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I’ve spent
the past week in Ireland, golfing with some buddies of mine from Maryland,
Virginia, Connecticut, and New York. The
trip was arranged by Wino Bill, a member of my club.
Four years ago, Bill organized a similar trip to Ireland and many of the
same people participated. I was not
a member of that trip four years ago. In
fact, I would not have been a member of this trip except that it was originally
scheduled for September 12, 2001 and had to be rescheduled for May of 2002. Two of the original group couldn’t make the new date and
Bill called me (actually, he called my wife, Sharon, and she suggested that I
go). (Editor's note: Sharon gets my nod for
Wife-of-the-Year) Bill did a
great job of communicating with the group.
We knew in advance which golf courses we were playing, where we were
staying on which days, the telephone numbers of the hotels, etc.
We knew that we should bring plenty of golf balls because they’re
expensive in Ireland (I don’t know why unless there’s a special tax on
them). By the time we left, we even
had our pairings sheets for our golf foursomes.
Bill’s contact in Ireland, Patrick Prendergast, was the man who made
all of our arrangements. Patrick
secured the tee times at all of our golf courses, coordinated the trip outline
with dates that local hotels were available, and drove our bus, delivering us to
all of our destinations on time. There
are other golf tours of Ireland available, but if you’re looking for a special
trip with personalized attention, contact Patrick at patp@eircom.net
or 353-64-34988. Most flights
from the United States land either in Shannon or Dublin.
Because we had some members of our group who arranged business in Europe,
Bill decided to begin the trip in Dublin. The
beautiful countryside of Ireland stays beautiful in part because there aren’t
many interstate quality roads. Driving
to many of our golf courses was slow compared to traveling at home or on the
Autobahn. Nonetheless, it was
interesting to see the countryside and the many small towns along the way.
Western Ireland isn’t as populated as the Eastern portion of the country and
it appears much more rural. Western
Ireland is (as I understand it) the area of the country where many residents in
the late 1800’s left in droves for the United States (potato famine, jobs,
etc.). Bill decided to
minimize the number of times we had to change hotels (three hotels total in 10
days) by driving to several courses from a hub in a certain geographical area.
While this meant that we cut down on our “tourist time” because we
were driving longer distances, it also meant that we didn’t have to pack our
clothes every morning because we were headed to a new hotel that night.
Patrick made sure that we had a bus with storage capable of storing our
golf clubs at night so we didn’t have to bring them in our rooms.
All of our hotels were full service with restaurants in case we wanted to
have dinner there (we didn’t). We didn’t
make any dinner reservations in advance, mainly for the reason that we weren’t
sure what the group would want to do each night.
Generally, Patrick knew the names of excellent restaurants where we could
dine and if he didn’t, the concierge at the hotel did.
From a wine perspective, the more rural the area, the less variety we saw
on the restaurant’s wine list (a fact not unlike the U.S.). Many of the less expensive wines in Ireland come from South
Africa and Australia. There were
more French and Spanish selections on the better wine lists.
American wines were few and far between in the rural areas (I saw a Gallo
selection and a Sutter Home white zinfandel at one location).
One location surprised me by having Opus One 1992 (for £385 which is
approximately $550). Most of our
group enjoyed red wines and we usually ordered one selection for the entire
group. Our selections were mainly from Australia and Spain, although
we did get a French Cote du Rhone one night.
We didn’t have a wine steward at any of the restaurants we visited
although I didn’t miss not having one, either.
We found that you can readily obtain Cuban cigars anywhere in Ireland. Ireland is a
big beer country. I was told that there’s a pub in Ireland for every 290
citizens (there are 4 million citizens). Guinness
is the big local brewery and has longevity having been founded in 1759.
Most of the bartenders can draw a perfect draft of Guinness and make a
shamrock in the head. Many in our
group preferred Harp and Smithwick’s to Guinness. Our trip
crossed the borders between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
I was told that four years ago, there were military checkpoints between
the two countries. They have
been taken down as a result of the ceasefire between the warring factions. Royal
Portrush and Royal County Down are located in Northern Ireland.
And, just from the names of those two courses, you should be able to tell
that Northern Ireland is the Ireland that is still affiliated with the U.K.
We were advised to keep our political and religious opinions to
ourselves, and we did. The golf
courses are harder in Ireland than the U.S. (at least the ones we played are).
The wind never dies down (it’s not as bad some times).
We encountered rain on most of the days we played (although I saw in the
paper that May has been twice as wet this year as it normally is).
With the wind, extremely deep rough, and narrow fairways, you have to
play the game of golf with more thought than "grip it and rip it."
Many of the courses we played had caddies available and their services
were particularly valuable to first time players to that course.
Some of the courses we played, the caddies were also members of the
course. Membership in golf clubs
doesn’t cost the many thousands that U.S. clubs require as initiation. Annual membership rarely runs in the thousands either.
Golf is more decidedly democratic here than at home.
That said, I am sure that many in the larger cities of Dublin and Belfast
never play golf. It’s a five
and a half to six hour flight to Ireland from most East Coast U.S. cities.
The airfares are reasonable if you book your flight far enough in advance
(my trip was $600 round trip). The
people are very friendly and polite. They
speak English (although you may not understand them at times).
The only difficulty I had was figuring out which coins were British (the
pound is the standard in Northern Ireland) and which were Euros.
If that’s your biggest issue, you know you had a great trip.
Thanks, Bill. Thanks,
Patrick. Thanks, Sharon, for
letting me go. And thanks, to a
great group of guys who can play some golf (and maybe drink some wine and beer). Wino Wally
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