Monday, Jul 28th
– Old Head - Day 2
It is rare to get to play Old Head in fair weather. It is
even more rare for this to happen on consecutive days. Yes, we had the exact
same weather for Day #2 at Old Head as well as the exact same caddies.
Did I mention that we were having an Irish Open Championship
for the 5 Ireland courses? Royal – don’t forget the Royal – Portrush, County
Down (I am tired of typing Royal), Old Head, Tralee, and Ballybunion. The deal
was that we would take the best score from our two days at Old Head – kind of
like a mulligan off the first tee where you get to choose you best drive.
Once again it was a remarkable day, and playing the course
with the knowledge of the holes made it even better. 75% of us improved our scores
from the previous day. Guess who didn't !!
Jack pulled his tee shot a bit on the par 3 #7 and had a delicate chip from the hillside down to the green, the far side of which fell 300 feet into the Irish Sea. He held it on the green !!!
Jack barely stays on the island and has a 70 foot uphill shot to the green. He managed to get the ball up the hill and onto the very back edge of the green - only 10 feet away from another cliff.
On the back nine, Chan had 8 pars and one double bogey
that came on a topped tee shot that went 10 yards and was lost forever in the
rough. He went 42 / 38.
Final scores: Chan 80; Paul 85; Steve 86; Jack “other”.
When we got to the veranda, the waiter confessed to seeing
us come off the 18th green below. Based on our body language, he had
drinks waiting for us at ‘our’ table. He read the body language correctly AND remembered our drinks correctly, but
noted to us that he gave Jack “the member’s pour” on the Kettel One. We had
dinner on the veranda, once again overlooking a spectacular scene.
Now begins the real adventure as we had to drive about 90
minutes after dinner at Old Head to Tralee and the Brooke Manor B&B.
I must say that Marty has an undying trust in Ms. Garmin. He
types in an address and follows that seductive female voice wherever it takes
him. It’s like she has a spell over him. It is hard to describe how far off the
beaten path we got as we went down ever-smaller roads through seemingly less
and less civilization. To say we took the road less travelled is an
understatement in its most extreme definition. We sat on pins and needles as
Marty courageously navigated winding, bumpy roads while also avoiding locals who
apparently have a death wish as they walk along the roadside (wait … maybe we
were actually on a sidewalk that was masquerading as a road and that’s why they
gave us odd look as they buried themselves in the bush and we crept by at 4
mph). Just when we thought we had pinched and squeezed our way down some of
these ridiculously narrow cow paths, that lyrical, sweet voice of Ms. Garmin
said, “Turn left and proceed down Norcress Road.” When we got to the
intersection where we had to turn left, Marty inched the van forward and he and
I looked down the road (keep in mind that I am in the passenger seat on the
LEFT side of the car and Marty is driving on the RIGHT – so I got a better look
down the road than he). It was narrower still with all sorts of branches and
bushes and limbs hanging into the roadway !! I was nervous. Marty inched
forward, but what do you do ?!?!?! Ms.
Garmin has led us this far, we have no idea where we are other than we are on
the island of Ireland, and we got no place to go but retrace our steps. I was
thinking, “What if it gets worse? What if this is someone’s driveway? What if
we are never heard from again?”
Marty inched forward, made the left hand turn and proceeded
down the road cautiously. Then Ms. Garmin says, “Go 7.9 miles to …” I couldn’t
get past the 7.9 miles. I was thinking it but Paul could not help blurting it
out “Oh my God!!” We were going down what was supposed to be 2-lane roads and
the bushes and trees along both sides of the road were scraping our van. The
center line was going under the car right between Marty and I. It had to be a
bike path – like the Monon trail – but it was not nearly that wide or smooth.
Our tires were never on the “road” as Marty steadily straddled the narrow
pavement. The first street sign we came to was a speed limit sign that read 80
kilometers per hour (that’s 50 miles perhour !!!!!). “Are you kidding,” I
shouted. Once again, there was a couple walking down this “road” and they about
freaked out when they saw our van coming. I am sure they never saw any vehicle
on this road let alone a large van like ours. They got so far into the bushes
we lost sight of them as we past. I suspect they went right home and put their
underwear in wash.
Now this was all happening while our windshield was full of
bugs and dirt. Marty had tried to clean it but the wipers were not very good so
we got the smear effect across the whole windshield. So, we are driving west,
directly into the glaring sun and in and out of trees so that the contrast
between light and dark is constantly creating a strobe-like effect. My pupils
were dilating and closing until my eyes hurt. I do not know how Marty kept us
on the road and in one piece.
It gets worse. I thought we had travelled the least
travelled road - I mean path - in all of Ireland when we got to a point where
we were off the Garmin grid. Literally !!! The little image of our car was in
the middle of gray space on the Garmin screen with no roads around in the
image. I am thinking – did we just pass into a parallel universe? We stayed the
course on the paths that looked like they were heading west towards Tralee and
about 5 minutes later the Garmin image showed us back on paths that were in
their system.
By the time we got to decent roads near Tralee, Jack had
passed out, Paul had sweat through his t-shirt and his top shirt; Chan’s eyes
were sealed shut and I had left his fingerprints embedded in the dashboard and
door handle. Marty just smiled and enjoyed the ride through the Irish
country-side.
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