Today we will play our last round of golf in Ireland (this trip, not forever) at Waterville, another of the many highly regarded courses on this island that is usually on everyone’s itinerary. It is located at the western end of the famous Ring of Kerry, on the Atlantic Coast, and we plan to drive into the course one way, and come out the other, completing the drive around the famous ring. This sounds like a great plan, and even though I have the course plugged into the NAV, I am unsure if we are leaving town in the right direction…….phones come out…….double checking our route…….we have another route popping up that I think is correct, so we turn around and head back through, and out of town in the opposite direction. We will discover later in the day that the first route I had plugged in would have worked also……I just didn’t recognize that this was the back end of the ring coming out from Waterville right into Killarney.
The weather which has been pretty fantastic most of the trip, appears to have taken a turn for the worse. The rain is pretty steady with heavy periods from time to time…..very low cloud cover, and somewhere around 10 degrees. Our new route runs into a road closure, and it feels like we are in the middle of nowhere, but again with phone assist we get back on track, travelling along the coast on what is probably a very scenic route, but we can’t see shit. It doesn’t take long though and we are at the course………..I am trying to decide if I need to pull on the rain pants for the first time this trip, or not………I decide it is time.
Checked in, and preliminary shopping done…….”prelim buy” is immediately after arrival when some items are actually purchased, but usually not unless they are a total slam dunk……..this is more of a scoping out period with discussion to follow on the golf course about the long sleeve/short sleeve….blue/pink…..etc./etc……..with the “big buy” to follow after the round……….I am usually in the bar at this point, but will occasionally be summoned back to the pro shop on the way out, for the “final buy”, where, unless it is something really really cool, my line is “Do we really need this” “Is that Euros or dollars” “Can’t we get this in Canada”or”That Irish wool sure is itchy”.
We head out on course, and all three of us are glad we decided on the rainwear……..It appears we will be dealing with on and off showers for most of the day. The course unfolds nicely and it is very playable, and quite long with the wind……….400yd+ par fours are really par fives today…….no way you can reach in regulation so par is an excellent score. We like what we are playing, but the WOW factor is just not there……perhaps the weather has something to do with it because it is intermittently pissing on us, the wind remains strong, and there are no views to speak of. I think we are getting down right snobbish when it comes to golf in Ireland………we want it all…..the full package……every time. We have been hearing waves crashing in on the beach the entire round, but it is not until #16 that we actually get some good exposure to the ocean…….this continues on 17 – 18, but for us it was too little too late…….don’t get me wrong, still a great course that was fun to play, but not too high on the WOW meter. What made Waterville difficult was the shape of the greens and their surrounds……..very hard to hold the green unless you know exactly where to hit the ball, and if you miss, you are gone down some shaved grass embankment, and end up chipping or putting back on from 30 yds away…….I had to do that too many times after hitting good approach shots, so Piss Off I’m not coming back.
For almost the whole back nine we have been watching helicopters coming and going from the course……….turns out to be a group of about 20 or so Scandinavian guys who are on a chopper tour……..this is a thing!……..sometimes playing 36 a day at two different courses, but your ride is in the choppers. Nice way to travel.
We leave Waterville and head south, hoping to stop in at Hogs Head Golf Club to check out their clubhouse/pro shop/course, but there is a members tournament on today, and J&S can’t even get in the front door. The Ring of Kerry continues south and then east through beautiful countryside…….we stopped in a small town for an ice cream and coffee, and eventually ended up coming into Killarney the way I tried to leave this morning………can’t believe we have been so close to this gorgeous park fo 5 days and not explored it until now. Thankfully I have a little down time before we head out to dinner…….what a day……the bad weather just knocks the crap out of you.
Dinner is in a very small restaurant on the main street, and we quickly discover our waitress is from Stratford……yes….Ontario…….in Ireland for 6 weeks now, and hoping to stay…..think there is a love connection somewhere. The food/wine is fantastic, but being the restaurants critics we are, there had to be something wrong………it’s the music…….playing softly while we are having dinner is a playlist with a heavy dose of Bing F’ing Crosby………come on!……..we mention this to Miss Stratford, and she hops on over to the kitchen window to tell the chef/owner/guy who will be making our dessert in a few minutes, that we think his music sucks…….it was all done in fun , and thought it was great and funny when the playlist was changed a couple of minutes later. Much better…….changed the whole vibe of the restaurant. We tried to get a free dinner as our consulting fee, but that was never going to happen.
Tomorrow we drive back to Dublin, staying in Malahide, very close to the airport for our flight home on Friday…….it won’t be long……we’ll see you soon.
HUGEBLOGSITE 
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