RAISING A GLASS

I opened the curtains in our room this morning and was not overly surprised to find a wet, soggy, windy, mess outside…….the weather forecast I checked last night was indeed materializing, and it looked like total crap out there. Golfing today, not likely, which is a real bummer as we are scheduled to play one of our favourites, Ardglass GC. We touch base with Mike and Vivian, and decide to meet over breakfast and discuss our options……..breakfast always sounds good to me, so downstairs we go. It turns out Mike’s connection with the head pro at Ardglass has come through, and we can move our tee time forward, hoping the storm will have substantially passed, and we can get a game in. Decision made………grab the rain gear and lets get going………..oh, BTW, I did grab a little breakfast before heading out!……..the usual.

Walking out to the car gave us our first real taste of what it was like outside……..it is blowing like a son of a bitch, and so hard that it drives the rain right into your skin……..you would think it was hail and not rain, and gusts of wind are blowing me sideways…….me…….sideways…….whaaaaat. Don’t worry we tell ourselves, this is going to pass…….we have looked at the radar, and it is definitely going to clear……….sometime. It takes about 45 minutes to reach the club on back roads from the hotel, with many familiar sights along the way we remembered from last year…….no, we didn’t stop for pictures.

The clubhouse is billed as the oldest in the World……1405……part of a castle that once stood on these grounds……and even though its rooms are small with many low ceilings and doorways, it is quite functional and works well. It has a good heating system which is a huge plus right now, as it is only about 40 degrees outside (if that), winds steady at say 30mph, and gusting to probably 50mph or more……..are we absolutely crazy? It is a prepaid round of golf, so there is no way we are getting those $ back, so we have decided to go for it and have a walk anyway……..if the golf works out that will be a plus. The pro shop is stocked full of goodies too good to resist, and I believe we all indulged, and bought a few souvenirs…….Jutta picked up a box of balls as she is running low on ammo and a cool new jacket…….me, t-shirt and golf shirt (damn, like I need another golf shirt)……the Cairns’s, one of everything please. Viv’s young caddie Ashley is outside waiting to go……..now that is dedication man……..showing up for work on a day like this!! He must be crazier than us.

There is a group of 44 players from the good old USA heading out as we arrive……..apparently on a tour, keeping track of all scores/all players, for a competition they have going for the trip………moving our time forward puts us an hour behind their last group rather than directly behind them…….these boys are going to be slow counting everything on a day like this…….wise thing would be to just say max triple and keep it moving, but doubt that will happen. Standing on the first tee we are buffeted (good word for it) by the wind………hard to hold your stance, and even harder to swing, but we are off, heading up the first fairway to a plateau we will play along for the next five holes, with big cliffs to our left, and waves crashing in below. This really is a stunning golf course most days, and you just can’t take your eyes off the scenery, with ocean views from every hole. It is crazy…….almost survival……..but getting the first hole behind us was a huge accomplishment and we played on. #2 is a 160 yard par 3…….I hit driver…..full…..and was just short of the green! You’ve never seen so many wacky shots in your life. Once your ball got up into the wind it was anyone’s guess, but usually 50 yards offline in the direction the wind was blowing. Things did improve for a couple of holes,……well at least the piercing rain quit, but the wind kept on blowing, and we thought this is it, it is going to pass, but it didn’t. We actually caught up to the tournament group on the 7th hole…..?????……..give you an hour’s head start and we catch you by the seventh? With the rain tap turned back on, it was hard to stand and wait for the slowpokes and I knew our round might be coming to a close sooner than later. We toughed it out through #12 and with the rain intensifying, Jutta and Vivian finally called it a day, and started a walk back to the clubhouse with the caddie Ashley……….Mike and I played another hole, but then found ourselves arriving at the next tee just after the boys had left, and decided it was best that we call it a day also. We headed back in ourselves……..enough of this macho bullshit.

The clubhouse dining room was small and quaint, upstairs in the castle and appeared to be a combination of rooms that were opened up to make one. Paul Vaughan, the head pro who Mike had messaged with had told his staff that he would like to buy us a round, and actually picked up the tab for our bowls of lovely hot chowder also. Thanks Paul, very nice of you. We left Ardglass wishing we had caught it on a better day, but this is one we will always come back to. Dinner downstairs in the hotel tonight was really just appies and a bottle of vino, but it was more than enough. We have a travel day tomorrow down to Malahide, but will play Port Marnock in the afternoon……..weather permitting.

There are a couple of really cool things at Ardglass that deserve mention……….this dry stacked stone wall on #11 was built by a member of the club. It is approximately 100yds long, and was built using shore rock that was harvested at low tide, and protects that part of the course from erosion. I can’t remember his name, but our caddie introduced us to him last year when he was working on a second project you see below, which is an old stone utility building or cottage that he is turning into a halfway house.

Details………he built the wall by himself, and refused help from anyone who offered…….all the work was done manually……..each rock harvested from the shore, and carried up to the wall line……..he had a wheelbarrow, but no tractors or diggers or anything……..it took over a year to build……..he was given a lifetime membership in appreciation of his work

The halfway house has stone and mortar walls at least a foot and a half thick….. all previous attempts at repairs were removed, and redone properly using original materials……..a stone bar has been built, and will be fully operational (with a Guinness tap) in a couple of weeks……locked, so couldn’t get interior shots.