WHAT’S THE RUSH

We are up early this morning, but not for golf…….tee time today is 1:30 at Royal Portrush…….woo hoooo……..but about a 2 hour drive back east from Rosapenna, and we want to take in the Giants Causeway, and as much of Bushmills as we can squeeze in. First things first……..tie on the morning feedbag once again…….I have settled into a modified FULL IRISH BREAKFAST at the hotel……..omlette, sausages, black pudding, all smothered in brown sauce (HP), brown toast, a vat of coffee, and two of these little raisin dotted pastries……..good ballast for the day. Into the Jogger and F1 training begins again……..the first half hour or so from the hotel is on fairly skinny, curvy, roads…….lots of fun for me……not so much for J&S…….Jutta sits pretty close to the side of the road and I’m sure she feels like we are going over the edge a lot of the time. The roads open up and we blast our way towards Giants Causeway, a short distance past Portrush.

Having seen many such attractions in various parts of the world, we know that this will not be an intimate experience…….the tour busses are already arriving, and we are sure this will turn out to be the Niagara Falls of Northern Ireland. Actually not that bad, but plenty of bodies making their way down the paths. We decide to take the clifftop route on the red trail, and then descend down the steep Shepherds Steps to the trail below………for Vertigo Joe (ME!) the stairs are a little challenge, but a good handrail makes it a snap to get down. The mountain goats are of course miles ahead, and at the bottom they decide to put in some extra miles hiking to the elevated cliff lookout point in the distance…….heading the other way to the causeway is more my cup of tea, and in the end I know they will catch me back up anyway. This turns out to be a fairly easy to moderate hike, with some very interesting things along the way, and well worth the visit.

Bushmills is a stones throw down the road, and although we won’t have time to visit the distillery (heard this is a great tour) we do stop in at the Bushmills Inn……..yeah, big surprise, first Guinness of the day, and a bowl of delicious seafood chowder for lunch, then we are off to Portrush.

This is a busy, well oiled, golf operation…….busloads of golfers arriving, all being handled and set up for their rounds. The pro shop is jammed with British Open gear………Royal Portrush will host in 2025. Not that I need another hat, but there was one I was thinking about until I did the conversion to CAD……yeah, I’ve never paid $85 for a hat before and won’t be starting now. This did not seem to be a concern for many in the shop……..British open gear was flowing out the door by the bagful……everything you could possibly get the logo on was available for sale……totally grossed out……didn’t even buy a ball marker. We head over to the caddy shack next to the first tee……meet up with our forecaddy for the day “Rory”, who has ears soooo big he makes King Charles look like a mongoose. And we are off.

What better way to start a golf course…….call the first hole “Hughie”. Missed the birdie putt, but easy tap in par. This course becomes very difficult in a hurry. I am playing off over 6,700yds, and the ladies are having another 6,000yd day. All the ground around the greens is shaved down……puttable, but the problem is if you don’t hit and hold the green, or land in the right spot, your ball is gone. Beautiful golf holes with varied terrain that will punish you severely if you miss fairways……I tried a couple of hero shots before realizing that just getting back to the fairway would be a much better choice. The R&A had Portrush create some new holes for the 2019 Open, replacing others they felt were substandard…….apparently making it a better championship venue. The weather turned chilly even though the temperature was steady…….wind chill……and when play slowed down on the back nine, as Jutta said……”It sure takes the shine off the course”. We had to wait on most holes after 12, and when we arrived at the 15th tee, there was already a group waiting, then on 16, Calamity Corner, the diabolical par 3 there were two groups waiting. Ughhhhh. Hate this. With the round over, we can’t wait to get into the warm Jogger and hit the road……..memories of Portrush will linger forever…….great golf course and a pleasure to play a course we will be watching intently in 2005 during the Open Championship.

The next order of business is what we will do for dinner……..the hotel only serves food until about 8:30, and NAV tells us we won’t be there until 8:46…….following much discussion and back and forth, we decide a pizza place in town just past the hotel will be the target…….called Goose and Gander……no idea why…….it is open until 9pm and we think that is doable…….F1 training stint #2 of the day. I have the estimated arrival time down to 8:34, about 45 minutes from home, when we fly past a pizza place……….throw out the anchor and decide we’ll just eat here…….crap………closed………back on the road with NAV now saying 8:38. It doesn’t take long and I have it back down to 8:34…….getting close to our target, we fly past our hotel and into town. The Goose and Gander is still hopping…….we order some pizza, salad, beers, and life is good. The food is really good. On the way out, I notice the front of the building is actually an attached bar, and peering in the window I see some musicians playing in the middle of the room. Nightcaps are in order. What a great scene. Two guitarists, a floutist, and a guy playing the union pipes…….taking turns singing……some of the crowd joining in……perfect. There was a family sitting at a table and one of the young girls (maybe 10yrs old) got up and did some Irish dancing for us. Fantastic.

We leave the bar, now longing for our beds after a long full day……good thing tomorrow is a day off of sorts……..just driving on the agenda…….heading south to Lahinch…….the southern swing begins.