As part of my quick trip over to Wicklow, I managed to get a look at The European Club.
I got a bit unlucky with the weather - with gusts recorded at over 100km/h (65mph) through the day: Foam from the sea was landing on parts of the course about 500m inland! - but a mate and I soldiered on and enjoyed using some imagination to keep the ball out of the wind. The Irish Mid-Amateur was being played the same day, and I will be shocked if the winner carded sub-80.
Some of the narrower holes were pretty interesting (some extra width might not hurt on 4, 10 and 11 and around a few greens), but all told it was a thrilling (if often penal) golf course run by one of the very best men I have met in my golf travels. I was lucky to get a few minutes with Pat Ruddy before we teed off and count it among my favourite memories of my first year playing holf in GB&I.
Sure, there are some flat lies where a bulldozer has been liberally used, and some man-made mounds surround a few greens that steal the eye away from other natural contours, but I like and respect Mr Ruddy's mindset that TEC is his attempt at combining the traditions of links golf with a desire to push forward.
Below are a few pics that caught my eye:
The par three 6th, a tough dropshot to a green flanked by a creek and a timber-faced bunker (the style of all the traps at TEC), with a lovely outlook.
Looking down to the 7th green and beyond.
It's a pity the hole listed as 7a isn't part of the main 18 holes - it looked to me to be the best one-shotter on the property.
The approach to the 8th. You drive through the saddle of two dunes, but the downslope is maintained as rough to stop your ball cascading down, leaving a mere wedge in. It's a pity, because the approach would be tougher from down there, to a green you'd struggle to see the surface of.
The 8th green. Can't say I love the mound that has been built on the right-hand-side, but a great green otherwise.
The 10th green, which set up nicely for a running approach, the ball feeding left towards the bunker if you weren't careful.
The most famous view at TEC, the 12th tee. So begins a run of four holes along he coast that take your breath away.
The 13th tee, a cool par five with a massive kidney-shaped green that can alter the hole strategy massively.
Looking across the 13th green.
Looking back down the 13th.
A slice of luck at the 14th!
The one thing that left me shaking my head: the par four 16th offers you bunkers right and left from the tee, and this patch of 2 to 3-inch rough in the centre of the fairway. Why?
