Final Dinner, Guinness Storehouse. Tuesday 27 July

Our final dinner and trophy presentations took place at the Guinness Storehouse. An icon in Ireland, the Guinness Factory seemed a perfect conclusion to a wonderful tour. As Dean arrived in the coach to collect us for the final time, he was met with traffic chaos and parking difficulties due to the Adam Sandler movie premiere next door. The red carpet was rolled out for Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, Kevin James, David Spade, Chris Rock and Salma Hayek. After some frustrated discussions with the local constabulary, we headed off to the final destination. It was here that the group farewelled Dean, who had been outstanding in his ability to get us around safely, on time, and in great spirits. Thanks Dean, we really value your contribution.

Upon arrival at Guinness, we realised that the "famous" people were stalking us. First it was the Queen, then Graeme McDowell, now half of Hollywood. The "blue'" carpet at Guinness was not for us, but for the movie premiere afterparty. needless to say some of us were quite keen to get a look at that. This meant that the top levels of the storehouse were closed down, and restricted our ability to tour around. As we entered our private room, we were greeted by thomas, who was there to teach us how to pour the perfect Pint. Everyone who attempted this, did very well, and it was good to see some of the girls get involved.

We had a quick look around downstairs prior to getting ready for our entrees.

We enjoyed a brilliant meal, of which the dishes carried a Guinness flavour. The quality of the meal was outstanding, and the service was great.

On to the trophies. Our "Eveready" award went to Mr Eveready himself, Laurie Ryan. Laurie played all additional rounds along with wife Anne, but was always the first to be up for something else. Either out for dinner, or off to the pub for a drink. We thought this to be pretty impressive for a 73 year old bloke, put us younger ones to shame.
The "Change of Currency" award went to David Hill. This award was based on the biggest improver once landing on Irish soil, or where the currency changed. (currency changed toward the end of the Irish leg) David seemed to like the Guinness enhanced air, improving by around 60 stableford points.
Our Irish leg was takn out by Graeme Hiscock. Graeme played consistently once on Irish soil, taking this title narrowly on 174 points.
Rae "The dark horse" Biggart was our overall runner up. Rae but together a very consistent all around tour, and fought out the title in the final group today.
Rae's efforts were not quite enough to eclipse "The Bisector" Geoff Vincent. Geoff either played to or beat his home handicap on 6 of the 9 included rounds. A feat that is very impressive as a first time tourist. A master of the 180 straightey, the bisector earned his nick name with his fairway finding prowess. From what I have heard, he was looking for a lesson after one of his drives nearly missed a fairway at County Down. Great effort Geoff, well done.

THANKYOU EVERYONE.

We had an absolutely wonderful time, and have strengthened friendships with many people. We all have special memories that we take away from our time here.

Thanks to the participants: Laurie & Anne Ryan, Jeff & Nola Faure, Alan & Lorraine Mance, Ian & Debbie Gutteridge, Rae Biggart & Libby McCann, Geoff Vincent, Patrick Carlisle, Graeme Hiscock, Michael Merrett, Tony McLean, David Hill, Katryna Economou & Coralie Cazaly.

To Matt Cleverdon for soldiering on whilst I was injured.

To Dean Barber for an outstanding job as driver, and companion.

To Greg Gilson for all your work in organising the tour.

And to all followers of the blog, I hope you got some enjoyment out of tracking our travels.

We look forward now to taking on the US Masters in 2011.

Goodbye. Justin.

The European Club. Tuesday 27 July

The European Club is owned and run by the Ruddy family. Pat Ruddy is a renowned golf course designer in these parts, and a built this course south of Dublin. It is run by his son and daughter, and they were very helpful to our group.
As we arrived we realised that pressure from other groups would not be a problem today, the coach was the only vehicle in the car park. They have a preference for steel spikes but will allow soft spikes. Quite different from home.
The boys at County Down said that The European Club is harder than County Down from the championship tees. This struck some fear into everyone, as County Down was tough. The European Club has hosted the Irish PGA for the past 3 years. They did not do it again this year. The reason behind this was that the course was too difficult in the lead up and lead out for all other guests. This photo is of Matt searching for his eighth lost ball of the day on the 13th, in the cut back rough!!!!! I would hate to see it at championship length. Apparently the fairways were like ribbons. Harrington still managed to get it around in sub par scores to win.
One feature here is the bunkering, in particular the bunker faces. Every bunker has railway sleepers lining the walls. This gives great definition off the tees and fairways, but makes players very wary when in one. You definitely need enough loft, otherwise a strong ricochet will result. Just ask Coralie!
No Americans here to assist us into 5 hour plus rounds, the rough did that for us. Dean and myself spent the day in a cart again, and came in quite handy at times as additional ball searching participants.
It is a quite spectacular course, with many holes either having views of the Irish ocean, or running alongside it.
A tremendously difficult way to finish the golf side of our tour. Lorraine Mance handled the conditions very well securing a win with 42 points. Well done Lorraine.

Portmarnock. Monday 26 July

Tiger Woods and Stewart Cink use Portmarnock as their warm up course prior to the Open Championship. This speaks for the true links style of this course.
This course played very differently to all others thus far. It was hard and fast, and provided players with the challenges of determining a correct landing position.
Joey, the club pro was, aside from flogging course guides to everyone, very helpful and he explained that his son was fortunate enough to play with Stewart Cink during his practice round. The young fella was beaming from ear to ear as we questioned him about what it was like. It truly is a great game that we play.
We stretched the rounds over 5 hours again, thanks to our American friends traveling at snail pace in front. They were "AARRSOME!!!". We all enjoyed the hospitality of the club for lunch. Libby McCann took the title today, well done Libby.

Royal County Down. Sunday 25 July

Royal County Down is the highest rated course on our tour, and one that was looked toward with great anticipation and expectation. I had not played in Ireland in an attempt to make it around this great course. This was a big day for us, leaving early from Portrush, to travel to Newcastle.
From the moment we walked into the golf shop we were treated like members. The staff there, Brian and Rory were amazing, and very knowledgable about golf and Kingston Heath. It was nice for the members to hear these boys raving about our course, not asking if it was in England like some of the others had done.
We all had a lovely lunch in the clubhouse, and made our way around to the first tee. Unfortunately the turning demands of a golf swing were too much for my ankle, and I only managed to play 2 holes. I walked the remained of the front nine with my group, then retiring to take up my role as official photographer, and liaison officer. This was the course that I had been waiting for nearly 12 months to play, and the stupid horse fly ruined it!!!
Here we caught up with Captain Neil Cathels, and President Rob Gyngell as they were playing a little earlier. The course was magnificent, yet difficult, with many blind shots. There was a common theme as the players finished. Amazing.
Tiger Woods shot 83 the first time he played here. So no surprise that it took us close to 5 hours to get around.

Graeme Hiscock won the day after some fine play. To assist Dean and the coach logistics our friends in the golf shop have helped us delay our starting time at Portmarnock tomorrow. This mean that everyone has the time available for breakfast also. We reloaded ourselves onto the coach, and with some very excited discussion about the day and the course we commenced the long trip down to Dublin. The discussion stopped after about half an hour, and a look around the coach saw many sets of closed eyes. Eventually we arrived in Dublin very ready for bed.

Dunluce Castle. Saturday 24 July

The dramatic ruins of Dunluce Castle stand on a black basalt stack, 30 metres high projecting out of the North Antrim coast between Portrush and Bushmills.
The castle as we see it today dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries. The outer walls date back to the 14th century. The castle was home to the MacDonnell family in the 1500's and 1600's.
Walking around the ruins you see buildings both on the mainland and on the basalt stack. It would have been a majestic place in it's heyday.The history of such a place just draws you in. 14th century buildings? Nothing like this in Australia.

Don't see this in Australia either. A drive in Gospel session. Unfortunately we were to be at County Down on Sunday so had to miss the session. Bugger!!!

Portstewart. Saturday 24 July

Portstewart has what many regard as the best opening hole in Ireland. As we had not seen windy conditions for quite a few rounds, the wind provided quite a test for many.
The course in places was spectacular, and was quite difficult. Tight lies, penal rough, and Americans made for a 5 hour round.
There were some great scores in the tricky conditions. Jeff Faure and Tony McLean tied on 41 points. Jeff won on a countback. Jeff credited his win to some emergency swing surgery from Matt on the first tee.

Bushmills Distillery Saturday 24 July

Here we are at the Bushmills Whiskey Distillery in Bushmills. This is the worlds oldest licenced whiskey distillery. The distillery was founded in 1608!!!!
On our tour we learned the differences between Scotch and Irish, (outside of the additional e in the Irish version) how the distillation process differs. We viewed the barrel room where 22 thousand whiskey filled barrels are ageing. The barrels are always pre used prior to their arrival at Bushmills. What they have previously been used for will assist in the flavouring process.

Some have been used for bourbon production, some for wine and some for port. These flavours assist in generating the variety of flavours in the whiskeys.

Royal Portrush. Friday 23 July

A beautiful day greeted the players at Royal Portrush. This course is in the world top 15, and is the only Irish course to host an Open Championship in 1951.

This is a brilliant course, and I am shattered that I could only watch as everyone else played.

This is a view at the green of the 5th hole. An incorrect club selection here could land you in the Atlantic Ocean.
This is Dean our coach driver. Dean and I wandered around in a cart taking photos today. The scores were not quite as hot as has been the case in the past few rounds. The winning score was very impressive though. Ian Gutteridge was the victor with 42 points.
Portrush is home to some magnificent golfers. Patrick (Paddy) Carlisle was born here. His father won one of the area's major events in 1942 and Paddy was delighted to be able to see the trophy and his fathers name in the records.

This above is not Paddy. This is Graeme McDowell, 2010 US Open Champion. Graeme grew up here and played his early golf at the Rathmore Golf Club, which uses Portrush's second course the Valley as it's links.

Graeme was in town today for a celebratory dinner at Rathmore, and also had a book signing as a fund raiser for the club.

In my non golfing state I was able to con Dean into driving me the 800 metres or so to the Rathmore clubhouse. I purchased the book, and got our Open flags signed as well.

Yes I did invite him to come play the Heath in case you were wondering.

I guess the day was not all bad for me in the end.

We are heading down the road to visit the Bushmills Whiskey Distillery, and Portstewart Golf Club tomorrow.

Travel Day Giants Causeway. Thursday 22 July

Here we are at the Giant's Causeway. There are 40,000 hexagonally shaped basalt columns at this piece of coastline. The columns are believed to be created by volcanic activity approximately 60 million years ago, give or take a few days.

Although if you agree with Gaelic folklore, then the Giant's Causeway, as the name suggests, was caused by Giants. Legend has it that the Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner.

One version of the legend tells that Fionn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him.

To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. In a variation, Fionn fled after seeing Benandonner's great bulk, and asked his wife to disguise him as the baby.

In both versions, when Benandonner saw the size of the 'infant', he assumed the alleged father, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Finn.

The "causeway" legend corresponds with geological history in as much as there are similar basalt formations (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at the site of Fingal's Cave on the isle of Staffa in Scotland.
From the causeway, we headed on another 9 miles to our destination of Portrush.

Travel Day Carrick - A - Rede. Thursday 22 July

You may remember me mentioning a sore ankle. Well there is good and bad news about this. The good news, I am not as unfit as i thought I was. The pain was not from playing golf on an under exercise ankle.

The bad news, I have a serious infection caused by a bite from a horse fly. My ankle and foot swelled up and became very painful. Thank god for having three doctors on tour. many thanks go to Anne & Laurie Ryan and Michael Merrett for their assistance, and drugs!! Although Michael did mention that he does not bulk bill!!

This means that I have to miss the 2 rounds at Portrush and most likely Portstewart.

As you can see in the photo i was required to have my leg iced and raised as long as possible.

It was with great amusement to many that the ferry had too many stairs for me to climb, and I was required to use a wheelchair. Many thanks to Rae and Matt for capturing images of this for future reference. Bastards. They also found it quite amusing that I was parked at the "Wheelchair Only" table on board.

After a very smooth ferry ride, we landed in a cold and misty Larne, Ireland at approximately 12.30pm. We are in a Irish registered coach traveling north into Northern Ireland, this caused Dean our driver to make a few joke about getting there alive. We stopped for some lunch, and without being firebombed we continued along to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. There is some amazing coastline in Northern Ireland.

My ankle wouldn't allow me to venture down to the bridge, and I will endeavour to pluck some shots from one of the touring party and place them on here.

These shots are from the surrounding area.

The limestone cliffs here were mined, and there is a large lime kiln built here.

After a look and a bit of a rest, and still no firebombs, we headed up the coast to view the Giants Causeway.