recently got bad.
wanted to post a few highlights from an american point of view.
- first off, the kindness and lack of pretension from the irish people blew me away.
- in terms of golf, played 2 parkland courses -- Newlands and Hermitage; Hermitage was rather interesting with some great hill of hilly terrains
a few comments from a yank
- Notice 3 big difference between Irish parkland courses and US ones
1) amount of golf staff around; very minimal staffing very similar to a small 9-hole muni next to my house
2) green speed and rough length. from a scoring perspective the biggest difference, at least 2-3 feet slower than the green at a comparable clourse. The rough was not that thick and not a penalty at all; From what I could tell these course really call for more of a bomb and gauge style
3) A few maintaince things -- fairways not cut consistantly, the rough that was there wasn't that well maintained , tee boxes a bit raggard. didnt really impact playability, but it could get a super fired in the US
-had a newly found friend drive me to see Portaramock, Malahide and Corballis. At Corballis, one of the pros introduces himself and actually walked the course with us and showed us the best holes and how to play them
- biggest thing is i cant wait to go back. thinking of cashing in some frequency flier miles, renting a car for a few days and just drive around and play in east ireland