hello and welcome back to the cookie jar golf podcast I am Tom Mills and today I
am joined by my friend Sam Williams greetings Thomas feels like a real while since I’ve potted and I don’t know why
that is it’s been like 10 days last one was it was a course Diaries at Sunningdale Heath yeah but we had that
in the chamber for a good week I would say maybe two and before that was Ryder Cup so I’m feeling a little Dusty on the
podcasting and here we are about to do a tour Diaries Northern Ireland yeah so
um run us through the itinerary Thomas just remind me I’m acutely aware that not everyone who
listens to our podcast follows our social media so if you haven’t followed
followed us on at cookiejo golf please do and if you have you’ll probably be sick to death with this site
of us playing silly places in Northern Ireland we had
a four a four course trip which uh involved Royal County Down royalport Rush foot
and the ban course at Castle Rock which
we managed to to shovel all those courses into not enough time would be my
take it was always hectic but what he ate every golf trip it doesn’t matter what golf trip you go on it’s always
just seems like crazy hectic you don’t have more than a minute to break but isn’t it isn’t that just because the you
know you could have more time you could have three four five days but you just you wouldn’t get enough done well you’d
fill it no with something exactly if we had another day we would have we would have had another day we’d have done 27 holes on a Saturday and we’ve still
tried to bulk off yeah somebody tried to do a Port Stuart or the Castle Rock 18 or you know we would have tried to do a
lot more than we were capable of doing so it’s just your life isn’t it yeah I think so and it’s it’s so we had two
nights we pretty much had two full days at it and then a kind of a quick sort of Splash and Dash on Saturday morning
before flying back um and first time I’ve been to Ireland or Northern Ireland for
um a long time we used to go loads as a junior but I think it’s fair to say we’ve had this trip booked for since
pre-cookie jar times right yeah I think so I mean we’ve had this in the diary
for a very very long time um we went with a
friend of the jar Sam Clapham that we went to Northern Ireland with
and he’s got some relatives out there so that that has been in the diary forever and then kovid pushed it back and all
sorts and um I’ve never played golf in Ireland I have played golf in Northern Ireland
I’ve played Port Rush before and Castle Rock before and uh Bali Castle up in up
in Northern Ireland so it was nice to go back I’d say you know after the work
Reformation yeah I feel like Reformation since you’ve become educated yeah it’s
about the most elite statement I think I’ve ever heard you come out with the Renaissance immediately turned off 85 of
our listener base there with that comment so thank you for that Thomas you know I dare say when I last went to
Newland I didn’t I wouldn’t have known you know who designed some of these courses I wouldn’t have cared who
designed some of these courses I wouldn’t have thought about why a bunker was where it was I just used to get up
and hit it and help her I could get around here without dying which I still can’t do by the way still got brutalized
for a few days didn’t we um I mean should we just should we just counter through it then so we flew at silly o’clock usually sort of 7 A.M
departure um out of bhx yeah Birmingham Airport straight into Belfast International by
the way great job on booking a return flight from a different airport and spotting that before we got to the wrong
airport on the way back we’ll come back to that in a minute um and then very quickly picked up a
High car down at Royal County down day one and I think we arrived there probably what about half ten yeah I
reckon we were counted down by half ten which is incredible like just that alone I think is
unbelievable County Down is over an hour away from the airport it’s a decent Drive
um you’ve got a little bit of rush out to contend with well it was a 7 A.M flight it’s a 45 minute flight and I I
dare say from nearly anywhere in the UK it’s not going to be a huge difference maybe an hour but maybe an hour from
London or something but yeah I mean so simple and you get and the airport’s a fairly
um manageable you get out pick up your bag leave done you get that all happens fairly fairly gymnastics beautiful as
well isn’t it domestic flights are just so much easier um and yeah got to count you down
neither of us have played County down right so none of that none of the three of us none of us none of us have played
it and you you go in there with for you know personally County down going in was
like this is this incredible mythical golf course I do not know what to expect it
is revered around the world as you know one of the great golf courses that has our menu
absolutely that that you play and you know it’s just I felt going into it
it was just going to be another really good golf course see I I different personally because I feel like there’s
an aura that surrounds a conversation with candy Dan that is different it does
have this very very mythical presence I think I can categorically
tell you now it’s just it’s not another really good golf course I could say very very good but I mean the perceptions
going in and you are very aware you’re turning up out you know one of you know one of the most prestigious courses in
the world and you know very little about it um you know you’re lucky enough to be playing it that day and you you know
that means I don’t know if you like you’re not on guard but you you are very mindful of where you’re at and like the
welcome it was just like just knocks you down doesn’t it like that’s the
one of the overriding feelings we can’t see Dan is walking into the clubhouse Phil the caddy Master straight out how
you guys doing what time are you guys playing introduction this is where you’re going upstairs food make yourself
comfortable and it’s like we sat down after about half an hour and you’re like that is just the best start to arriving
at a golf course hmm yeah it makes an enormous difference just someone’s
smiling at you when you arrive I think too many golf courses perhaps see the visitor as you know a means to
an end you know they’re there for their membership and the visitor is a means to an end in terms of you know balancing
the books but like this place you like you’re like yeah this is they want me here this is good this is this is this
is nice I wouldn’t say it’s Auntie what I was expecting but you just don’t know much about County Down other than its
reputation of being a seriously heavy hitting golf club um and I think that was just a really
big eye-opener it would be remiss not to talk about the the pro shop activity because
I was fairly well amped to spend some money in that Pro Shop I think we both succeeded well you just moved so quickly
through Pro Shops when you’re getting merchandise it takes me about five times longer and I can’t really figure out why
yeah there’s an art to it I I’ve got a very specific um routine in Pro Shops first of all
we’ve both got borax yeah let’s find that out fairly quickly logo balls you
got them yet where are they good bang done that’s number one number two you
immediately need to ascertain whether there’s a sale rail or not so there’s an ordering to this in my
head so I never have sale rail in my head has been like let’s just see if that’s there look you know the Galvin
the Hues it’s all amazing but ultimately it’s it’s really really really expensive
I’m not gonna it’s it’s a very very expensive and unless it knocks me dead
it’s not getting purchased because it’s just too expensive really it’s the reality of it now you give me 20 off that and suddenly
it’s like well it’s robbery if I can’t afford not to be buying it at those prices can you no if you get 20 off it’s
like okay yeah I can do this so it is immediately sale rail for me and you go
to the sale rail the scam for the size the appropriate size and then you think right now count
it down we’re doing a two for one on their cell rail and I was I looked at it and I was like okay so I could get like
a nice sort of a huge top or a Galvin top and then a polo I thought I actually want Earth you doing you could just get
two Hue stops or two Galvin tops you know and you’re not like it the cheapest
one quickly identical process it was untrue so it’s like okay well this now
like I can justify this at home my wife will be okay with this she’ll think this is appropriate
that I can you know I managed to tell you know like it was you know it’s a good deal I just think there’s
definitely an art to doing it well and I I always think it’s you never want to come away from a pro shop having
purchased something that a you’re never going to use or B just feel like that was just a bad Buy
a good buy you want to come away yeah okay I’m gonna get some use I’m gonna love that I hate the feeling of driving
away thinking I wish I’d have got that but I never go in with a structure a lot you know I think I’d be really
interesting to know how people approach but having shops in life I’m someone that I will go to a shop knowing exactly
what I want and I will leave I don’t browse in life that’s just not something I do well I I just I you know I’m I’m
talking about it because I feel like a county down I made really good decisions there I’ve got really nice towel
um really nice u-stop Peter Millard Polo I think I’m well set on polos now and of
course the logo ball for the record um anyway look uh we will we’ll stop witchering on
about that it’d be really nice just to talk about um of course at County down and the round
and we had caddies as well County Down insist for visitor golfers that at least
take a four caddy that’s definitely the right thing that is 100 the right thing to do there because you know there are
blind shots it’s so clearly a course where you need to know your way around um and why leave it to chance when it’s
your first time there you just want to you want to get the experience you want to see it and we had a blast didn’t we with Dale Ray and Phil like they were
just one of the greatest bunch of guys your first time with the caddy of course yeah yeah so I have actively avoided
caddies in life because I just don’t feel like I need the stress of somebody saying hit it over there and you’re like
okay I am trying I’m just not good enough okay I’m gonna try and put a ball over there you can tell me to do it that
all you want but actually I was dreading the kind of process of it but the reality is
we’re all human and we’re like even the pros get bad shots and they’re not judging you like I I kind of felt like I
was going to be judged which is why I’ve always avoided it but they’re not judging you it’s just like yeah let’s just make your day really good and
they’re really good company I think you know I’d feel you know just one of the great storytellers just had so much fun
I I have an issue with it though is that there were three caddies and three three
golfers and the caddies were infinitely better ball Strikers in the golfers so that was a bit of a pickle because Dale
my Academy was a scratch golfer um shot 67 run County down I’m just like
like they’re they’re like absolute ball Strikers just watching us going hmm yeah I could have knocked around in 67 but
yeah yeah but it is helpful they’re just really good guys Dale’s reads on the
green were just frightening worldly and it was blowing so it was like 30 mile an hour winds really really Gusty and and
Dale’s like well this is going to do this but then the wind is doing this so we need to think about that you know what pace you’re gonna do like okay
that’s what you fancy bang bang so good so for those that know County down you you essentially return to the house
after nine so you play um you play away from the house and then and then gradually kind of make your
return in and then you kind of repeat so it’s a similar-ish type of routing that on the face of it does not sound
exciting the holes are absolutely breathtaking particularly the front nine I just
cannot remember playing at stretch of golf holes anything like it um and yeah I mean they’re incredible
the conditions of the day meant that we started down away from the house down at
gale force winds so add wedge into the par five first I believe um that I was not getting on greens
coming home it was so windy in two um which you know I think there’s something
in there about you know getting brutalized we’ll probably talk about that about Port rush but
um yeah the wind really was a big factor and it amped up the difficulty we chose appropriate teas yeah yeah we went
forward went to the yellow tees we were offered you know like you know go nuts and we looked at the wind and we’re like
yeah we just don’t need to make this harder so here’s a little nugget for you because it was quite interesting talking
to the guys I said I can imagine a lot of people want to move all the way back to the tips whenever they get here and
he said yeah maybe more for the British tourists as the Americans are actually quite sensible with this they’ll maybe go maybe go forward so if anything
they’ll want to kind of reduce the length of the course I was like oh that’s an interesting take I did not
know that um but obviously correct um
views at County down I think would be remiss not to talk about
well it’s a very peculiar place in terms of
it’s on the sea you’re in June land but framed by mountains so you’ve just
got and the mountains really affect the weather because you can see the mountains are only about two miles away and as the clouds come over you can see
the rain is coming you’re like oh God we’re gonna get absolutely loaded here and they’re like no watch this and like
there was like just watch this disperse and it just splits across and it just like it just leaves you and you’re like
this is just it’s blame one two three all in a row
all downwind and every time you look back see in the mountains seeing the town
it’s like this is just this is just the best view I’ve ever
seen on a golf course it was um it was remarkable and I think that maybe is what gives it that kind of
mythical presence the fact you’ve got mountains Dunes crashing waves nearby
town the whole thing just feels like otherworldly um and yeah I mean you can you can
definitely see I think um I don’t think we need to wax lyrical about the course too much because I just
think it’s I think those are okay I didn’t know how good it is yeah we definitely can so you hit a
jibby six foot putt for Eagle on one I got a bit scared yeah I just if that had
gone in your nose would have bled there and then just putting that out there um but a great great
Birdie on one then I seem to remember I was definitely inside you on two you’ve just raked in
this 12 foot or whatever for another birthday followed by
I think he made a tidy two-part yeah two under gross I thought and then this
could be the round of his life and then you turn into the wind yeah and then that’s the end of that blue one out into
the tunes on four that was the end of that I finished uh I finished around there just walked in yeah three the
fourth um into the wind was just I mean we were getting all the advice but other than the Caddy’s knew that was it was a
futile attempt to hit that green when I turned to my caddy and said is there a bailout is there anywhere I
can hit like 150 yard shot here and he’s like no it’s it’s 200 yards hitting the green execute has 200 into a 30 mile an
hour Gail good luck that’s that’s the five word go wild but um but Sammy claps
took took the biscuits didn’t he just um he just plodded around and just did very
very well did no blobs just kind of just ticked it over two points 1.3 points two points very very good in that wind it
was um what’s interesting Tommy Dean um Tommy at Tommy Dean’s golf who um
is a kind of someone we talked to quite a bit backwards and forwards through social media um you know hugely passionate Golf
Course architecture nerd um one of the first things he asked actually was how did you guys play
um and it really makes all the difference you don’t want to go to a place like that and play Bad Golf
because you are just going to get chewed up spatter you are going to spend a lot of time looking for balls if you’re spraying it into the dunes
um and I actually think we’ll hit the ball really good around that which makes a big difference because it’s supposed
to call very well no it was blisteringly difficult I mean yeah I’m off three and
fell on the first team says what are you playing off and goes yeah okay I mean anything inside 80 here is an incredibly
good score so you know let’s just let’s just keep plodding around and you’re right if you keep the ball in play at
least you’re in the hole on some of those tough ones because you’re playing at least eight holes that are playing probably probably add one to the par you
know a four on four was a great score um other kind of just a quick notable shout out when we’re on the way around
one thing I didn’t know about County Down is the second course um the Ansley obviously knew they had
the ladies course there as well some of those holes on the hands looks amazing yeah and I think if anyone was there and
visiting not bolting on a little afternoon loop around there I think it’s 4 000 yards they do very well yeah you
know a second course is shorter courses and we’ll talk about another one later on you know with the band but it’s
something they do really really well I would have loved to have you know spent another
um you know half a day there and and had a crack at that and you know and there’s something to be you
know maybe a tour in itself is just second course tour and see you know all these different second courses and what
they’ve got to offer but um yeah I know that Martin ebertson a bit of work on designers from new holes
because they got rid of a couple of holes because of to put the driving range in and stuff like that so it you
know some of it looked very very good obviously we’re looking at it from afar but um yeah but they looked incredible I
mean but I mean they’ve got it’s just got such good land and I think that statement applies to all the places we played in Ireland to be honest with you
um obviously a little jaunt up to Port rush you know we we got very carried
away at counted down with how much fun we’re having and you know kind of you know just hanging around afterwards and having a drink and stuff so sadly I
managed to get ourselves into fish and chip territory for the second time that I felt like Scotland 2020. yeah yeah
like you were in the desert again nowhere for food um but we did manage to sort of have a few
nice drinks and kind of familiarize ourselves before the big day a poor Rush as well which you know what are two days
we’ve had there um so arrival at Port Rush bit of a
overcast day I think it’s fair to say not optimism yeah it was very very dark yeah it’s such hard light for you isn’t
it with the filming there pitch black yeah it’s tough yeah
um no like it was it was really overcast really just just a bit a bit bunk as far as if you want to do some filming is
concerned um no real definition in the sky or anything like that but
um we met up with with Charlene there and and
another great another another great team by the way you know just another great
bunch of people who are just really passionate and proud about Golf Club yeah um but but yeah we obviously sort of
turned up managed to yip a few chips around around the green stuff for half an hour and then and then went out into I would say the wind was maybe I’d say
it’s the same as what we put stronger if anything it was there was nothing in it um
is
um counted down you play three in the same direction you play um
two back then you play it’s interwind then you play three back into win and you play the seventh holes then but it’s
back into an eight is back into when ninth is back in the win 10 back down not many were across were they there was
there wasn’t it wasn’t any sort of triangulation or movement there’s no real Crosswinds maybe 14 possibly a
crosswind one um Port Rush had had a much more of a
um sort of a directional flow to the course which meant that he never really
played many holes with consecutive win directions yeah yeah that’s a great take
and what I felt like we had a lot of crosswind all day which is great if it’s
off the right yeah it’s disastrous off the left um so it was the only one we played
pretty much straight into or down it was a few actually we had quite a few into the first was like absolutely right into
your face wasn’t it and then it sort of it naturally seems to follow the Contours round you know almost turning
it sort of like you know half an hour on the clock every hole until you get to to sort of five and six right six obviously
it juts back on you what’s interesting is that I I’d played Port Rush before so I I knew kind of what to expect you’d
only seen Port Rush on the TV hmm and you had no idea that the first
looked like the first no it’s really uphill isn’t it it’s really uphill like it’s relatively flat totally different
hole in the open like totally different yeah well it looks it doesn’t it I mean I think the the cranes and all that
stuff it just really doesn’t give you the perspective Sam Clapham was long was putting from the back of the green on
one and we all looked really it’s mental how do you keep this on the green light it’s got to be below the hole really
yeah otherwise it’s off it’s literally 100 yards back down full wedging around for the next yeah it’s um it’s so that
that approach is really really dramatic I’d say that opening stretch again at portrush just
mind-bendingly good I think Port Rush is a just the way the course
flowed was incredible just it just flows I don’t know how better to say I think
maybe there’s a bit of the direction and the way you’re moving around through it didn’t feel like there was massive
walk between green and tea no which is quite hard to achieve on an open rate of
course where it will have naturally been reconfigured quite a bit um just the whole thing
got bigger walks to the open tees but to the yeah flowed well you know you even play like
the sevens which is a new golf hole I believe um McKenzie and eberton maybe some of
the feel of it and the length and the bunkering might be like yeah this is clearly had the the you know the the kind of modern touch applied to it but
it’s placed in the course and where you’re going it feels completely harmonious with exactly so
um just nothing so it’s like jumps out it’s been like us it’s just really random the whole thing just flows
brilliantly um you know and it was just a seriously tough challenge
I’d say that as a course coming off that I thought yeah it’s totally and utterly humbled by how Bloody hard that was
um you just had to keep hitting everything had to be good didn’t you think there was no scope for a bad shot
where you were just going to get away but there’s no there was no you know there was no real scope for an ordinary
shot it was like you had to keep hitting worldies because you know if you don’t hit it pure that
and any spin on the ball just gets like massacred so you’ve just gotta like absolutely pure it and um it’d be remiss
not to talk about the fifth having having gone out in the first four and I’ve just hit loads this was dark for
you are you sure you want to talk about this because we haven’t even we haven’t talked about this privately yet I’ve still got scars
I just feel like maybe vocalizing will improve it but you know for the for the listeners benefit we’ve hit lasers for
the first four holes I have and I just can’t get on a bloody green and then uh just for just for the listeners benefit
I think I was about too over stood on on the fifth but but well that’s fine that’s an interesting
um slotted one down five great little mound in the middle of the Fairway by the way so so we know more than what’s
interesting is the the fifth is is one it’s like oh yeah it’s a drivable Par Four and you stand on the tee like
approaching it this is a drivable path it’s about 600 yards it’s about 380 yards like doesn’t seem that dry that
was one that was downwind as well yeah that was downwind but still I mean to be fair you’re only about 40 yards short
but like um yeah yeah so you put yourself 40 yards short the green with a lovely little
mound in front of you and I was about 50 yards from the green this is the important part of this story I was about
10 yards behind you and I had to chip first so go so you get over that and go
you do not want to knife it here and the reason you don’t want to knife it there is because anything past the back edge
of the green goes off into the abyss total death hole over go to the 6t do
not collect 200 pounds do not pass go and um you’ve got a significantly more reliable
short game than me I have I have two other more strike over the ground I have chipping yips that can can appear
occasionally and once that was in my mind I had already clocked that it was not one to knife it through but then
um good as gold well and I think it was still going up over the flag to be fair to that chip um so yeah I’d a little quiet but that
mound was important a few minutes after that because that mound meant that you couldn’t putt it yeah I still would have
put it if you put me there again today um but Sam likes us out the back and uh
he looked at me I thought he was going to kill me I thought I thought the 54 would look good
around your neck at that point but um let’s move on from that the so our goodest girl that I just went should we
hug should we should we just hug this out yeah right now please don’t talk to me at a good social distance of course
um I I yeah it just just top drawer wasn’t it now this is where the trip gets really interesting for me because
we’ve had a fabulous time at poor rush you know we’ve just experienced two of the best golf courses you can physically
play how before we move on from Port rush we need to talk about how we we wanted to go live on Calamity yeah that
we didn’t have the we didn’t have the guts to do a 200 yard uphill into wind into gale force wind lives we’re like
what we’ll do is we’ll video it and then we’ll put it on the ground and we videoed it it’s safe to say not a single
shot went on Instagram it was a virgin green wasn’t it we were never anywhere that thing was in no danger
and they make it look so easy 200 into into Mass win it’s a really big reminder
of why the pros are the pros and why uh we are rank amateurs
um but yeah I just I I would love to play portrush again for the simple part
I’d love to play in slightly more playable conditions because I think I think you can actually
you it would put you into a bit more stress but I think if you hit really good golf shots around there I can see
how you can get into a nice run going through it it’s not easy it felt quite hard but it felt like a futile exercise
in that wind to be honest it felt like you know you’re never gonna sniff a score today it was a bit of a solar
plexus punch when we came off literally that day came off Port Rush when I met
with Charlene upstairs at a coffee and Charlene’s the head assistant Pro there um and we had a coffee and and talked
about the course and um you know you pull up Instagram and golf sorry it’s just done the exact same
trip three days ago and it’s nothing but pristine blue skies sun no windy that
would have been nice so we went over to bushford and I think when we pieced together the itinerary this is exactly where you can try and bite off too much
I’d love to have gone and seen Port Stuart love to have gone and played some Patrick’s links the reality is you can
just squeeze too much into a day and and the nine holders are what make all the difference because
if we’d have if we’d have raced around portrush we wouldn’t have had the experience that we had at Port rush and seeing some of the
clubhouse and meeting some of the people and just being able to just enjoy being there it’s so nine holes was the optimal
amount of golf in the afternoon anymore would have been completely pointless and so many people I think get into the Trap
of right with their Let’s Race to the next place and going to Bush foot which is a 15 pound
um Club where you know you can go and play it it’s very very relaxed you know
this is you know it’s it’s just ultimately relaxed chilled out golf
um was perfect and there were some really good golf holes it’s fine to say I think the tee shot from the first at
bushfoot is possibly Punchy statement possibly one of my
favorite views on a t-box and inviting holes to play that I’ve ever played in my life yeah is
that because there’s like 500 yards out to the right which is all known yeah it’s infinitely wide but it’s a it’s a
it’s a sort of dog leg left with the with the bush yeah going around it you
get the Bush River sort of frame in the whole hole you’re elevated by about 50 yards yeah elevated big elevation and
you’re looking down at at the sea which is crashing you know it’s a stunning day
that you’re playing out across haven’t you and it’s like where they film Game of Thrones it’s just it’s just so
remarkably beautiful and you’re looking at this golf hole and and the best wind in the world is howling off the right so
you know don’t wail at it yeah it’s just asking for it there and it’s just and
the skies are cleared so all of a sudden we finally got a bit of sunshine which um which was nice to see
and get a bit of vitamin D the um the first few are really good the weird thing about Bush foot is there’s this
train line like a like a abandoned Railway line that sort of just cuts
through the spine of the course Almost Doesn’t it so you play one to this kind of really cool it’s almost like one of
those Cotswolds 420 yards to the smallest green looks like you couldn’t park your car on this it’s got a coffee
table but it’s again one of those like Cotswold things where obviously the Earth has been dug out to create a flat
sort of platform which was then shoveled off to the downslope so you’ve got this huge severe drop off
um then you play two a great little par three with the with the with the Bush River kind of jutting through and dunes
on your left and Walkers and you just think that’s fabulous and bushfoot plays as an 18-hole course because it has all
different T locations and that’s one of the best parts severely the second well yeah because 11 is up behind the first
green rather than 50 yards back and down on the left and we’re still on the ninth
tea box on the 18th t-box whereas also shared with the 11th well secondhole and
yeah it’s like these are different golf holes and they’re both great so that was lovely um
and yeah and then you play three up little blind over this little Railway track down into a little bowl green at
the bottom of the hill um and it’s all just great and and I think the you know you then seem to go into a
different part of land and you play a few out and back there where they’ve sort of the land Falls away towards the
river Bush doesn’t it so you’ve got like which is where Bush Mills is based you know the Distillery and
um they called the series I believe so okay where they make the
whiskey and then um it kind of falls down towards the river so it gets a little bit more verdant a little bit
more a little bit softer down by the river you just turn around and get back the other side of the tracks and you’re
back on the the lynx land of for the kind of yeah and they’re cool but I mean particularly you know it’s all good fun
but you know again good posing finisher Seven’s a good part three yeah Eight’s
another good sort of short Par Four that you’re playing but the wind didn’t let up so on the on the fifth hole it was
400 yard Par Four I’ve hit driver driver to the green yeah and you’ve slotted
both of them as well to be fair and the as a driver then the SEC driver I didn’t tear up off the deck and then the next
hole was like a 495 yard uphill Park’s newest driver
driver like eight iron or seven iron or something like that it was uh so the
wind was was hard no it’s cool and it was just it was just the perfect amount of golf beautiful when you’re playing in
like pristine kind of bay sun setting you’ve got like some absolute white
horses going on with people surfing that’s cool um yeah like they were proper huge
weren’t they it’s got this Conservatory on the front of it which is just kind of perched up on top of the the hill of the
sort of highest part of the course and the conservatives All Glass fronted and you can sit out there and that you know
it’s it’s a little bit away from the bar but the bomb is still like poking his head around the corner going three more Guinness yeah okay okay
sat there watching the Surfers sunsetting yeah yeah so good underlining
underlining pints probably the the sort of sneaky sport of the of the trip
wasn’t it yeah to to so Guinness in Ireland and Northern Ireland
is always going to be better than Guinness anywhere else in in the world so you know it would be it would be
wrong of us to drink anything else but we did drink something else later on tour um
but when we were drinking Guinness obviously Guinness gets served in Guinness glasses and it’s got the harp and it’s got the word Guinness so
the game of the tour was every time you got a Guinness you had to in one sip
drink your Guinness and stop so that the white part of your Guinness the foam of
your Guinness underlined the word Guinness God we got good at that
um we got I started I don’t know why I seem to have some remarkable talent and underlining if only I’d have known this
at a much younger age I could have really done something with my life yeah and uh there was no there was no real
outcome to the game apart from just to to just the satisfaction having underlined successfully it just has to
be flush across the bottom of the Guinness doesn’t it yeah um but yeah very very enjoyable and then
headed into look any trip to Port Rush without mention the harbor bar is
impossible everyone you say we’re going to Port Rush the next two words out of their mouth are Harbor Bar without fail
I thought okay I just vaguely understand this like there’s a very cool Irish Pub
here I understand Martini owns have kind of done a very good job developing in
around Port Rush lots of nice restaurants different options and you know it’s a it’s a golf bar where you
know it’s famous for Open winners going it’s lots of people there and you know telling stories from the links of the
day so I thought okay cool go into Harbor Bar and the place is like a Tardis and like I’m not saying
like that in the sense of oh there’s another room back here it’s like a gargantuan complex but you walk in and
like the first part of the harbor bar is basically it’s just a little room that’s just like
a traditional language but I reckon what you could seating it’s all stools but the maximum you
could get seated was probably like 18. yeah tops well we were in there and it
was really busy at one point and and then and then 10 minutes later it was
deathly quiet and you’re gone oh it’s gone really quiet in here I was like yeah I think three people have left Tom I think that’s why
um and then I had a table in the bistro which is out to the back which hadn’t even gone through this like a little
side door that in most pubs in iron or Britain wherever you would think oh it just goes to the lose or something like
that you walk through and you’re like what on Earth I’ve like walked into some enormous funky Bistro food looks amazing
you know the Vibes off the charts sit down have the most incredible meal like
incredible meal then it’s like go upstairs to a gin bar I’m like what is
this like just like a floor above that and again it’s like some enormous complex vaulted ceiling live music
seating for about 100 150 people then there’s another space upstairs a
function room like when Earth as this space come from it was honestly Tardis
Vibes yeah and you look at it from the outside and it generally looks like it’s just like a like a small house yeah you
can’t see where this route where this space has come from but it was a very bizarre what was strange
um wherein for those of us that are outside of England and Wales that listen to this
podcast we’re in a space where masks have not been required for
um ages like months and we didn’t get the memo that Northern
Ireland still require masks so we were walking everywhere going God they’re really into their masks here like it’s like they’re really and I
think it really helps when we were going for breakfast uh pre-port rush and we were we were in like a garage and like
five Builders walked in with masks and we’re like hang on something’s awry so much rotten in Denmark some things are I think we
should I think we have to wear masks and we asked the ladies like oh yeah has no one told you we’ve been in two days yeah
he’s supposed to wear masks everywhere you go oh God okay I realize um and and that being said when we’re in
the harbor bar because a lot of the the stringent things I mean the amount of times you got sat down by a bouncer not
physically but um it’s been told sit down for like getting up to have a dance forever
because we’re just so not in that anymore you know what I mean like we have no Grace for a while but that was article I mean just a couple of
observation Island music just really makes a Vibe when you when you’re out and you’re with your mates afterwards on
a tour and it’s just so Central to the I do had a great voice as well yeah that it and it’s it’s just great isn’t it and
those guys were without their music scene for a long period through covid but it’s so kind of central to the to
the the kind of the pub life in Ireland and I think and of course Northern Ireland by extension but it’s it it yeah
that’s amazing the other sneaky one which you guys knew nothing about is vodka Luke said which anybody who
listens to this podcast who is in Ireland or Northern Ireland will know it is a staple part of the pub diet is a
vodka lucide now when you tell me about vodka lucozade I genuinely thought you were pulling my leg and I thought this
can’t possibly be a thing um you know obviously I’ve heard of vocal Red Bull I get it
um I was like what you’d like a Lucas Aid sport like a still vocal no no no no original fizzy
Luke said right watch this I’ll go up and order it you’ll see who’s taking the piss comes
back over yeah do you want two bottles will look side or three gents okay so it’s a thing yeah it was a real thing and actually
infinitely better than like a vodka Red Bull because you don’t get that caffeine Wallop that you can’t sleep for days
it’s just pure sustained energy yes it’s very good and uh anyway and that’s just
a very minor footnote we wanna I wanna close this pod off with talking about the band course
um we had nine holes in us we had a flight at one one o’clock and we had about an hour
and a half Drive city which isn’t Belfast International which was about an hour and a quarter away from
Castle Rock well from Port rush but obviously half an hour Castle Rock from to Port Rush as well to go and get the
bags um so I thought yeah this is the perfect amount of golf it was the only amount of golf we could have played
um and we had to be and we had to be the first on the course to do that as well so going in I you mentioned golf Surrey
so again you know someone you know one of the many surries does not seem to be short of blog artists by the way who do
talk about um um golf sorry
not to be confused with Surrey golfer has recently been out to um to do a very similar trip to us and
about two days before I was like yeah he’s raving about this band course that we’re going to go and see and I saw some pictures and I thought okay so I was
definitely alert to it and we played this thing at eight ish in
the morning 8 30. it’s now we’re off the course by 9 30. so it must have been like eight o’clock yeah
it’s two and a half thousand yards nine holes
and it’s just got some of the most outrageous golf holes I can remember playing like I I was blown away by how
cool it was it’s brilliant absolutely brilliant I just just cut through the Dune scape there
um a Castle Rock and they just like they had no regard for the social golf norm
and was like all right back to back part threes this one’s gonna be 90 yards this one’s 140 yards nothing you know no
over 200 yard holes at over 200 yard par threes in sight nothing like that yeah you know if it’s a 280 yards Par Four
great play it like a par four there’s a par five that’s about 440 or 50s there’s a lot of variety and
it’s just like but everything is through crazy joonland isn’t it and the greens
are all sort of like there’s no space wasted pitched right up against the foot of a June and you know and the pro said to us
when we got there he’s like only tip Lads just hit it where you can see it so you know
boys trying to pull head covers off and stuff which is in retrospect again uh
Allah sandel Heath we should have taken the woods out the back we didn’t use Woods
no but it would be nice to walk without them but
it was just it was just hit 200 yard you know up to where you can see go from
there but they were all bangers and you can’t say that about places like that very often no they were all absolute
Banks they were all absolutely thought that was a really good opening golf hole Yeah and it was arguably the weakest
golf hole I was like that was brilliant it was it was a great golf hole and then you’re off and running you play two you’ve got these three Fairways in front
of you which winning again in flat conditions where you can barely see a thing all a bit Misty and sort of
ethereal you’ve you’ve you’re sort of like trying to pick which Fairway to go we’ve managed to figure it out
eventually um you then play you know a little par three from about a hundred yards to the
most Ludacris yeah just like falls off in every direction then a a beautiful
downhill path three to a tiny little plateau of agree yeah like a punch bowl type thing
um great part five coming back that winds its way through the whole thing was just
very very impressive six again the little um
you know sort of short four-way play up and over around and down into this huge
bowl at the foot of the dunes Pond yeah eight back Great Golf hop nine closer of
charge of the year goes to okay I mean just an insane green again the the whole thing was remarkable and I
yeah we talked a bit about second courses but you can just get it so wrong by
dismissing these second courses yeah but you also I think the second courses themselves can get it wrong like where
um where Castle Rock got it right is they didn’t try and squeeze 18 holes out of
it they didn’t try and make it long or you know that’s just they were no Force
carries it was just a perfect Junior course perfect course to learn on
it’s a perfect course if you just want to Rife around for an hour and a half and get going which is exactly what we
were looking for yeah and um and it’s fair to say we had a fairly
heavy night the night before and we weren’t 100 on our on our mental wit
and we just stood there on the First Take blowing the cobwebs out and we had the
uh with the Vibes going a little music on the course just a great addition we were the only people on the course so
let’s caveat with that we’re literally the only people on the course and uh well everything from Hall and Oates to Santana and it’s just nice a
Spotify group session going so all the phones are playing all synced up all walking around with the same same beats
going music on the golf course can be a real game changer it was it was it was vibey it was just like standing over there
listening to the Santana I think on the story I found that anything sound good just insert the word Vibe here for vibey
it was just um it was nice it was just it was a very cool way very very cool way to close the
trip I if you go to Port rush and there’s one that you that’s not built
into the heavy itinerary find time to go to the band course at Castle Rock I
cannot recommend that place highly enough and as a parting gift for this uh podcast if you’ve managed to make it
through the 40 odd minutes of this podcast so far well done to you I mean I’m not sure why you’re still here but
you are still here and um if you’ve ever asked a question are you
able to walk through a McDonald’s drive-through the answer is yes you can do it it can be done
um we hadn’t eaten a bee and had a fly and I was just and we had to wait before we get on that plane and it was a bit
clutch for time wasn’t it you don’t need that much for a domestic flight usually but we still had to drop the rent rental
car off when we’re about 10 minutes away from the airport thought we’re absolutely good as gold here
um then we have to get petrol that loaded some time on didn’t know what was inside
the airport where there was going to be any option of food so decided had to have McDonald’s McDonald’s was only
drive through which by the way just seems one of the most probably a covid thing yeah but you know it just seems so
unfair on those that don’t have cars I think I think I said to you like if they if they turn you down just play the play
the card like where you been why you being discriminatory I can’t afford it that’s exactly the sort of stuff Daily Mail could latch on to as a headline
they could run I can’t afford a cars I’m not allowed McDonald’s that’s what you’re telling me um need to make McDonald’s more
accessible you’re very much confused confused them with your with your walking until you have to walk through
while you’re getting petrol but we managed to come out at the other end with food um and it got a bit it got a bit clutch for
a bit didn’t it but we made it um it was a really gave me a big Taste of Ireland
yeah I mean there’s more so much more Northern Ireland to do yeah so much more and then and then Ireland itself must I
mean I’ve seen the pictures and I’ve always been like yeah I’d like to go there but now I’m like I really want
to go there I’d love to do more it’s just and you know flights to to Belfast flights
to Dublin the buttons absolutely change and they’re quick like honestly to
change over and get to a golf course yeah for Birmingham it it is arguably easier to go
play like a port rush or a county down then to get to to sorry or well sorry
probably a bit stretched now and I’m holding the car for sorry but say so yeah true or like you want to get up to round by Asher for example you’re gonna
you’re gonna beat that door to door if you do the flight Ross and George’s yeah maybe even maybe even you know the high
lakes or the birkdales
the point stands um and there’s just a lot going for it and
yeah I’d be really interested to see some of the West Coast stuff I think you know anecdotally there’s a big difference in terms of you know West
Coast Golf Scene versus East Coast Golf Scene in Ireland obviously the Northern Ireland is you know kind of again
slightly different the whole thing um I just think there’s a just a lot of drama on those dunes and
um yeah like what a trip what a trip I think company was amazing
um people were great the courses were absolutely knockout um
and yeah I’d be really interested to kind of get a listener’s take on it it’s always good when we get emails and stuff
after a podcast so anyone can get in touch on at cookie jar golf or contact at cookie jar golf
com more what’s the email Isn’t it but that’s the contact us inbox now you’ve
done the sign off so you might as well finish it in style just go for it thank you for listening and until then adios