Is your Golf obsession so strong that you see references everywhere?
Lloyd Cole told us recently that the song NYC Sunshine on his new album has a thought about escaping to the Garden City and he was thinking about the golf course when he wrote it.
Come on, take my hand, it may be cold outside
But we’ve got New York City sunshine
Walking with the junkies and the millionaires
In the New York City.
New York City sunshine
Maybe I’m going to get paid today
Maybe I’m going to get made today
Maybe I’m going to go back to Garden City
I know one of these days I’m going to leave this town
One of these days I’m going to pack her up and put
her in drive
And head into the great whereafter.
I think a golf fan would have made the connection even if he knew nothing of the Author’s fascination with Golf. I've seen other posts which link words and specific golf courses, e.g. Ogden Nash and Betjeman/St Enodoc, but what other writing makes your mind leap to a certain course even when that wasn't the authors direct subject?
On a current thread, Mark Bourgeois urges us to read Under Ben Bulben by Yeats. Once you’ve played Rosses Point, Co. Sligo you will know that table top mountain overhanging the course is Ben Bulben. Yeats wasn’t thinking of Golf but it’s now impossible to separate the two in my mind.
Under bare Ben Bulben's head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!
I’ve yet to play Royal County Down but it think of doing so every time I hear this song.
Oh, Mary, this London's a wonderful sight
With people here working by day and by night
They don't sow potatoes, nor barley nor wheat
But there' gangs of them digging for gold in the streets
At least when I asked them that's what I was told
So I just took a hand at this diggin' for gold
But for all that I found there I might as well be
Where the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea.
I believe that when writin' a wish you expressed
As to how the fine ladies in London were dressed
Well, if you believe me, when asked to a ball
Faith, they don't wear no top to their dresses at all.
Oh, I've seen them myself and you could not in truth
Say if they were bound for a ball or a bath
Don't be startin' them fashions now, Mary Macree,
Where the mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea.
I've seen England's king from the top of a bus
And I've never known him, but he means to know us.
And tho' by the Saxon we once were oppressed,
Still I cheered, God forgive me, I cheered with the rest.
And now that he's visited Erin's green shore
We'll be much better friends than we've been heretofore
When we've got all we want, we're as quiet as can be
Where the mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea.
You remember young Peter O'Loughlin, of course
Well, now he is here at the head of the force
I met him today, I was crossing the Strand
And he stopped the whole street with a wave of his hand
And there we stood talkin' of days that are gone
While the whole population of London looked on
But for all these great powers he's wishful like me
To be back where the dark Mourne sweeps down to the sea.
There's beautiful girls here, oh, never you mind
With beautiful shapes nature never designed
And lovely complexions all roses and cream
But O'Loughlin remarked with regard to the same
That if at those roses you venture to sip
The colours might all come away on your lip
So I'll wait for the wild rose that's waitin' for me
Where the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea
This Irishman stranded in London recommends a fine version by Don McLean -even if he does take liberties with the melody.
The songwriter Jimmy Kennedy was born and raised in Strand Road, Portstewart. That’s the road you drive along to the course and he said the memory of the view along the strand (beach) towards the Barmouth (estuary) was the inspiration for the lyrics to this classic.
Red sails in the sunset, way out on the sea,
Oh, carry my loved one, home safely to me.
She sailed at the dawning, all day I've been blue;
Red sails in the sunset, I'm trusting in you.
(If you know anything about Jimmy Kennedy, after another excellent recent thread, you might conclude he also knew Pat Mucci Snr.
)
So are there any written or sung words that take your imagination straight to a golf course?