Connemara Golf Club, Ballyconneely

Connemara Golf Club was holding an open singles competition today and graciously allowed us to participate with local players. Weather cooperated other than the omnipresent 25-30 mph wind. Links golf is postgraduate golf -- very difficult to learn and play under the finest conditions. High winds make it doubly so. For example, on #8, a 449 yard par four against the wind. Chuck, no short hitter, hit a good drive and a decent three-wood, leaving him with approximately 120 yards to the green. He then hit a six-iron onto the front portion of the green, still a club short. Contrast Chuck's experience with Bino's downwind drive on #2 of 320 yards, leaving him a gap wedge 80-yard shot to a foot. (First birdie of the trip!) The wind is a constant factor and can disturb any usually routine shot. Couple that with hard, fast greens and you have the essence of links golf. That being said, there was some very competent golf played today, particularly by Bino who registered a very respectable 30 points in the Stableford competition. Chuck, with 24 Stableford points, reached the #7 par five (525 yards) with two prodigious shots and easily two-putted for birdie. Mike was steady on the back side with 16 Stableford points (26 overall) but remains birdieless, apparently a source of amusement to his fellow travelers. We are slowly acclimating our games to the links setting and getting the feel of these slick greens. Sand play by all players has been excellent. Tomorrow we return to Connemara for team competition. Can't wait. This is awesome golf.

The Only Thatch-Roofed Clubhouse in Ireland

Connemara Isles is a throwback. Motor vehicles must traverse an extremely narrow driveway to enter the course, recently rated #64 in Ireland. The thatched-roof clubhouse is undoubtedly unique and is managed by a gregarious and quite loquacious fellow who is the grandson of the builder. He corralled Chuck and regaled him with several stories, in English AND in Gaelic, about his family and the history of the golf club. His great-grandfather was one of 13 survivors of the St. John Brig disaster off the coast of Massachusetts in 1849, recently commemorated in 1999 in Cohasset with a monument. Chuck was lucky to survive the conversation. Word of the day: Lynch, the name of the ebullient, effusive, talkative owner of Connemara Isles -- a living testament to Irish sociability. The course itself wends itself around a bog with scenic views over coastal bogs. The quirky design had us yearning for local knowledge as Bino particularly was victimized by overclubbing some holes. We finished the round quickly in order to make our tee time at Connemara and begin our quest for Stableford competence in competition.

Onto Connemara...

Sad to leave the warm and friendly confines of the Vaughan Lodge in Lahinch. But we rose early for an early tee time at Connemara Isles, a nine-hole course in the bogs outside Galway. Some enthusiastic reviews had us intrigued about playing there.

Wagon -- this one's for you. The first guinness is always the best. You chase the taste the rest of the trip.

We decided to post a "word of the day". This word hopefully captures the spirit and the moment of the day -- used by someone during the course of the day -- and injecting some Irish "craic" into the trip and our blog.

Today's word: smarm -- uttered by our good-humored Dan Dooley employee who responded to our early-morning supercilious compliments by upgrading our vehicle to an automatic-transmission van. "Smarm gets you a better car," she said, thanks to the gracious Bino.

We are staying at the Vaughan lodge, a fabulous 4-star guesthouse very close to the Lahinch course. Michael Vaughan is a friendly and gracious host. Excellent food and hospitality.

Here we are at Lahinch -- where ol' Tom Morris designed two of the most famous holes in golf: The Klondyke and The Dell. The Klondyke is a short par five with hill in the middle of the fairway. The Dell is a bowl. These are two designs which are not part of the modern designer's repertoire. Tom Morris had timeless vision.

We arrived in our Dan Dooley diesel van in pouring rain. The clouds departed and we were greeted with serious wind gusts: 25-30 mph.

We are here to play golf, not merely to survive a round. That being said, it was a tremendous round of links golf -- testing every club in the bag in various weather conditions. The sun shone; the rain pelted. The wind died down; the wind blew. Great stuff. It was a challenging test -- and our scores reflected the challenge. We will soon be competing in a Stableford tourney in which pars are rewarded with two points, bogeys with one point, and birdies with three points. In our intiial journey on Irish soil, we decided to calculate our Stableford scores. The tally: Jim - 28 points; Chuck and Mike 23 points each. A very good Stableford score is 36 points. We have room for improvement. If only the weather will cooperate, we should be able to improve.

Today's glorious round was enhanced by the addition of Londoner Dave, who joined us on The Dell (#5). Dave is a headhunter in the currency trade field and was attending a wedding in nearby Limerick. Terrific guy and welcome addition to our sometimes beleaguered trio who struggled at times to produce shots into the gusty winds. There were definite highlights, to wit, Bino's par of #1 handicap hole into the teeth of the wind; pars by both Bino and Mike on both Klondyke & Dell; and Chuck's par on the difficult #17.

Arrival @ Shannon

Captain Considine is the lead driver as we arrive at Shannon Airport 5:30 AM Friday the 4th. "Keep Left Lad or the trip will be over quickly" We are off to the Vaughan Lodge, Lahinch for some breakfast and rest. Tee time at the Old Tom Morris track (Lahinch) at 2:00 PM. Rain & Wind at 14 mph is predicted.

Welcome to an old-fashioned golf journal/travel log. We are three old high school friends who are passionate about golf, Ireland, and friendly competition. We are fortunate to be able to play (and that our spouses allow it) in the four-day amateur tournament known as the Carlsberg West Coast Challenge. This is CWCC's 23rd year. The tournament is being held at four outstanding links courses: Strandhill, Enniscrone, Bundoran, and Donegal (Murvagh). We warm up at Lahinch, a championship test, and then proceed to Connemara Isles and Connemara Golf Club for a weekend of daily open competitions. Entering any links competition in Ireland with the opportunity to compete against experienced local golfers is what makes the prospect of this trip so keenly appealing. The weather forecast is fairly decent. More later as we try to get our games and legs in shape for the trip.