Final Round of the Trip!

By Sam Blackwell We played a final round of golf Friday on the way back to Dublin and our return flight to the U.S. Almost midway between Galway and Dublin, Glasson Golf and Country Club is a lovely and hilly parkland course wrapped around a large lake. It won’t make you forget Enniscrone but offers pleasant challenges. Glasson is 6,800 yards from the members’ tees, so length is one of its difficulties. We stepped up to a forward set of tees that was more amenable to our distances off the tees. The course was wet, so we were advised to use preferred lies. The day was generally sunny and warm, but when clouds covered the sun a briskness set in, so we were always switching between layers of clothing. We were enthusiastic but a bit sad to be playing our last round in Ireland. When we look back on the courses we played on the Road Less Travelled Tour – Carne, Rosses Point, Enniscrone, Connemara and Glasson – we know each has a distinct character and appeal. At Carne we battled sleet, and the sleet won. Rosses Point is a links course of the highest order, one Padraig Harrington and Rory McIlroy have won on. This is a course that would offer a golfer new challenges each time he or she plays. [Gallery not found]

A selection of images of our wonderul trip to Glasson

Enniscrone was perhaps the most beautiful course we played, winding through grass-covered dunes for part of each nine and then emerging into Eddie Hackett’s more wide-open design the rest of the way. A bad cold kept me from playing Connemara, but the other golfers enjoyed their day. Getting there from our home base at Sligo is a trip through a lunar landscape, they said, but the course itself is a good links challenge. Glasson offers wide fairways and well-bunkered and often elevated greens. The greens are in good shape, much better than the greens back in the U.S. at this stage of the year. Tampa Joe remained in Galway to meet up with his Irish girlfriend, and Virgil flew back to Dublin a few days earlier to tend to some business, so our group is reduced to four. Mike and Gary took on Rick and me in a match-play contest for a round of Guinness. They made short work of us, 4 and 3. Afterward we had roast beef sandwiches in Glasson’s architecturally distinct and modern clubhouse, which a prospective bride and groom were appraising for their upcoming nuptials.  Breda, one of the owners, greeted us and gave each of us a Glasson ball marker as a remembrance. Our driver Kevin drove our coach back to Dublin, our starting point almost a week earlier. We are spending our last night in Ireland at the Portmarnock Hotel, a first-rate facility not far from the Dublin airport.  The Pormarnock Golf Course is just out the window, but we have no time left to play.   When – not if – we return.