So the trip is over. We played eleven rounds of golf in nine days. If I remember correctly, here are the courses and order we played them:
SCOTLAND:
Carnoustie
St. Andrews Old Course in the morning
Jubilee in the afternoon (36 holes on the second day)
Kingsbarns
The Castle Course
IRELAND:
Waterville
Dooks
Tralee in the morning
Ballybunion in the afternoon
Lahinch
So here are my overall thoughts and my thoughts on each course.
Overall:
Weather: Mid-60's to low 70's each day and with only one day of light rain at The Old Course. We couldn't have asked for better weather, from what I've heard. Wind was also very manageable, with it usually in the 5 to 15 mph range, and never more than that from what I could tell. Truly great conditions.
Course conditions: Near perfect conditions at every course we played. Firm and fast(ish) for the most part (except Lahinch, which played slow due to the South of Ireland Championship being played in the upcoming week. They "greened it up" a bit and were preparing to lower the mowers and get it into tournament shape, so when we played it, it was definitely on the slow side.
Greens: Very true putting surfaces everywhere we went, but very, very slow. Somewhere in the 8 - 9 area on every course we played. Honestly, putting was never a challenge due to the slow green speeds. I played 11 rounds of golf, and I think I may have 3-putted two or three times at the most. That's a shame, because that shouldn't be the case on greens with that much pitch
Tee availability: This was a true shame. We played the "members tees" at every course. That's all anyone would let us play. One of our group was there for the British Senior Open qualifier (he shot 73 in Wales and missed by two shots), and I'm a 0 to +2 index competitive amateur. The other two members of our group were 3 and 5 handicappers. Now playing the back members tees wouldn't have been a problem if they were actually set at the appropriate place on the tees boxes, but on several of the courses, every single tee was well forward of the permanent marker, meaning that we played several of the courses in the 6300 yard range.
I know these courses are wanting to keep up pace of play, but quite frankly, it's a shame to play the courses we played from some of the tees we played at our level. Only at Tralee did we play the course anywhere near where we should have played from (6800ish, probably). We never complained and always played the tees that we were told to play, but several of the courses played very, very short, so I honestly can't comment much on the strategic values of many of the shots, because I was playing from tees that did not suit my ability.
Hospitality: Great hospitality everywhere we went. The Scots were a bit more reserved, but always warmed up after a few minutes. The Irish were open and friendly almost to a man.
Food: I really enjoyed the food in both countries, actually. One thing: Both the Scottish and Irish serve their food HOT. Every meal we had came out piping hot and well prepared. Very nice. I had haggis at The Dunvegan in St. Andrews, and enjoyed it. I also tried black pudding at a nice restaurant in Cupar, which I also enjoyed. It's very intense and flavorful, so a little bit goes a long way.
The courses:
CARNOUSTIE
"The Toughest Links in Golf" was our first course, and I was jetlagged pretty severely. I didn't feel well and didn't play well. Nonetheless, I loved the course. The course can be had for sure, especially from the tees we played and the conditions we played it in (light wind, no rain). It was also one of the easier walks we had, which was nice, as it kind of "eased me into" the rest of courses, some of which are pretty brutal walks for a fat American! Not much that I remember, actually, as I was truly in a fog the entire round. I've never been overseas, and I was unprepared for just how tired and "off" I felt on that first full day in the Isles.
I remember it feeling "tough but fair," and I definitely want another crack at it.
A quick note: When I play golf, I am almost always playing competitively. I'm usually either playing a tournament or playing a match for some type of $$$. Playing golf this way means that I am almost always focused much more on the shot at hand than I am on architecture. The more time I've spent on this site, the more I try to pull myself away from my normal routine in order to appreciate and learn about architecture, but it is difficult.
ST ANDREWS "THE OLD COURSE"
We got in the lottery on Tuesday, and we played The Old Course on Wednesday at 6:50 in the morning. What a treat. The Old Course exceeded my expectations in every way. I was prepared for the course to be a bit of a letdown, but I was wrong. The course was challenging in ways that I did not expect. It helped to have a good caddie for sure, since he would tell me which side of the green to come into, which was key on several holes. Highlights:
Tee shot on 1: Pretty tough to miss that fairway, but what a shot. You're at the home of golf and it's awe-inspiring.
Hell Bunker: I was 2-under and my ball was in the fairway, but I had missed my drive a bit. I had 200 to carry the bunker dead into a 15 mph wind. My caddie told me that I could lay up to the left and leave myself 160 in for my third shot, or I could take on the bunker and leave myself 50 or so yards to a back pin. I elected to take on Hell, and I lost.
I smothered a 4-wood into the top face and it rolled back to where I had no shot. I took an unplayable in the very back of the bunker and dropped to a plugged lie. I barely got my 8-iron over the Lip of Hell, and then was able to get up and down to save a bogey.
The Road Hole. What a tough, tough hole. I pulled my drive barely into the left rough. My caddie told me that we needed to be short and right on our approach. I hit a 4-wood right were he told me to hit it. I was 10 yards short of the green. The pin was cut just over the large swale in the front. I pitched up to 3 feet and made par on the Road Hole!! Woohoo!!
I loved all of the double greens. The scale of the course was perfect. I never felt crowded at all, even with all of the double greens. It's amazing to me that the course has been able to stand the test of time, length-wise (I know that there have been many changes). The walks from green to tee mostly felt manageable and in line with where they should be, but we weren't walking to the Professional tees, which I'm guessing would be quite a trek on many holes.
THE JUBILEE:
Really enjoyed Jubilee much more than I thought I would, based on what I've read here and other places. I liked the funky greens and the "smaller" scale of the course. I really, really liked the 15th hole, a shortish dogleg right with the green up and tucked away with fall-offs on the both sides and the front. GREAT hole, though I butchered it and made double-bogey. The closing holes that played into the wind were tough, as it was blowing a good 15 mph in the later afternoon when we were there. I can't imagine playing several of those holes into a 25 or 35 mph wind!!
KINGSBARNS:
What a place. I was locked in a battle with another player there, so I was even more focused on my game than I normally am, but I just remember that the course fully suited me. Kingsbarns is NOT a difficult course. It was noticeable to me that some of the "teeth" have been removed from the course on a few holes where I could see new mowing patterns in a few "collection" areas that most likely had previously been light to moderate rough. The driving areas were mostly ample. The greens were large and accommodating and since all the greens in both Scotland and Ireland were slow, my low iron and hybrid shots were well-received. The 18th hole, in particular, was a favorite. Love that second shot over the deep ditch in front of the green.
Regarding the slowness of the greens, here's an example of how they make a course so, so much easier to play: On the par-3 8th, the pin was in the lower left "bowl" section of the green. I pushed my tee shot, and ended up above the hole and to the right on the wrong side of the green. Now a miss that bad should, in my opinion, leave me with a putt that I cannot get close, no matter how well I putt it. I hit a good putt and had a tap-in for par. My buddy hit an awful putt, way to firm, from basically the same line as me, and he only knocked the ball by five feet. My "good putt" should have left me with five feet.
Now I know that green speeds are a delicate balance, and I know that golf courses in windy areas need to keep their green speeds slower in case the wind picks up, but very slow greens simply make a course too receptive to mediocre shots. I would have loved to have played Kingsbarns (and all the courses we played, actually) with greens that were a bit faster.
The physical beauty of Kingsbarns was right up there with Tralee for the best visuals on our trip, but I would prefer that it had a bit more quirk and difficulty, I think. Still, an amazing course, and one of the best overall golf experiences I have ever had.
THE CASTLE COURSE:
I really want to just forget this course. It was picturesque and there was a nice "rugged beauty" to it, but the green complexes were just silly. Combine that with lots of blind and blind(ish) tee shots, and it was just not in any way a course that I enjoyed. It's amazing that you can have a Tralee and a Kingsbarns that are both modern courses on similar(?) pieces of land, and yet both Tralee and Kingsbarns are loads of fun to play, and Castle is just ... not fun at all. Now, I imagine that The Castle would actually be quite a bit more fun to play on successive rounds, but it's a course for tourists who will mostly be playing it for the first time. Because of that fact, it's a poor design, in my opinion. Too severe. Too tricked up. Too many grassy mounds for no reason.
More to come later on the rest of the courses, and I'll try to post some pictures....