The Kiddie Corp

Friday, Jul 25^th – Royal County Down (#6 in the world ranking)

 

The drive from Bushmills to Newcastle (home of Royal Country Down) took us across numerous ‘country roads’ again. We all give credit to Marty for driving a large, stick-shift van and keeping us (just barely) safe as approaching cars AND trucks AND farm equipment come at us. Marty successfully avoided any collisions even when it appeared that such collisions were unavoidable although the side of our van will need repainting as the trees and shrubs that line every road stripped our van down to the bare metal by the end of the trip. The van’s secondary use was as a hedge trimmer along the road.

 

We arrived at the much anticipated Royal County Down (don’t forget the Royal) as it was one of the links favorites of those who went on the last Ireland trip. And it was great – another hot, sunny day.

The only problem was that we got stuck with the kiddie corps for caddies. Chan’s caddie claimed to be 17 but didn’t look a day over 12; Paul’s caddie never played golf; Jack’s caddie had a punk rock haircut and a large earring. Thank God, I’s caddie, Philip, who was only 15, was the junior club champion and had some clue as to how to play the course as well as golf etiquette. The caddies can really make the whole experience of golfing a new course very enjoyable – they tell stories, give club history, provide humor (both off and on color) and know the course really well (distances, breaks on the green etc.). These kids, except for Philip, were pretty much clueless. When Paul asked his caddie for his putter to go to the putting green, he got an odd look and was handed his driver!!

 

Again, it was quite surprising that one of the top courses in the world does not have a driving range and you could only hit into nets off the same two-bit mats. Note: Paul didn’t lose any balls. They assured us that they were building a state-of-the-art driving facility and it would be completed by 2020 !!

 

Also, they have had an ongoing drought for the last 3 years in that area, and the course was very dry and hard. There are always very tight lies (short grass for those who do not play golf) on a links course, but there were a fair number of spots where we were playing on brown, dormant grass and even some downright burned out spots of hardpan. There are still many great holes and blind shots and bunkers, and the rough was not as severe – though still plenty difficult.

 

To give an idea of how much run you could get on a shot, especially a well hit driver, I hit a driver  and 9-iron into the 525 yard par 5 12^th. The drive was struck very well and hit just on the right part of the fairway and had to roll 150 yards.


On the next hole, I hit another very hard bullet drive followed by a pitching wedge into the 437 yard par 4 13^th. He birdied the par 5 and had a 360 degree lip out on the par 4.



Nonetheless he birdied 3 holes on the course with 3 additional lip-out birdies on the back nine. He was ridiculously close to birdying 6 of the 18 holes on a very difficult course. The others watched in amazement as I took the course apart. OK, really, Chan had  2 good holes and Jack and Paul each managed one par.

OK, one more Steve story … it involves the most amazing lie ever in golf. After the caddie and I thought I hit into a green side pot bunker that was also surrounded by deep grass/rough, we didn’t see the ball in the bunker. WE looked around in the rough only to find the ball suspended over the deep edge of the rough, nestled into the long grass that was overhanging the rough. For all you golf rules aficionados, if the ball is RESTING in the grass but the grass is SWAYING in the breeze, are you allowed to hit the ball since it is moving? I had to reach out with my lob wedge (there was no stance possible whatsoever) over the edge of the bunker and with one hand pluck the ball out of the grass down to the green.

 It does not show in the photo but hte bunker is 4 feet deep and the grass where my ball is nesteld is actually hanging over the edge of the bunker. 

Final scores: Steve 83; Chan 88; Paul 90; Jack 93.

When we left Royal County Down, we really hit back-roads, but to call them back-roads is an exaggeration. To call them byways is an insult to the byways. We finally got to some highways and had some smooth sailing for the remaining 1-hour drive into Dublin, where we simply checked into our hotel and had dinner there.