My trip to Ireland ended about a year ago, and I said goodbye with one last golf round there, at the Sandy Hills Links at Rosapenna.  Now, with this final golf course review and blog, my walk down Irish memory lane also comes to a close.  It took me awhile, partially as I wanted to enjoy re-living these golf moments from what is close to my favorite place on earth, especially being able to have shared those golf memories with my family.

But, fear not, many more golf course reviews are sitting in my queue and now, with no active golf trips to new places planned for the rest of this year, I can begin to get through the backlog.

Yet another blog title with double meaning.  First, the golf course itself is Tom Doak's new St. Patrick's Links at Rosapenna.  That golf course, which is now reviewed, plays along Sheephaven Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, giving the player a few of, at least in one section, the end of Ireland.  

The other part for the avid reader who has been following the Ireland series, will now note that there is only one more part coming, which will be the last golf course I played on the trip, hence the end of the Ireland series will finally be wrapped up next month, almost exactly 1 year after it was completed. 

The good news, I guess, is that I'm still behind on more recent updates/ golf courses and have quite a few new golf courses to share over the remainder of 2023, even though I don't have any major new golf trips planned to play new golf courses for the next 5 months.

Clearly one of the most influential and historically golf designers is Old Tom Morris.  Of course, back when he was designing golf courses, a lot of them were nine holes and/or were much shorter by today's standards.  However, the concepts of visual deception, thoughtful bunkering and green slopes and other features have been embraced my many of golf's architects over the years.  Thus, when one has an opportunity to play an Old Tom Morris designed golf course, I suggest you take the chance.

This one is the Old Tom Morris Links as the Rosapenna golf resort, which has two other golf courses that will be reviewed soon.  As is often the case, Tom only designed 9 golf holes (the back nine) and those have been somewhat modernized here and there, but the quirky and thoughtful design lives on.  The front nine was designed was Pat Ruddy, the Irish golf architect who also designed The European Club. 

All in all, the golf course plays much harder than it's slope would suggest and is a good test of golf.  It is tight but not overly penal, with par being a hard score on most holes but bogey being relatively accessible.

In an effort to take a break from the ongoing "Ireland Series" of posts, I am updating my reviews of both the Babe Golf Course and the Ike Golf Course at Industry Hills.  I had not played either in well over a decade but played 36 golf holes in one day and have been able to refresh my golf course reviews.  In both cases, the golf courses were much as a remembered them, with Babe being tighter and Ike being longer as the main distinguishing factor, with Ike getting a slight edge as the better golf course.

It's been awhile since a golf course cracked the GolfTop18 listing, but with the addition of Narin & Portnoo Links, that has changed.  It can be easily argued that this is the least known of the golf courses on this list or possibly the least visited, but it is a true masterpiece and an even better setting.  The golf course rating and slope probably don't account for the constant wind either, making this golf course one where a golfer can have a legendary round on a good-weather day or get "killed" on a windy day.

Part of what made way for this update was the forever closure of Ko'Olau Golf Course in 2020, which is now on The Honorable Mentions listing.  But, that being said, this debut at #17 on the list, which is pretty impressive given the company it keeps.

Fresh off St. Patrick's Day, here's the next Ireland update.  I played Doonbeg Golf Club, which is owned and operated by Trump Golf.  I have several observations, both about the golf and how this golf course is viewed / treated by folks:

1 - It feels different.  This is hard to articulate, but the Trump brand has a certain, real or perceived, opulence and east-coast (of the US) old-money, private country club vibe to it.  The resort on property, the clubhouse, the restaurant, the service and the overall feel is that way, which is fine, but frankly, a little "fish out of water" in the charming, friendly and welcoming arms of the Irish, especially those on the west coast.  So, to be frank, I felt a little strangely out of place or strangely enough, in America, when I was at the resort before and after my golf round.  To many, this feel will be an attraction, to me it was a bit unexpected/ uncomfortable.

2 - The politics.  My son and I watch a certain famous golfing pod-cast group that, among other things, do a golf travel series, which is absolutely fantastic, except for this one thing: one of their first ones was to Ireland and they spent half of the Doonbeg review hinting at politics and "not being able to separate" the golf course from their dislike for the owner.  To be clear, I'm not very political and I have no allegiance to the owner at all.  However, I'd just like people stop posturing when it comes to these things.  If you want to make a statement, don't play the golf course and put your money where your mouth is.  If you're going to play the golf course, then treat the golf course separate from it's owner and enjoy it or not on it's merits.  Stop mixing and matching your supposed political convictions and actual activity Americans, it comes off as disingenuous, especially when you're just making money off it (hmmm...sound like something somebody else would do?).

3 - The golf.  I'm sorry to put this third, but the golf course is actually pretty good.  It's not top notch compared to some other Irish gems, but it has many memorable golf holes, some good views and a solid challenge to it, even from shorter tees.  On a standalone basis, if one can ignore the above two items (and a pure golfer should) then it's worth the trip, as long as you can afford the over-priced tee time (my only real complaint).

Most Ireland golf trips that I've had or heard of revolve around playing the long list of great links golf courses the island has, many of which are world renowned.  However, if one drives around the country, they will see many other, lesser known links and parkland golf courses as well.  On this trip to Ireland, I had the great fortune of playing what is dubbed the course furthest west in Europe, Dingle Golf Club, or as it is known in the local, Gaelic dialect, Ceann Sibeal.  It is a very classic links style golf course, with a little bit of elevation change, a pesky burn that wanders it's way throughout and plenty of pot bunkers to go along with the great location.

It's been 6 months since I travelled to Ireland for a family (and golf) vacation.  So, I've been itching to start posting the golf course reviews from that trip since I played all "new" golf courses to this website.  The first of those was a trip to the 2006 Ryder Cup venue, the K Club North Course.  After experiencing that test of golf, I can say, without hesitation, it is clear why it's a tour level golf course.  Not only is it in great shape, but the greens are fast, the rough is real and there are trees and trouble everywhere.  In retrospect, jumping off an 11 hour flight, driving 60 minutes (left side of road) and giving myself no warmups to face this test was not the greatest plan from a scorecard perspective.  However, my son and I had a memorable day having this golf course beat us up.  Fortunately, the Guinness was ready on tap after the round and (shout out to No Laying Up) I conquered the Guinness "first sip" test perfectly on my first try ever.  Gosh I love Ireland golfing!! 

When I moved to Orange County, California in late 2019, I knew a few things about golf in the area.  First, my favorite golf course ever in Orange County, Cypress Golf Course, had been razed during the Great Recession (sad).  Second, I know that generally, OC golf is over-priced for what you get, unless you want to play a string of relatively uninspiring municipal golf courses (or join a country club).  What I did not know, was that the Navy Destroyer Course (where Tiger grew up playing) would be the closest golf course to my house, and also the hybrid golf course I was looking for.  It's quite a bit better than the other nearby golf courses in a similar price range and also fairly challenging to score well.  The only main downside is that getting morning tee times is rough, so most of my rounds have been gathered in the summer months, teeing off after 2pm and finishing near sunset.  No complaints though, as our US service men and women deserve the perks they get here.  I have played the golf course a half dozen times over the last three years and the review is finally ready to go, as a parting gift for the end of 2022!

Now that I have this behind me, I can finally begin to work on the 7 golf courses I'm adding to my list of Irish golf course reviews, "fresh" from my vacation there this past summer.  Here's to something to look forward to in 2023!!

Yet another story of "not getting around to it" I have been sitting on this golf course review for over a year, but at least the Costa Mesa (Los Lagos) golf course review is finally here.  To be honest, I'd never been pressured for it by anybody else, but glad to get this one out.  There are only a couple more golf course reviews like this in the hopper from years past, then I can bridge the winter golfing gap with a lovely series of golf course reviews from my summer golfing trip this past year.