Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2010 - 16

Hayes, 57 and a member at Golden Valley
G&CC, needn't have worried. Not only
did the golfers get along but the trip, the
camaraderie and the golf all exceeded his
expectations.
For most midwesterners, American
golf is a distant cousin of Irish links golf.
Links golf plays over the sandy turf and
open ground situated by the sea. The more
compelling links courses benefi t from the
presence of large sand dunes, sometimes
towering hills covered in a thick mat of
fescue grasses, with the occasional splotch
of gorse. Links golf is synonymous with
wind and rain. " Layer up and be prepared
for cold, wet and miserable, or sunny and
hot, " warns Brian Berger, a 14 handicap
from Minnetonka.
Berger, who recently retired as a vice
president with the International Division
of General Mills, grew up in Manchester,
England. But he didn't pursue golf until
moving to the States. " I never imagined
how different links golf could be, " he says.
" The American version of rough is nothing
like the Irish kind-three-foot fescue! "
Traveling by private coach and ferry,
our group was together for eight days,
eight rounds of golf and eight nights in the
pubs and hotels of Macroom, Old Head
(Kinsale), Killarney and Doonbeg. On the
agenda: Old Head, Tralee, Waterville, Ballybunion,
Doonbeg and Lahinch, and with
some luck, the famous Irish " craic " (see
sidebar, next page.) Some maintain the
craic, pronounced crack, is part myth, part
tourism marketing-but these travelers
can attest that it is undeniably real.
OLD HEAD
Old Head may not be a links course, but it
still takes your breath away, says Brad Severson,
a 6 handicap from Blaine. The Old
Head GC, one of southwest Ireland's more
popular tourist destinations, is a private
international men's club located 20 minutes
from Kinsale; it's open to guests staying
in one of its fi ve-star suites. The Old
Head is a diamond-shaped rock formation
that juts two miles out into the Atlantic.
The golf course is routed above cliffs rising
at least 300 feet from sea level.
" Part of the thrill of Old Head is
playing so close to life-threatening hazards, "
Severson jokes. " I was shaking like a
Ford fender. "
Golfers are warned that it is " positively
dangerous " to make any attempt to retrieve
wayward golf balls from the holes
that feature cliffs marked as lateral water
hazards. The 15th hole, a shortish, downhill
par 4, 224-342 yards, is named " Haulie's
Leap " after one of the course shapers
who nearly lost his life when he jumped
from a construction vehicle that hurtled
over the cliff's edge.
At least nine jaw-dropping holes play
along the cliffs, and nearly every tee affords
spectacular views of the course and
panoramas of the ruggedly scenic Irish
coast. If you were on Old Head on May
7, 1915, you would have seen the British
ocean liner Lusitania explode, sunk by a
German U-boat, which helped push the
United States into World War I.
Old Head's real stunners are holes 4 and
12. The former, named " The Razor's Edge, "
is a sweeping dogleg par 4, 357-427 yards,
that follows the contour of a rocky cliff with
the green cut at its absolute edge. The approach
zone, from 100 to 200 yards, slopes
up toward the deep, narrow green.The latter
hole, " Courcean Stage, " a par 5, 403-564
yards, features three hair-raising shots. It's
a solid 200-yard carry over the waters of
Hole Open Bay West, which crash against
the rocks below, to reach the safety of the
fairway marked by a stone pillar (214 and
226 yards from the white and blue tees, re»
Ashes
in
the Air
Mount Eyjafjallajokull belched and a fi ne silica ash
plume erupted from Iceland's reawakened volcano.
The ash cloud blossomed 12,000 feet up in the air, over
miles and miles of the North Atlantic, the United Kingdom
and much of Europe, grounding 100,000 fl ights and costing
the airlines $200 million per day. Travelers were stranded.
Actor and comedian John Cleese took a very expensive cab
ride from Oslo, Norway, to Brussels, Belgium, according to
Wikipedia.org. Fortunately for our intrepid group of 20 golfers,
we found a lucky 10-day window of clear weather
from New York's JFK to Ireland's Shannon airport,
and enjoyed eight days of exceptional Irish
spring weather.
Eduard Michel, Brian Berger and Tim Hayes take in the
thrilling views of County Clare at Doonbeg's fi rst tee.
14
MINNESOTAGOLFER Fall 2010
www.mngolf.org
PHOTO BY W.P. RYAN
http://www.Wikipedia.org http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2010

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