The Full Irish: The Island Golf Club
The Full Irish: The Island Golf Club
It's an island ... on an island! Let's do this for our LAST round of the trip.
The original plan I had for this trip had us beginning our golf at The Island Golf Club, and finishing at Portmarnock. However, we had to flip those as Portmarnock wasn’t available this weekend - perhaps due to the hordes of Notre Damers heading into town. (Guys, it’s a truly bad scene even knowing how many of them are lovely people, the last thing you want to do while on holiday overseas is be surrounded by Americans.)
No matter, we were thrilled to be able to finish up at a course that looks more like it should be along the west and north coasts with huge dunes, but is just 15 minutes away from the Dublin airport.
Founded: 1890
Designer: Fred Hawtree, Eddie Hackett, Martin Hawtree (redesign)
Ratings:
Top100GolfCourses: 49 (Britain & Ireland), 7 (Ireland)
The Irish Golfer: 11 (Ireland)
Golf.com: 56 (Britain & Ireland)
One thing that’s kind of cool about The Island is that the “Designers” above did not originally route and layout the course. No one is sure who did. (You may ask, if they don’t know who built it, how do they know it was built in 1890? I don’t have the answers here for you.)
We met up with Noah, a local (though originally from Canada) who snapped up a few of the rounds made available when our original buddies couldn’t make the trip after all. Noah played in the groups behind us at Portmarnock and Royal County Down, but at The Island we were finally going to play a round with him
As noted, this was my 21st round of golf in 23 days, not even counting the pitch-and-putt the day prior on our way to Dublin. It turns out my personal limit MIGHT be 20 rounds in 23 days, as I simply did NOT have a golf swing for much of the day. After keeping the ball in play consistently, and even talking with AC on the way to the course about how happy I was with how I’d played and learned the right shots, etc. … suddenly it was like I had just picked up a set of clubs. Every shot was there - topped drives, screaming slices out of bounds, chunked wedges and irons, and bladed versions of both as well. When they say you hit every shot in the bag, this is NOT what they mean.
I gave serious consideration to just dropping my clubs off at the turn and finishing the back nine walking and enjoying the company of AC, Dean and Noah. All three of them were horrified by the idea, and at some point later I need to write and think a little about why some folks think it’s unacceptable to quit a round of golf - when golf is supposed to be fun and its anything but, why keep going?
Their rebuttal would be that I did in fact play better on the back nine, which meant I was +2 over the last three holes (two of which are the toughest on that side) and hit a fair amount of … decent shots. But there was no getting around it - while I wasn’t particularly sore (though certainly I was that), I was just on vapors. I would sit and look at my shot, commit to a swing, etc., and then watch the laziest, non-committal swings of the trip unfold. Sometimes that’s just what you have.
The Island itself? Unreal. Some of the most creative, interesting holes we saw all summer, with huge dunes, straight ahead pasture/meadow golf, and almost everything in between. In some ways it encapsulated everything we’d seen around the country.
We got hit with a pretty good rain shower on the front nine, and then noticed several storms skirting the course but which still gave us some pause. You can see past Dean here, there’s even a rainbow emerging from one of the systems.
And then…we saw an even bigger storm coming right at us. And it did not look fun at ALL.
As we raced to finish the 17th and 18th hole we started hearing thunder, which is a terrifying sound as a golfer as it’s usually accompanied by lightning, which does not mix well with golf clubs. We played true ready-golf, meaning anyone who got to his ball just hit it as long as he wasn’t going to endanger any of the others.
Just off the 18th green, AC and Dean did the proper thing, putting from almost 50 yards away to a devilish pin. I wished I could have joined them but there was a pot bunker the size of Miami in my way. We finished up and shook hands, then looked back up at the skies and headed indoors.
Within about 15 minutes, the course had called all the golfers in due to the lightning, and there was just something poetic about that finish. On our true “home hole,” we did it all - hitting drives, punching out of the dunes (that was me), putting from the fairway, etc. And we literally couldn’t have played more golf even if we’d wanted to.
Dean headed into Dublin to get a tattoo commemorating the trip, while AC, Noah and I had dinner in the excellent, laid back clubhouse at The Island. The vibes there are just as elite as everywhere else. In fact, AC went back into the Pro Shop as he’d been chatting with Dave, the head pro, about how he collected irons from various spots. AC found himself looking at a 1-iron that wasn’t particularly rare or expensive, but 1-irons aren’t that common anymore. He asked Dave how much he’d sell it to him for and he insisted AC take it for free. Just unreal how welcoming they are there, and it truly needs to be on your list.
I’ll follow all of this up with a wrapup, and thanks to all who followed along during this epic journey. It’s a trip over three years in the planning, and it’s weird to think it’s over.