared to have taken great shape according to everyone in our foursome.

I’m not gonna do a hole by hole for all of these, but will point out some of what I found to be the best and most significant holes. The routing was slightly altered for us, as we essentially swapped the order of the 7th and 9th holes, swung through the exceptionally quaint halfway house, and made our way to the back nine. Remember that in the future, all of these hole numbers are going to be bumped up by two.

The 13th is a great par-4 back out towards the water called “Skerries”, for the view of the Skerries Islands in the distance.

Then you come back with a beast of a par-3 called Calamity. At over 200 yards and huge forced carry, this is one of the most intimidating shots on the course for an amateur, and will play as a great test down the final stretch as the 16th hole at the 2019 Open Championship. The picture below doesn’t do justice for how appealing yet challenging this hole looks like from the tee.

The 15th is a fun par-4, and very driveable at 360 yards due to the severe downslope leading down to the green. Myself and Keith were able to pipe a few drives down the hill and onto the putting surface for some easy 3’s. The 16th, which will of course be the finale in 2019, is a great dogleg right par-4 that will be a stern test as a finishing hole.

We traversed on to the finishing two holes, a long par-5 and a medium length par-4 as Jamie and David continued their Duel in the Sun. As Jamie stood over an 8 foot par putt on 18, we both knew what it was for without having to even mention it aloud. I let out an audible “YES!” as it lipped in for an incredibly impressive one-under par 71, edging Ulster Jeff Knox by a single stroke (by my count). Playing off the same handicap, he blew the doors off me by a clean 13 shots in one of the more impressive rounds of golf I’ve seen. We played it at about 6,700 yards, with a strong wind, on a course he had never seen before, and he shot 71? Unreal. Tremendous amount of pop.

Aided by nearly perfect sunshine, the luxury of time, and the guidance of a distinguished member of the club, Royal Portrush was a transformative experience. Members are typically not permitted to take more than one guest out on a Saturday, and David specially arranged with the club to have us out. As was typical in almost all experiences I’ve had in the UK, the club did not have an aura of stuffiness in the least, and the experience was was much richer for it.

At the recommendation of nearly everyone that had ever been to Portrush, we hit up Harbour Bar for dinner. Nearly the entire town was there apparently on the same recommendation, as the wait for dinner was a solid 1:45. Not to worry. We put our names in, headed upstairs to (an also very crowded) bar, ordered a few pints of the black and some appetizers, found a booth, and cheers’d to another epic day. The time flew by, our table was ready, we went to town on some delicious food, and tried to keep our eyes open.

After dining, we went over to the smaller downstairs bar for a nightcap, and Jamie immediately earned the respect of the famed bartender Willie by ordering a Bushmill’s 12 year. We took up residence at Darren Clarke’s normal booth, and were even bought a round of drinks by Willie himself.

It was very busy, and we enjoyed lively conversation with those seated near us (they thought I was Canadian?). The atmosphere was jolly, and we could not have had a better first 36 hours in the country.

If you can’t tell with the 2,000 words, and the plethora of photos within this post, this was a really special day. I’m thoroughly excited to revisit the area for the Irish Open this year, and hopefully get back out to take another crack at Royal Portrush. This is a really special place, and it’s going to be awesome watching the pros take it on in 2019.

Royal Portrush

A quick trip, but an amazing one nonetheless. I met up with Jamie Kennedy of the European Tour, along with his buddy Keith Paterson in Belfast for a bit more than 48 hours of world class golf in Northern Ireland. First up was Royal County Down, followed by Royal Portrush, and capped off with Portstewart.

I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time in my life lusting over top 100 course lists, pictures of those courses, and dreaming of setting foot on them one day. As a kid, I browsed Links magazine and couldn’t even picture a world where I would get to walk the fairways of some of these places. I moved abroad in October of 2014 to travel around Europe for a scheduled 18 month period, and the plan was to actually get away from golf for awhile and start experiencing another continent with more of a cultural experience focus rather than a golf one. I ended up almost spending double the amount of time here than I planned, and because my travels were so heavily focused on other things, it took awhile for me to realize how much incredible golf I’ve been missing out on.

Royal County Down has always been near the very top of my list, as it would be with any self respecting player of any kind. I’ve never seen a top ten list without RCD on it, and I’ve even seen it ranked as the #1 course in the world (Golf Digest, 2016). Any course with this much of a pedigree is going to carry some rather large expectations with it, and unsurprisingly, Royal County Down lived up to the hype.

One of the many incredible benefits of living in Europe is the close proximity of so many other countries. Never in my life did I imagine that I could work a half day from home, hop a flight, and catch an afternoon tee time in another country, and 

 get 18 holes in. This meant rockin’ the white pants straight onto the EasyJet flight, and throwing the clubs into a moving rental car as we frantically tried to make our 3:06 tee time. As the drive was a bit over an hour from Belfast International Airport, and it was already after 2:00, we knew we weren’t going to make it.

We rolled up into the parking lot and were immediately greeted with smiles and warm welcomes. We had called ahead that we were running late, and we were assured it was no issue. Shoes changed quickly, and we were on the tee trying to frantically stretch out in just a few minutes.

The first thing that catches your eye is the orgasmic shadow cut down the center of the fairway. The turf was pristine, and the despite the overcast skies, the colors of the layout most certainly did not lack pop. Are we really here?

Looking back at the first from the second tee

Despite the fact that you can play here 12 months a year, we were here a bit before the peak season really begins. After one hole, we were in absolute awe of how smooth the putting surfaces were, only to be informed by our caddie Stephen that they “hadn’t quite taken shape yet.” What!? One of the major drawbacks of links golf for me is that usually the sand based green surfaces roll rather impure. I don’t have the type of putting stroke that can survive choppy greens, and I end up missing every 8 footer I look at.

Looking back at the second tee with the water, mountain, and clubhouse views

I did not have the luxury of this excuse on this day. Royal County Down has, without any shred of doubt, the best putting surfaces of any links course I’ve ever set foot on. They were fast, but inherently fair. They rolled true, and with enough slope to challenge you, but not to make a mockery of you. This didn’t stop me from efforting somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 putts throughout the day (counting all the ones from off the green), but the fault lied entirely on the man yielding the blade.

The main drawback of playing this early in the year was that the tee boxes were moved up pretty significantly. This took decision making (and driver) out of our hands on a lot of holes. My game is nowhere close enough to demand to play from the tips, and the course provided plenty of other challenges that tripped me up, but I do feel like we missed out a bit on a key element of decision making on a really special course. While I really enjoy taking irons off the tee when fairways are running out, it’s less intriguing when you’re inherently forced to not take driver.

The 4th is one of the signature holes, as from the back tee you get the best view of the entire layout. The tee sits highly elevated, and you can see to the Irish Sea, the mountains, a church, and the clubhouse. From back there, it’s long (221 yards), but again we were moved up significantly, so we did not get the full experience.

The second par three on the front is the 7th, or as Stephen described it, “the shortest par four in the world…. 142 yards of hell.”

Challenge accepted! We stepped up, put three balls within 15 feet, and played it one under. Before we even made it to the 8th tee, Jamie busted out a flask of whiskey and we toasted to the darts we had just thrown, and playfully rubbed it in Stephen’s face that we had just dominated the 142 yards of hell.

We made our way to the world famous 9th hole, a long par four with a separated fairway and a blind landing area well below the teeing area. Seeing the ball against the Mourne Mountains in the background was thrilling, and we piped drives that made it into the second fairway, leaving short pitches into the green. The church steeple in the Newcastle skyline served as a backdrop for our approaches, and the front nine ended in style.

The 10th is a cool par three, and the 11th through 13th work their way away from the clubhouse with a pair of par fours, and a par five mixed in. All really good holes, but again, holes I would have likely appreciated much more playing from further back. At this point, I should also mention that I played from the middle of every fairway (with the exception of two holes) and still shot 83. Even with 9-irons and wedges into these greens, once you add in the unpredictable bounces and the blustering winds, there’s so much that goes into actually getting the ball in the hole.

The 15th is a really good hole, with a fairway that runs out around 300 yards from the back tees. I couldn’t stomach hitting another 3-iron, so I pulled out driver from the forward tees and ran through the fairway, and found the ball way above my feet about 150 yards out. With a helping wind, I opted for a 7-iron punch shot rather than launching a stock 9-iron, and hit my best shot of the day, curving the ball in from the right and stopping it about 8 feet from the hole. Don’t ask about the putt.

Then came the 16th, and perhaps the most exciting hole of the day. Playing just about 290 yards for us, it was a green light special. After making an illegal adjustment to my driver and swapping in a Sub Zero driver head with my lighter shaft, I found a little something with the driver, and sent a heat seeking missile just left of the green.

It took me three to get down from there. Not my day around the greens. This is part of the reason why I want another shot at RCD so badly, because I would likely play the course so differently than I did on this day. The turf around the greens was a bit too firm to get comfortable standing over a 60 degree wedge, and when pulling out putter from off the green, I could not match the speed of the fairway with the green speed. Even around the greens, the wind played games with the ball, and I don’t remember knocking a single lag putt dead. Not good.

The 17th has a tiny natural pond that sits directly in the middle of the fairway, again limiting your options from the forward tees. It was not my favorite hole, but the 18th is a strong finishing par five back towards the city and towards the clubhouse. And then that was it! I couldn’t believe how fast the round went, and that it was over after being in the country for less than six hours.

With our cell phones on silent and our hats removed, we ordered the obligatory pints of Guinness, and sat in the quiet clubhouse reflecting on the opportunity we were just granted. We scanned the pictures in the clubhouse of past events, signed the guestbook, and looked out on the course that I had seen so many pictures of in magazines as a kid. The trip was off to a phenomenal start, and would only get better.

Royal County Down

, the dream western Ireland golf trip moves on to our final destination, Carne Golf Links in Belmullet.

This course came highly, highly recommended to me by a friend, but I’ve always had such a great curiosity for the this place due to the way that Sports Illustrated’s J

In case you skipped the link above, the words he used, and the sincerity behind it had an impact on me, and served as possibly the strongest endorsement for a golf experience that I’ve heard.

“Every summer I leave Kansas City to spend a week on what I call the finest stretch of golfing ground in the world. It’s not Cypress Point. It’s not Pebble Beach. It’s not even the Old Course at St. Andrews. It’s the Carne Golf Links in County Mayo, the Republic of Ireland.”

It was these few sentences that inspired me to schedule a Friday morning tee time at Carne, knowing it would be about a four hour drive from our Thursday gaunt around Lahinch. The driving in this part of the world is less than ideal, and for an American used to driving on the other side of the road and from the other side of the car, it can be quite intimidating. But if a respected golf writer is going to endorse a place that strongly, it has to be worth the trip, right?

For our final round on the trip, it was only fitting that we got one more perfectly sunny day. Another wide open links style golf course, but yet again, a completely different challenge from the day before, and a monumentally different golf course from any other track we experienced throughout the week. The winds whipped as strong on this day as they did on our first day at Waterville, and did not let up for one single hole.

One thing that John Garrity most certainly did not lie about was the dunescape. I’m not sure how many times in these recaps I’ve mentioned that pictures don’t do a place justice, but perhaps nowhere is this statement more relevant than when discussing the size of the dunes that frame the holes at Carne. (Unfortunately, I lost a ton of my photos 

). What came as a surprise to me was the remarkable undulation of the fairway to match it. This added an entirely new layer to the challenge, leading to many blind shots, uneven lies, and even fatigue. This was our 7th round in six days, and little did we know, we had saved the toughest walk for last.

The first hole, before my phone crapped out

An example of the extreme undulation in the fairways

If I had to choose a word to describe Carne, it would be raw. Perhaps I felt that way just compared to the other courses, but it was easily the least groomed and manicured course that we played on the trip, and I mean that in a good way. People often say that a good quality of a golf course is one that feels “discovered” rather than “designed,” and Carne is probably the best example of that of any course I’ve played in my life. They will proudly tell you that they did not use bulldozers to shape the holes or the dunes, and it’s easily believable.

There are no smooth walkways between the holes. The turf seems a bit more firm, and is harder on your feet. The wind whips just a little bit harder. The bounces are more extreme, and the putting surfaces less predictable. If any of this is perceived as faint praise, trust me, it is not. This golf course is so incredibly unique that I feel like playing it just the one time was not enough to appreciate how special it truly is.

It’s difficult to describe just how remote of a location Belmullet, Ireland is. Throughout the entire day, we saw two other groups on the golf course, and only a handful of people working in the pro shop and the bar. I’ve traveled all over the world in the last two years trying to find Anthony Kim, and for the first time, I felt like I was finally in a place I might see him. If there was ever somewhere a golfer wanted to go and hide out from the world, it would be this golf course.

From many of the elevated tee boxes, you can see for miles. But you don’t see much. A few houses sprinkled in the distance. The bright blue sea at the horizon. And without exception, a challenging golf hole in front of you. I’m looking back at my pictures, the scorecard, the yardage book, and the website, and I can’t think of one hole I would call easy.

One of the signature holes, #11. Biggest dunes I’ve ever seen on a golf course.

I’m getting nostalgic all over again just looking at these

Dad on one of the signature holes, the par-3 14th

It’s hard to pick one hole as a signature hole, but if you held my feet to the fire, I would say the 16th (pictured below) takes the gold, with the 11th and 14th (above) on the other two podiums in some order. And if you played out there, your top three holes might include three I haven’t even mentioned in this post.

Coming off the 15th green, you climb a huge hill to get to the plateau that is the 16th tee box. On this day, it was easily the most exposed piece of land on the entire course. With no dunes around to protect you, the wind hits you with its full force, and you’ve got a few seconds to try to figure out a plan to get the ball out of the air as fast as possible. On this day, the wind was straight off the right, and playing 175 yards. With this significant of an elevation change, with no wind, I would have opted for an 8-iron under normal conditions, but the thought of the golf ball getting more than 20 feet above my head gave me vertigo. The wind might just take that ball off the property.

I took out a 5-iron and opted for about a 65% swing, trying to basically just punch it through the wind. While I managed to miss the green long and right, I’m still not sure what the right strategy is on a shot like this, and I can’t say I’ve ever had to hit a shot like that in my life.

Can’t remember what these putts were for, but I can promise it wasn’t for birdie

The Hackett course at Carne was the most unique blend of elevation change mixed in with a links course that I’ve ever experienced. I don’t think I was fully prepared for it, and would love to get another chance to play there again.

One more splendid perk of the Carne Golf Links is that after 18 holes, you’re not done (well, if you’re my dad, you’ve had enough of a beating and you’re done). There’s a new nine holes, built in 2013, called the Kilmore course. If you thought the first 18 holes appeared “discovered” and not “designed,” then it’s hard to even call the Kilmore discovered. The greens have not fully taken shape, and the nine holes wander through the property seemingly haphazardly. Legitimately on more than one occassion, I walked off a green and did not know where to go to the next tee. There’s no walkways, and the location of the next hole doesn’t necessarily even make sense. The course guide helps you a bit, but for the most part, you are pretty much alone out there trying to “discover” where the next tee is. It’s awesome!

The par-3 2nd hole on the Kilmore Course (photo credit Eamon Mangan)

This may sound like a criticism, but it most certainly is not intended to be. Those nine holes were some of the most unique nine holes of golf I can ever remember playing. It felt like one of those extreme courses you unlock in a video game once you’ve mastered all of the pedestrian courses. The same elevation changes, enormous dunes, and an heightened sense of freedom made for a pretty special way to wrap up this trip.

More enormous dunes on the Kilmore Course (photo credit Eamon Mangan)

For more photos from the Kilmore course, 

check out this incredible album from Eamon Mangan

As much as we enjoyed the golf experience at Carne, my dad and I both agreed that we may have overdone it a bit. I wasn’t sure when I would have the chance to play in Western Ireland again, and with the things I had heard about Carne, I did not want to miss it at any cost. In hindsight, having this walk as our final round, after a week’s worth of 18/36 hole days, hours of driving, and little sleep, was probably a bit too much. I would love to play Carne again with full energy and the mental preparedness required for this tough of a walk. It may sound like we’re giant wusses (and we very well might be), but until you’ve had those 30 MPH winds hitting you in the face while you’re going up and over these ridiculous dunes, you likely can’t relate.

In summary, Carne as a golf course is 100% worth it, and meets the hype. It just didn’t make the most sense with our itinerary, and our eyes were a bit bigger than our stomachs. With the luxury of more time, we would have gladly spent a few more days in the area and played a few rounds at County Sligo and Enniscronne, which are also top notch courses in the area that we basically had to drive by. This corner of Ireland is absolutely worth a visit, and there is plenty of golf and culture to experience up there that make the trip worthwhile.

And with that, the dream Ireland golf trip was a wrap. We shared one last Guinness before making the four hour trek back to Dublin. It was pretty much the perfect week of golf. Thank you, Ireland.

I summarized this trip in podcast form for those interested

Western Ireland Golf Trip, Part V: Carne

The dream trip continues, this time onto Lahinch Golf Club, again along the Atlantic Ocean, and again one of the top golf courses in all of Ireland. Rated by 

Golf Digest Ireland as the 4th best course

, this course had also come highly recommended to me by some friends that had made their way out there. We made the drive up from Tralee the night before, settled into our B&B in Doolin, and set out early Thursday morning for our 8:50 tee time. The course had a lot to live up to, following 

, but the beauty of playing golf in western Ireland is how different each course and experience can be. At no point did any of these courses blend together or feel repetitive, and Lahinch was certainly no exception.

A short 20 minute drive from Doolin (including 6 km on a two-way road barely wide enough to fit one car) brings you to the car park. The tee sheet is full, but the grounds are very quiet on this Wednesday morning. The vibe is deficient in flamboyance, which is consistent with the other Irish clubs I’ve encountered. There’s no extravagant clubhouse, no fancy driving range with balls stacked in triangles (at least, I didn’t see one), and no one greeting you in the parking lot trying to wipe your ass and take your clubs for you. They immediately and quietly deliver the message that this place is about the golf, and it’s about the golf course. It’s a real life illustration of quiet confidence, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The putting green in the foreground, clubhouse in the background

After registering in the pro shop, we were sent to check in with Tony at the first tee. After exchanging some small talk for a few minutes, we ended up in his starter’s hut at the computer as he mapped out our route for the 3.5 hour drive we had in store for us after the round ended. The hospitality is real, and it’s such a key ingredient to your experience in the country. You can’t put a value on feeling welcome, comfortable, and at peace with your surroundings, and the effect it has on your enjoyment of your day in these momentous places. We stayed in that hut for several minutes (perhaps mostly just to stay warm) as we exchanged stories, although we were much more interested in hearing Tony’s stories than we were in telling our own.

We were blessed with another perfect sunrise, and I was able to roll in a birdie at the opening hole to break open what was about to be a really special day. The only regret of the day was that my phone decided that it wanted to malfunction while I’m playing one of the most beautiful and spectacular golf courses I’ll ever play, and 

almost all of the photos on my phone went gray and can not be retained

. Gone. Kaput. So forgive me for the lack of photos in this post, especially considering I was obviously taking pictures of the most scenic holes (I did grab some other photos from the interwebs, and found some relevant tweets as well).

Similar to what stuck out us at Ballybunion, the closely mowed pathways between holes, and from the tees to the fairway, were a tremendous touch. Any offline shot on these golf courses has you trekking through the dunes looking for your ball. Going up and down these slopes for 18 to 36 holes a day, with the wind often not helping the situation, can be exhausting. It wasn’t until we got to Carne, which didn’t have these paths manicured in the same fashion, that we realized how much energy this saved us, and how necessary it is for your feet.





— Iron Lady Golf (@ironladygolfer) 

The ocean-side beauty of Lahinch starts on the third hole, as you tee off next to a surf school along the shore, up a hill to a blind landing area. The hole bends back towards the water, and the waves crash in the background as you pick out your target line to approach the green. The fairway sits up on a platform, and is of course framed by picturesque dunes that you must avoid at all costs. Not only is it visually ideal, it’s also a hole that just 

 different. Once you clear the dunes between the tee box and the fairway, the sound of the waves hits you, and you feel completely shut off from the rest of the world. It’s a bliss that is only offered in a few places around the world.

The 3rd green (source: http://www.theirishgolfblog.com/2016/06/a-lot-of-love-for-lahinch.html)

The 6th hole has a similar shape to the 3rd hole, but with a much more dramatic downhill approach to the green. The fairway has a run out at about 270, so you’re forced to lay back a bit off the tee. A solid 3-wood down the right side left me with a 6-iron in, and the approach into the 6th at Lahinch is one of those shots that just sticks in your mind visually. The ball seems to stay in the air forever against the backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean as you sweat out what kind of effect the wind will have on it, and it’s truly one of the coolest approaches I remember hitting in my lifetime. Ireland is just the best. I’ll fondly reminisce about the pure 6-iron, and hopefully forget the 3 putt that ensued.

Since my photos of this hole disappeared, I tracked down this tweet to try to give you an idea of the scenery:

 today, featured in our Irish Top 150 edition as a 





— Destination Golf (@Dest_golfguide) 

The 7th is another solid par four along the water, and then the 8th and 9th take you inland back towards the clubhouse. After a strong par four 10th, the fun picks back up with the stellar par three 11th. Teeing off back towards the water to a picturesque green set against the dunes, we reached for our cameras before selecting a club. A back left pin position, and a green shape that encouraged a draw was very fitting to my eye, and I stung an 8-iron back into that corner, only to miss the short birdie putt.

The 11th is a great par three, with a view not justified with this view

The medieval tower remains across the street at the Castle course serve as the perfect target for your tee shot on the par five 12th. Back into our strongest breeze of the day, it wasn’t reachable for us, but it was still a beautiful hole to the eye, both from a golf and a scenery perspective. The left side is banked by a beach that runs the entire length of the hole. If you bail out right off the tee, you’ve gotta hit your lay up shot back 

 the out of bounds stakes, and hope that you’ve judged the distance properly. A good tee shot here is rewarded, and a poor one has you really struggling to get home in three.

The par 5 12th, with a castle tower as your aiming point

The 13th is a great little driveable par four, and with the wind at our backs, easily reachable with a three wood. Here I carded my fourth and final birdie of the day, and held on for dear life trying to scrape out a respectable round. The finishing holes would most certainly have something to say about that though.

Before I moved abroad, I frequently played golf throughout the year (with the obvious exception of Chicago winter), and had my handicap at around 1.0 when I left the states in the fall of 2014. Now, I’m lucky to play four times a year in Amsterdam, and though I’ve made one previous trip to Scotland and Ireland each prior to this trip, my game is in a bit of disarray. My handicap has shot up to 4.5, and while that likely will not garner much sympathy from anyone reading this, going from somewhat regularly threatening to break par to struggling to break 80 is a tough adjustment, even with the lowered expectation that comes with not playing much golf.

At Lahinch, I played my ass off to get it to -1 through those first 13 holes. I was striking it pure, lagging some putts from well off the green, and saving a bunch of pars from mid-range. But a quick glance at the scorecard at what was in front of me (as well as the fresh memory of my choke at Waterville just 48 hours earlier) had me on high alert. Holes 14, 15, and 16 go 451, 439, and 192, and while these yardages may not seem that deep, on a links course the yardage on the card frequently does not correlate to the length at which it plays. Just a hint of wind in either direction, and it can play 40 yards longer, or 40 yards shorter. Even in a cross wind, the ball seems to not want to travel the full distance you would expect it to. We had a cross wind on 14 and 15, and even after solid drives, required 3-iron and 5-iron approaches into the green.

Then the 16th played back into the wind from 192, and my 3-iron (normal carry distance about 220) came up well short. I managed to skirt through these holes unscathed, and after a sloppy bogey on the 17th, I had the reachable par five 18th to get it back and try to break par. That wasn’t meant to be. An embarrassing eagle chip that missed the green left me scrambling from eight feet to make par. When it fell, I let out a huge sigh of relief. My dad, usually rather devoid of emotion regarding anyone’s score, patted me on the back and called it one of the best rounds he had every seen me play.

What an incredible way to cap off a magnificent day of golf, with easily my best round in the last two years, on one of the greatest golf courses I have ever set foot on. While this is probably the least interesting part of the story to you reading this, to me, it was what helped make our day out at Lahinch stand out among the other fantastic courses we played. While I sincerely love the challenge of links golf, I have never been able to score well in this style of play. While there was still a great emphasis on driving the ball straight, hitting it in the tall stuff did not mean that you automatically lost your ball. I personally love when a links course punishes you for hitting it in the stuff, but not to the point where you can’t find it.

The only notable scorecard I had from the trip

As if everything I mentioned above isn’t enough motivation to get out and play Lahinch, it’s also only about 15 minutes away from the Cliffs of Moher, one of the top tourist destinations in the world. We popped over to find people of all nationalities climbing to the edge of the cliffs to get their selfies, tour buses unloading hoards of people, and many others out there just soaking up the day. We couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that this was just a bonus on our already incredible trip, and that many of these people were probably 

 their trip around the Cliffs of Moher. Did I mention that Ireland is the best?

In case you missed it, Part I of the Western Ireland series on 

. Part V on Carne Golf Links is still to come. For more from No Laying Up, follow 

Back at it at sunrise again today at Lahinch. Easily a top 50 course in the world, and I can easily see why. Incredibly playable, beautiful pace of play, and great views, which are not done justice with this picture. 10/10

A photo posted by No Laying Up (@nolayingup) on Oct 13, 2016 at 12:03pm PDT

, and the first scorecard worth sharing. Striking views, and a spectacular layout. 10 out of 10. 

Western Ireland Golf Trip, Part IV: Lahinch

The dream trip continues, this time onto 

Links, again along the Atlantic Ocean, and again one of the top golf courses in all of Ireland. Rated by 

Golf Digest Ireland as the 7th best course

 on the island, it’s a short drive down some crazy back country roads from it’s big brother Ballybunion, setting you up perfectly for a double dip. We started our day 

 and we were off at Tralee at 2:40 PM for a day of golf that would be hard to top anywhere on the planet.

“Created by God, Designed by Arnold Palmer”

That’s the motto that graces the cover of the scorecard, and it rings true. About 30 years ago, Tralee Golf Club moved its location from a nine hole course in Tralee, to its new location alongside the ocean in West Barrow. As advertised, the course was designed by the King himself, and a statue of him sits prominently near the practice green.

My dad and I, playing as guests on one of the last tee times of the day, must have stuck out like sore thumbs on the practice green among the members. After enjoying some lunch inside with an stunning view of nearly the entire layout, we stretched back out and tried to adjust from the slow greens at Ballybunion in the morning to the speedy (especially for a links course) greens at Tralee. As we hit some putts, we were both greeted by several members, who gladly approached us with a firm handshake, and welcomed us to their club. The pride they took in their club was evident, and their openness to share this with the general public was something that we both took note of.

The entire atmosphere around this club (and other clubs I’ve experienced in Ireland) is so different from what I’m used to in the United States, where the country club experience tends to be characterized by the semblance of exclusivity. Most clubs are private, and guests are only allowed to play if they are invited by, and play with a member. While there certainly are true private clubs in Ireland, almost all of their top courses are at least somewhat open to the public. There are tee times reserved for members, competitions, etc., but if you want to play a course, you can call them up yourself, and book a tee time. And once you’re there, not only are you treated like an actual member yourself, both the staff and surrounding members seem to go out of their way to make sure you have the best experience possible. Far from home in a foreign country, it’s hard to fully explain how much value that adds to the experience, as it is something you have to encounter on your own.

The conversations with the starter before your round are also an integral part of the experience. You can typically comprehend about 80% of what is said, and you’re left to figure out the rest based on context. But it’s all helpful, cheerful, and their enthusiasm for your day out on the course feels genuine and authentic. With sunset coming in around 6:40, and a few fourballs heading out in front of us, the starter at Tralee explored the idea of sending us off the back nine first.

“The back nine is the side you need to see. I’d hate for you to not get all 18 in.”

In the U.S., this timing would have been a serious issue. But the pace of play on this side of the pond (even with almost no one in front of us using a cart) is completely different than what we are used to, and we made it around comfortably in 3 hours, 54 minutes, while hardly waiting on a shot.

The par three 3rd, with an old castle tower as an aiming point

I’ve waxed on about the Tralee Golf Club experience for about 700 words so far, and haven’t even talked about the golf course yet. As we made the turn from number nine to ten, we could see exactly what the starter was referring to. This is not to say that the front nine should be breezed over, but the stark difference between the two nines is very noteworthy and significant, and almost feels like two different golf courses.

The front nine is very open, with little to no dunes protecting the holes and your ball flight from the wind. On many occasions, I was reminded of 

. Despite the course being relatively new, the front nine has a very old school feel to it, with pre-existing rock formations (typically designed as fences, and property barriers in previous eras) intertwined with the weaving of the holes throughout the grounds. If you didn’t know that the course was built in the last thirty-ish years, you wouldn’t know it, and that is meant as a compliment.

The par three third is an absolute stunner. A short one, but treacherously placed on a far point, completely exposed to the wind. A medieval lookout tower remains behind the green, and serves as an excellent target for your short iron (depending on the wind direction). Seriously, 

you use castle towers as your target lines

You can even take a peek inside the castle tower, and walk up a small flight of stairs within it.

The medieval castle tower behind the 3rd green

On this day, we had mostly overcast skies, but the sun popped its head out from time to time. I feel like I’ve spent the majority of these posts talking about how the pictures don’t do it justice, but for Tralee it’s even more so. There wasn’t enough sunshine to give the photos the proper respect they deserve (especially on an iPhone), but I’ve included some anyway.

 to cap a perfect day of golf. Another top 10 Ireland course that exceeds the hype. Gem. 

The sunshine came in small portions on this afternoon. Another castle ruin in the background.

As you make the turn to the back nine, you feel like you’re entering a different golf course. The dunes come to life immediately on the 10th hole, a long, fantastic downhill par four. The green sits perched photogenically in between the aforementioned dunes, and it’s one of the many holes from the back nine that is etched in my memory.

The dunes make their dramatic entrance on #10

For all the benefit the downhill slope gives you on the 10th, you have to earn it right back on the 11th. Standing tall at 557 yards from the white tees, into a stiff breeze, and up a significant slope, it takes all you’ve got to get home in three shots. I consider myself a fairly long hitter, and it took me Driver/3-iron/3-iron, and I still didn’t get there.

The 12th comes back the other way, and the green sits perched on top of one of the most impressively large dunes you’ll ever see in your life. Until you reach the next hole.

The 13th is one of the coolest holes we encountered on the entire trip. Usually I’m not a fan of uphill blind shots, especially on par threes, but this is one is an exception. A forced carry in every sense of the phrase, any shot that lands short might roll down the slope of the dune another fifty yards. The slope is so steep, that realistically, you can’t even climb down it to fetch your ball.

Uphill, over a huge canyon like hole in the dunes, awesome par three 13th

Though it was only playing 140 yards, the breeze was back in our face. You can’t see the surface of the green, and you’re staring at the wall of a dune that it looks like you can’t even walk down without falling to the bottom. I took no chances, reached for the 6-iron, and absolutely pured one right over the flag. It bounced off the slope of the hill behind the green, and came back to about ten feet, where I rolled it in for the most memorable birdie of the trip.

This video from the Tralee website is worth checking out, as the photo above (taken from behind the green) doesn’t come close to capturing the size of the dune, and the intimidation factor of this shot.

The 15th is a driveable par four, but a true risk reward hole, as there is nowhere to miss if you don’t hit the green. Again surrounded by dunes, if you’re not on target, you’re in the long stuff and searching for your ball, along with your soul. Of course, there is 

, so I reached for the driver and just missed right, and was lucky to find my ball in the weeds about pin high (but was unable to convert the up and down).

Seriously, these drone footage videos are awesome, and if you’re playing Tralee, I suggest you 

The 16th is another fantastic par three in the dunes, and the 17th was where we saw the sun for the first time for the back nine. While it’s impossible for us to complain even for a second about the weather we got on this trip, we stood in awe of what we were looking back at, and wondered what it would have been like to have played all day in this striking sun. It didn’t feel like real life. It didn’t even feel like we were looking at a photo from their website. It felt like we had walked into a painting, and our scores felt completely inconsequential at this point.

The sun poked out underneath the cloud layer for sunset from the 17th green

Looking back towards the clubhouse from 17 green at sunset

Standing on that 18th tee, a beautiful par five heading back to the clubhouse, was a culminating moment for me. The dream trip was going better than we could have even imagined it, and at minimum, this was a top three day of golf for me ever (Ballybunion/Tralee ranks right up there with Pacific Dunes/Bandon Dunes, Old Course/Kingsbarns). Part of me wished that we had spent a day dedicated to Tralee alone so we could have perhaps comprehended what we were experiencing a little bit better. It was like having a delicious rib eye, and chasing it with a T-bone before you’re even hungry again. Due to our timelines and other tee times, this was unfortunately not an option, but Tralee really is that special.

 can be found here. Part V on Carne Golf Links is still to come. For more from No Laying Up, follow 

Sunset finish at @traleegolflinks caps a perfect day of golf. Blessed weather and just phenomenal courses. Blown away.

A photo posted by No Laying Up (@nolayingup) on Oct 12, 2016 at 10:49am PDT

Western Ireland Golf Trip, Part III: Tralee

Five days of glory, starting and finishing in Dublin, Ireland, with five rounds of bliss at some of the best golf courses along the western coast of Ireland. The intinerary included 

, and Carne (review coming soon). This posts summarizes the second stop on our list, which was 

, about an hours drive north from our hotel in Killarney. Ballybunion is likely the most famous of all of the courses in Ireland among Americans, and it was easy to see why from the minute the sun came up over this small town.

So much of your Ireland golf experience is dependent on the weather. This island is notorious for its damp climate, and the seaside towns are characterized by their tough Atlantic winds, and storms that chase the sunshine away, then disappear as quickly as they came. You have to prepare yourself mentally for these conditions before you make the trip over, and expect to be hit with some poor weather at some point.

We were prepared with gloves, hats, Under Armour, rain pants, and jackets. And didn’t need any of it. Honestly, part of me never wants to come back to Ireland because there is zero chance I could ever be blessed with this great of weather again, much less in October. It’s impossible to determine just how much impact that had on our experience, and the effect the different conditions we got at the different courses had on our perception of the golf courses. Did I like Ballybunion more because the sun was beating on us? I can’t fully comprehend that, and it doesn’t matter. The morning we had at Ballybunion will go down as one of the all-time experiences I’ve ever had on a golf course, bar none.

We were the first ones off, at sunrise, at one of the greatest golf courses in the world. I wasn’t sure what to expect, as Ballybunion is rated highly on every list that’s ever been assembled, yet at the same time, some golf hipsters seem to put it down 

 of its popularity. To each their own, and it’s quite possible that you like many other courses in Ireland more than this one. But one thing that I can guarantee is that it is impossible not to love it this golf course.

You can look at pictures on their website, and roll your eyes at the authenticity. How much photoshop went into this? Was this the one day of the year the sun shines in Ireland? Somehow, on this chilly (but heating up) morning, the sites we saw in person were 

 than the website. The way the shadows fell from the low sun made it look like a video game, and my dad and I were actually laughing as we walked down the fairway. It was golf nirvana.

The first comparison that came to mind to both my dad and I, was that it reminded us both a lot of Pacific Dunes. The views of the sea are frequent, and the shape of the dunes give the player an ideal image of what a links golf course should look and play like. It was like walking into a postcard and getting to play it, and we had not a soul in front of us, and rather calm winds. I couldn’t stop taking pictures, and I’m not going to apologize for the volume of photos in this post.

Views like this are the norm (12th green)

We are learning now that this is common for the top links courses out here, but at first we were really impressed by the grass walkways from the tees to the fairways, and in between the holes. The grass was better manicured than a lot of fairways I grew up playing on, and it gives you the sense that no detail was passed over in the design or in the maintenance of this beauty. They even had grass over top the bridges! This may seem rather minor, but when you’re walking 18 to 36 holes a day on tough links tracks, in and over dunes, heather, undulations, etc., it can be very fatiguing on your feet. This was a nice touch.

That’s fairway pure grass over top a bridge, just for walking

Seriously, I’m just throwing a ton of pictures into this post

You’re eased in with a rather short par four, down the hill, but rudely brought back to Earth at the second. The starter told us that a six was a decent score on this par four, and that whatever club you think you should hit to the uphill green, take at least one if not two more. You can’t see the putting surface, and if you miss short, it may roll 60 yards back down the hill. I smashed a 9-iron from 127 up to the top level, then rolled in a birdie. It took a lot for me not to run back to the first tee to tell P.J. about stealing a birdie on the hole he warned us about the most.

Looking back down the second fairway from the green. This is way more uphill than it looks.

After a long, brutal par three 3rd, the 4th and 5th get a bit quirky. You actually tee off on the 4th from directly behind the 3rd green, and the same for the next tee. This was no issue for us, as we had no one that close behind us, but it would be interesting to see how this plays as the day goes on with a full tee sheet. They are both very gettable par fives, and you need to get your birdies in now, because its about to get a lot tougher.

The view from the 4th tee, from which you carry it directly over the 3rd green

The view from the 5th tee, lined up directly over the 4th green

The 6th is a dogleg left that brings you down to your first ocean hole. The par four 7th is truly one of the most epic theaters of a golf hole I’ve ever seen. My first instinct when I laid eyes on it, was that it reminded me of the 

, another one that has been etched in my memory (I really should do a Bandon post shouldn’t I). The Atlantic Ocean runs the entire length of the hole, and on this day, the breeze was blowing straight out towards it. It felt like I was aimed almost directly inland to keep my ball in the fairway, and I still had to sweat it out.

The 11th hole was equally as fantastic from a visual perspective, although I did not care for the playability of the hole nearly as much (apparently I was so terrified of it that I forgot to take pictures). It’s also framed to the right by the ocean, and plays downhill to a several tiered, narrow fairway, lined with thick heathered dunes all the way to the green. The fairway runs out, so you’re a bit forced to lay back off the tee, and I had to try to go 3-iron/3-iron back into the breeze, hit my approach slightly offline to the right, and never found the ball. Double bogey.

The 14th and 15th are back-to-back par threes (similar to 10 and 11 at Pacific Dunes), with 15 being one of the signature holes (it’s impossible to differentiate the signature hole between 7, 11, 15, and 17…. and someone else that has played it might also name a hole I’m not even thinking of).

The majestic 15th hole, par 3 210 yards with a 7 iron on 15.... short img_7184 

The tee shot on 17 is another breathtaker. This time, you’re elevated, and teeing off right towards the ocean, as the hole wraps around to the left along the water. Get your cameras out if you have any battery or memory left, and then let one fly off this platform that points you right at the water.

It’s impossible to pick a favorite hole from these holes that I’ve pictured here, but it really doesn’t matter.

Looking back over the 17th from the 18th tee

You say goodbye to the ocean, and head up the hill for the tough 18, kicking and screaming that the day is over.

17th green to the left, 18th hole up towards the clubhouse

If you can’t tell by now, I was blown away by the Ballybunion experience. The amazing sunshine, especially considering this was played in October, certainly contributed to that. But the views are some of the best I’ve ever seen on a golf course, and the layout was spectacular. A golf trip to western Ireland absolutely needs to include this course, and it is one of the three courses played on this trip that I can’t decide whether or not it was my favorite (Waterville and Lahinch being the other two, but more on this later, and why that doesn’t matter). My dad, a mid-handicapper, convincingly listed it as his.

Cheers to an epic day of golf, that was just about to get better….

, can be found here. Part V on Carne Golf Links is still to come. For more from No Laying Up, follow 

Sunrise round at Ballybunion. I thought the pictures on the website were unrealistic, but in person it's somehow even prettier. It helped that we had perfect sunshine. Fantastic golf course.

A photo posted by No Laying Up (@nolayingup) on Oct 12, 2016 at 5:32am PDT

Ireland

Writing

Royal Portrush

Royal County Down

Western Ireland Golf Trip, Part V: Carne

Western Ireland Golf Trip, Part IV: Lahinch

Western Ireland Golf Trip, Part III: Tralee

Western Ireland Golf Trip, Part II: Ballybunion

Dublin, Ireland Golf Trip, Part III: Portmarnock Golf Club

Dublin, Ireland Golf Trip, Part II: The K-Club

Dublin, Ireland Golf Trip, Part I: The Island Golf Club

Videos

Episode 10: Enniscrone Golf Club

Episode 9: County Sligo Golf Club

Episode 8: Carne Golf Links

Episode 7: Tralee Golf Club

Episode 6: Waterville Golf Links

Episode 5: Dooks Golf Club

Episode 4: Ballybunion Golf Club

Episode 3: Adare Manor

Episode 2: Lahinch Golf Club