A Gentlemens Game (Golf Is No Ordinary Game Book 9)
Would suggest you consider playing Carne's three nines a second time so you have some idea of what's expected of you. We were standing on the 14th tee at Carne, on the very north-west tip of Co. Mayo, the wind battering us, the ocean swelling against the beach below. Their history and cost see below make intriguing reading, but of far greater interest is the scale and excitement of these new holes. The course is famous for them and with good reason. The new nine holes may be even bigger. They weave in and around the existing back nine to create a new loop.
Golf Is No Ordinary Game and millions of other books are available for “This is a beautiful book — essential reading for anyone who loves animals and knows. Coyne, whose books include the best-selling A Gentleman's Game, has spent 20 The journey takes him not just to famed courses such as St. for ordinary players: 9-hole gems such as Traigh Golf Course or the hole.
You can feel overwhelmed, lost and insignificant… and yet be standing in the middle of the fairway. Nowhere is this more obvious than the par five 5th. Views over Kilmore's 5th fairway from the 7th tee. It was almost claustrophobic.
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The new nine are, in a word, magnificent. Intrigue and beauty greet you on every tee and some of the green settings are mouth-watering. They are approaches where you are almost desperate to hit a good shot.
It is only the 5th that I struggle with, where a good drive will leave you blind and disoriented. The obvious route the fairway whips out of view around a dune and requires no more than a mid iron into the tight bend.
Larry and Pat, both members, steered us well right, going over the dune itself. It is a hole that needs to be tackled a few times to appreciate fully how it can best be played.
I was taking photographs — for my Flickr page — and Bob would often end up beside me, his camera busily snapping away. Every time he said he was going to stop taking photos we came across another hole, another view, another something that had him reaching for the camera again. Pat plays off 8 and is one of those efficient golfers who rarely puts a foot wrong and came to the rescue on many occasions. As a team we combined brilliantly, to be five under after six holes. Oh how we muttered at the bar about missed chances.
Thirteen organisations were involved in making the new holes a reality: The gestation period was a lengthy one, dating back some 20 years. The serpentine bunker and views back to the tee on Kilmore's 6th hole. When Carne was first designed by the great Eddie Hackett, in the s, he kept an ace up his sleeve. Sadly, when he died in , he had not had a chance to play that card. He did, however, leave behind a vision that others were determined to fulfil. I was honoured and privileged to be invited along to the celebration.
I have found myself in this beautiful part of the world many times over the last few years — lured by the golf courses and the people.
These are the first new holes to be built in Ireland in several years and they form an astounding run that rivals the very best in the country. That speaks volumes of the respect paid to Hackett, who always believed in working with the land and not through it. The Kimore nine were designed by Scottish golf architect, Ally McIntosh, with an initial routing mapped out by American Jim Engh, a member of Carne and also a golf architect. Bob putts across Kilmore's par three green.
Yes, that bunker's in play! Typically, he pointed out, dunes are created in a formal line of ridges, parallel to the sea. That is not the case at Carne. Not surprisingly, therefore, there are a couple of steep climbs up the 6th hole and from the 3rd green to the 4th tee and a buggy may be required by some. But all the energy expended will be richly rewarded.
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The Kilmore nine venture into the dunes where the existing back nine reside. They therefore use the biggest dunes on the acre property. At times the scale can leave you speechless, as my experience on the new 5th fairway accentuated, but McIntosh, with Engh's outline and Hackett's vision, has created the most dramatic holes of all. The style is very much in keeping with the original 18, but McIntosh has introduced a few quirks of his own as any good designer should: That's the way it is in every other sport, we just never play one-on-one or team versus team like other sports do.
That's why at times it might seem way out of the ordinary. If every tournament were match play, I don't think that would be unusual.
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It also helps heat things up if opponents have some history together. McIlroy and Reed went head-to-head in an epic singles duel at the Ryder Cup, which the American won 1 up. It was an example of how chippy things can get at the Match Play that when McIlroy was asked if he had any advice for Spieth, who drew Reed in his pod this week, his answer had a bit of a sharp edge.
This is the Match Play where trash talking and gamesmanship are not only acceptable, but can also be extremely entertaining. Some time ago, he decided to collect every notable golf book published between roughly and His private library brings the world of Old Tom Morris and the Great Triumvirate to life, with signed volumes demonstrating the real friendships and camaraderie among now-legendary figures. Truett turns out for golf preferably fast-paced alternate-shot play in tweed and corduroy plus fours, armed with a shooting stick and a quiver of hickory clubs manufactured by James Braid.
An amusing line, for James Braid—a titan of the Edwardian game, winner of five Open Championships between and —was also the head man at Walton for nearly half a century, playing foursome matches with the likes of Winston Churchill and dispensing swing tips to Edward VIII. The Old is brilliant rough-and-tumble golf from an era in which earthmoving was a major undertaking, while the more refined shaping of the New—greens feature sculpted wings and sideboards, and perch in delightfully natural situations—reflects the elegance of the Golden Age.
One favorite, from Is it possible to follow the occupation of a Stockbroker and Barrister at Law? Woking lacks the sweep and grandeur of Sunningdale or Walton Heath, but it compensates for its more ordinary surroundings by offering some of the most compelling hole strategies and ingenious greens in the game. Any design aficionado is likely to come away as inspired.
New Zealand is some 50 miles from the coast. To this day, the course has no fairway irrigation, but the greens are surprisingly slick, and almost every hole many of which are framed by high walls of riotous rhododendron has some antique feature that will charm. New Zealand is the kind of place where every water fountain has a dog bowl at its base, and where the membership prefers amiable alternate-shot matches to grinding medal play. When one dies, his name is not removed, just crossed out—gone, but not forgotten.