SUNGRL

On Friday we drove from Cork to Dublin – we stopped at the Kildare Outlet Mall to check out the shops. No purchases were made as I have no room – the rules are – you buy something you have to throw something out : ( It was quite chilly and starting to rain – not boding well for the game of golf we had booked just north of Dublin at 12.30pm.

We arrived at Castle Killeen and low and behold the sun came out to play – we have been so lucky on our visit to Ireland. I had been prepared to break out the thermals and even the long trousers in Ireland but it hasn’t been necessary. We had the odd spit on a couple of courses but we never got wet : ) I truly am the SUNGRL!

Castle Killeen Golf Course is a Jack Nicklaus Signature Design 18 hole Championship golf course. The course hosted the 2011 Solheim Cup which is the equivalent of the Ryder Cup for the ladies. It also hosted the Irish Ladies Open in 2010 and 2011. It is set on a 600 acre estate in County Meath.

Again we were impressed with the natural beauty of the course. It was a true Jack Nicklaus course with lots of fairway bunkers. We both played fairly well and enjoyed the course. We caught up with a Canadian guy, Patrick, who was playing on his own. He had just finished playing the 14th and wandered off in the what he thought was the direction of the 15th. We yelled out to tell him he was going in the wrong direction. He was a nice guy and we joined him for the last four holes. He was over in Ireland for a month starring as an extra in the TV series Vikings – his friend was the producer.

Also set on the 600 acres is Killeen Castle itself – it is quite majestic playing golf with that as the back drop. Killeen Castle is the current construction on a site occupied by a castle since around 1180. The current building is a restoration of a largely 19th century construction, burnt out in 1981. Killeen was built as one of a pair of castles either side of a major roadway north, the other being the extant Dunsany Castle.

In 1978, the castle and estate were sold to advertiser Basil Brindley, who continued the stud farm operation. On 16 May 1981, the castle was burnt out in an arson attack, being left abandoned for many years. The lands and buildings were sold again in 1989, to Christopher Slattery, who initiated the current development plans.

In 1989, a new development plan was proposed, and later revised, with multiple applications for permission, including the conversion of the castle into a high-end hotel, the installation of a championship standard golf course and the construction of more than one hundred units of luxury housing on the estate. With successive modifications and discussions, plans were approved, with conditions to protect parts of the demesne landscape, and estate features, including a holy well. Work began in 2005.

In August 2006 it was announced that Killeen Castle would open in 2009 as a 179 room luxury golf and spa hotel under the Starwood Luxury Collection brand. However in early 2009, Starwood withdrew from the project after plans were scaled down by developers Snowbury following a downturn in the tourism and leisure industry.

We arrived into Cork on Tuesday evening after travelling from Galway and stopping off at the stunning Doonbeg Golf Course on the way. From the moment we arrived we liked what we saw – the city is compact, some of the buildings are colourfully painted and the city has a river running through it. Steve says “all cities with rivers are pretty” and I said “yes you’re probably right”. He then goes on to say “Wanganui is probably the exception”. A bit harsh on his hometown – apologies to those Wanagnuiites reading the blog : )

We were staying at The River Lee. Hotel which was right on the river – it is a very nice hotel. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant that night which was very nice.

After playing golf at the Cork Golf Club the next day I went into town to explore the city. Cork has some nice shops. It also has the English Market which is full of fresh produce, meat, cheeses, breads etc… The market is well supported locally and has become a tourist attraction – drawing visitors from throughout the world, including a visit by Queen Elizabeth II during her 2011 state visit. The term English Market was coined in the 19th Century to distinguish the market from the nearby St. Peter’s Market which was known as the Irish Market.

I have also been impressed with the health food and organic shops in Ireland. There was a great one in Galway and I found one in Cork called Quay Co-op which had a whole food and organic market as well as a vegetarian restaurant next door. I have moved on from exploring supermarkets – I am now into exploring health food shops. Getting sadder by the minute according to Steve! I had lunch at the vegetarian restaurant by myself on Thursday and it was awesome. Quay Co-op has been an institution in Cork since 1982.

On the Wednesday night we went to Market Lane for dinner – this restaurant was ranked number one on Trip Advisor and we saw why. The food was fantastic as was the service. Our waitress was from the Ukraine but she had been in Ireland for the past 10 years – she is marrying an Irish lad in the not too distant future “if he keeps behaving himself” she added : ) I had the vegetarian moussaka – it was divine and huge – I couldn’t even eat it all – I think that might be a first for me – I never leave food behind!

I also checked out Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, a cathedral of the Church of Ireland. Construction of this cathedral started in 1863.

I have saved the best bit of Cork until last – we caught up with an old primary and intermediate school friend of mine, David Pomeroy. He has made Cork his home for the past 20 years although he misses NZ every day. David married an Irish girl Olga and has two lovely children – Sophie who is 8 and Darragh who is 6. We worked out we hadn’t seen each other for about 25 years although with Facebook these days you do feel somewhat up to date and connected. Dave picked us up from the hotel and we went back to his place for a good old Kiwi / Irish BBQ. It was great reminiscing about the ‘good old days’ and old friends who remain friends to this day.

A little bit about Cork…
Cork is a city in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and in the province of Munster. With a population of 119,230, it is the second largest city in the state and the third most populous on the island of Ireland.

The city is built on the River Lee which divides into two channels at the western end of the city. The city centre is located on the island created by the channels. At the eastern end of the city centre where the channels re-converge, quays and docks along the river banks lead to Lough Mahon and Cork Harbour, which is one of the world’s largest natural harbours.

Cork City is at the heart of industry in the south of Ireland. Its main area of industry is pharmaceuticals, with Pfizer Inc. and Swiss company Novartis being big employers in the region. The most famous product of the Cork pharmaceutical industry is Viagra. Cork is also the European headquarters of Apple Inc. where over 3,000 staff are involved in manufacturing, R&D and customer support. Logitech and EMC Corporation are also important IT employers in the area.

The city is also home to the Heineken Brewery that brews Murphy’s Irish Stout and the nearby Beamish and Crawford brewery (taken over by Heineken in 2008) which have been in the city for generations. And for many years, Cork was the home to Ford Motor Company, which manufactured cars in the docklands area before the plant was closed in 1984. Henry Ford’s grandfather was from West Cork, which was one of the main reasons for opening up the manufacturing facility in Cork. But technology has replaced the old manufacturing businesses of the 1970s and 1980s, with people now working in the many I.T. centres of the city – such as Amazon.com, the online retailer, which has set up in Cork Airport Business Park.

Cork’s deep harbour allows ships of any size to enter, bringing trade and easy import/export of products. Cork Airport also allows easy access to continental Europe and Cork Kent railway station in the city centre provides good rail links for domestic trade.

Cork is an important educational centre in Ireland. University College Cork (UCC), a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, offers a wide variety of courses in Arts, Commerce, Engineering, Law, Medicine and Science.

Today we travelled about an hour and a half north west of Cork to Killarney. Our destination was the Killarney Golf & Fishing Club which is a private golf club on the shore of Lough Leane just west of Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland. The club has three 18-hole golf courses, Killeen, Lackabane and Mahony’s Point.

The Killeen Course measures 7,031 yards and plays to a par of 72. It has been the venue for the European Tour’s Irish Open in 1991, 1992, 2010 and 2011.

Killeen was a pretty course and again the natural beauty surrounding these Irish courses is great. My golf was back on track today so the I hate golf, I hate golf mantra is now back to I love golf much to Steve’s delight!

There were some rather large animal deposits on the course which we were wondering which animal they belonged to. The bunkers on the 14th hole were covered in deer hoof prints so we worked out who the culprits were! The black ravens were also very prevalent on the course and they aren’t too bothered by you or your golf ball. They were busy digging up the fairways with their beaks looking for food. Natural coring machines?

On Wednesday we woke to another lovely day in Ireland. After a bit of an explore around the city we went out to the Cork Golf Club.

Cork Golf Club is located at Little Island close to Cork City, this championship golf course is routed through exceptional golfing terrain, incorporating an old limestone quarry and the inner reaches of Cork Harbour and Lough Mahon. The course was founded in 1888. In 1927 the course was redesigned by the Augusta National designer, Alister MacKenzie.

Seves Ballesteros visited the course in 1983 and hit a 332 metre drive on one of the holes. Steve said that would have been a quite a feat back then given he would have been using wooden clubs not the titanium clubs we use these days. The club planted a Spanish chestnut tree in his honour.

It was a lovely course and after the daunting holes at Doonbeg it looked like a walk in the park – that’s where I went wrong! High expectations were followed by poor play on my part! Not the best day in the office to date but hey I am not complaining – I was out enjoying the Irish sunshine for yet another day.

We left Galway this morning and headed to Doonbeg Golf Club which is out on the coast in County Clare. The weather was overcast and as we got closer to the coast it started to blow and we had a bit of rain. It was spitting as we got our golf clubs ready but I had a word with the weather gods and told them if they knew what was good for them they would stop that behaviour immediately!

Standing up on the first tee is pretty WOW. Out to your left you have the Atlantic Ocean and the first hole is a long par 5 that is framed by hills on both sides – it looks like a sports stadium. It was still pretty windy as we teed off but when you got down into the stadium you were quite sheltered. The next few holes were quite daunting as you couldn’t really see where you were supposed to be hitting. Needless to say the ball stocks were being depleted rather quickly and not by me I might add : )

The first nine holes go out along the coast and the second come back inland. We were just teeing off on the third when this woman walked towards us heading for the 16th. I thought ‘she looks familiar’ but thought no it can’t be. We said hello and she asked if she was going in the right direction for the next hole, all the while we were all looking at each other thinking we were familiar. It turns out it was our Canadian friend Trish who we know through an ex Manukau Golf Club member that Steve met at the World Junior’s in San Diego. Her and James run golf tours all around the world so she was out checking out the lodge and course. It turns out James is also in Ireland with a tour group playing all the great golf courses Ireland has to offer. What a coincidence – if we had been 5 minutes earlier or later we would have missed seeing each other. It was great to see her and catch up on the news.

We carried on our merry way – well actually not so merry as the weather wasn’t playing ball and the ball stocks were still being depleted! My talking to the weather gods was answered about the 8th hole and the sun came out to play. It was still quite windy though – I think that is just a natural state for this coast. The golf on the back nine was much improved with Steve having a couple of birdies and managing to keep his ball stocks in check. I only lost one ball all day : )

It is a stunning course and one that would be good to play again so you knew where you were going. The course was designed by Greg Norman and opened in 2002. The geography was hardly changed as the course was fitted into the natural environment.

Apparently there was a big storm in January this year and the area was badly damaged. The course and lodge went into liquidation and in February 2014 they were bought by Donald Trump for an estimated €15m. The Lodge at Doonbeg, which consists of 218 hotel suites, an expansive spa and several restaurants will be managed by the Trump Hotel Collection.

After golf we caught up with Trish again in the carpark before heading to Cork – our home for the next three days. It took about 2.5 hours to get here and as we drove through the city I thought I am going to like this place. It has a completely different look to Galway. We are staying at The River Lee Hotel which is really nice.

Today we played at the Galway Bay Golf Club. This course was designed by former Ryder Cup and World Cup legend Christy O Connor Junior. Set on 300 acres it superbly blends the stunning backdrop of Galway Bay and the rugged curves of the Atlantic Coastline. It was a challenging course and again we were impressed with the natural surrounds.

The greens were super slick so the pars and birdies were not forthcoming today for Stevie : ( On the ball count front Steve was down net 2 (lost 3 and found 1) and I was down 1. Steve went to great lengths to find his ball as you can see from the pictures below – we could see two balls in this prickly mass but only one was reachable much to Steve’s disgust! It is amazing what motivates some people : )