The Full Irish: Three Months Away
The most irresponsible golf trip is right around the corner
As noted here in previous posts, I will be taking a golf trip this summer to Ireland, and it’s not just any golf trip - it’s three weeks circling the Emerald Isle, playing an irresponsible amount of golf. I’ve collected the posts here for anyone intrigued enough to read up on them.
We are close enough to this trip that I’ve started tweaking things like our hotel reservations and starting to try and source recommendations for bars and restaurants in the various cities we’ll be staying in.
Here’s a fun thing - hotel rooms in Ireland are, often, listed as a Twin or a Double.
What does that suggest to you (assuming you’re an American)? For me, it was the size of the bed(s) in each room. That is very much not the case.
A twin room means there are two beds, where a double means there is one bed for two people. Suffice it to say I had to make some adjustments to our reservations - I like my golf buddies, but I don’t need to worry about whether they’re gonna steal the sheets from me.
It is a pretty weird thing when you are getting ready to take a trip you’ve been planning for so long. For me, all I can do is start worrying whether I forgot something. Or whether this idea - playing 387 holes of golf in just over three weeks - is the dumbest idea I’ve ever had. (And I once put a Hootie and the Blowfish album on my top-ten favorite albums of the year list. I’m rife with bad ideas.)
As it should be, most golf in Ireland is walking - though caddies are available to help ease the load of the golf bag as well as provide critical information to help you play better. We’ll be taking caddies at a bunch of courses, but I’m also discovering a few that do have electric carts (“buggies”) for any golfer, not just those with a medical certificate as is often the case. I don’t really WANT to ride around these courses, but again… 387 holes of golf is a LOT. We are also taking a few days without golf, mostly for driving but also easing the legs.
But the last trick up our sleeve - in addition to maybe seeking out a masseuse somewhere along the trip - are these babies.
I’ll wait while you think of a few jokes to make at my expense, but then I’ll smile as I think of how much better my legs feel just looking at these. If you’re not aware, these sleeves go over your legs and are attached to that hexagonal motor which pumps air in and then releases that air, over and over. It helps a lot with recovery - hence the product name - and they were in our villa at Bandon Dunes. I found them on sale at Amazon and not only will they be traveling with us, but my man AC and I will be competing for the right to bring them home. You go ahead and laugh, I’ll be playing 387 holes of golf.
We’ve also discovered that as we wrap up and head back to Dublin, we will be there exactly the same time as Notre Dame prepares to play Air Force at game in Dublin on the Saturday we fly home. Tragically, this means that hotel rooms in Dublin got stupid expensive, but moreso that all the pubs we’d typically go to are going to be full of Americans. GROSS. Any recommendations for out of the way spots are welcome, not just in Dublin but really anywhere along the coast of Ireland as we’ll be hitting most of it.
Craic on!