The Links Thread

Yeah. After hearing about that Farce i'd resigned myself to having to pay a fortune or never getting up.

It was meant to go live at 9. Said it was cancelled until about 9:20 but got in then.

The chipping green in RCD is worth going up 2 hours early for.

Sick I can't make it this year. What a course

Is that in between the car park and the clubhouse, or is there another one?

Just in front of first tee

Why do we love links golf? Well it's something like this : (from article in Irish Golfer)

Dutchman Severiano Prins who, despite marginally missing out on the top 16 in The West :

“My home course is a parkland course and we rarely ever play links golf,” he explained, “and if we do, the conditions are a lot milder and a lot more pleasant than they are here. I really like it though, because you really have to be creative, it’s extremely enjoyable even though I’m now soaked to the skin.

“I’ve played the Irish Amateur a couple of times, I’ve played Old Head and played once in the South, but I’ve never been to the West before, but it’s always tougher conditions than are forecast, it’s always tougher than you think, it’s always colder than you think, the ball never goes as far as you think, the golf courses always play longer than you think, but I love it, I really do.

“I love the challenge, the tougher it is, the more you concentrate and the flipside is that your weaknesses really tend to show through and I really like that because you can get away with things on other courses that you can’t here. I love the course because of its toughness but I’d love to play it with no wind to see how tough it really is.

“I’d really love to make it into the top 16, but I think it looks like I might be a shot shy, and I’ll definitely try to come back in the future if I’m not in the field for tomorrow"

Think it was equivalent to whites or something. 6900/7000 yards ish. Long enough but you get a bit of run at least

Just after playing in the Social Media Open over the past 4 days. Superbly ran event which is highly recommend.

Played Ballybunion Old/Cashen, Dooks and Tralee.

Tralee was definitely the show stopper for me. Incredible course and I actually think I preferred the flatter front 9. Back 9 is superb of course too.

Dooks and Cashen were enjoyable tracks which you can score round. Expectations for these two weren’t too high so enjoyed both days.

Ballybunion has a massive reputation and for me it seriously under dellivered. Apart from the 7th the front 9 is a non event. Things improve on the back 9 but nowhere to the extent that it could be considered the best course on the island. I’m not sure I’d even have it in my top 10. Maybe because my expectations were so high for it maybe played a part but I was completely underwhelmed.

Excellent.

Playing Tuesday at half 10ish. Anyone been in for breakfast pre round and dinner post round? Is it decent? Might aswell make the most of it.

You are also playing in the Mourne open week. The right thing to do would be to got to there club house and support them as a way of saying thank you for the bargain priced rounded of golf.

As mentioned above the clubhouse in RCD is a bit of the Blazer type with a separate Bar/Dinning area for visitors. By all means stick the head in for a look. Mourne club house is smaller but very much of the friendly locals vibe

I don't think it's fully gone yet. In Dublin it's gone. And near Dublin. And in Kerry and Clare. And in NI. But I don't think Sligo / Donegal are fully gone yet. They don't have the same tourism infrastructure that Kerry has, so I'd say the tours will still bring people to Dublin and Kerry primarily. And if they're not full of yanks all summer, they'll see what they can get from the locals. If they can get 300e for an Irish fourball they'll sell a few lines at that rate.

In fairness to those clubs out of reach for Irish golfers now, if you were a member would you want them to do GUI rates? I wouldn't. If the club doesn't need the money, I wouldn't want the timesheet full and me not able to get out last minute because they sold the line for an affordable amount.

For the open week at Royal Co. Down next week, does anyone know if you’re obliged to take a caddie/fore-caddie?

I see there’s a general comment on the Royal Co. Down website that a fore-caddie is a “minimum requirement per group”? It probably wouldn’t be any harm, I’m just trying to figure out if I need to pick up any Sterling beforehand!

Don't need a caddy for open week. Plenty of blind shots though!