Day 5 - The Haar

Day 5 – Tuesday, August 21 – Old Head

The Haar

It was up VERY early for a 7:20 tee time, which meant we had to leave The Blind Gate House (TBGH) by 6:15. The folks at TBGH are exceptionally accommodating and had breakfast for us at that very early hour. I do not know how they do it, but the fruit and juices are exceptionally fresh and rich in sweet flavors. It was an overcast day, but the worst was yet to come. As we approached the ascent to Old head (it is a high bluff peninsula that rises 300+ feet out of the surrounding land and sea), it was enshrouded in clouds. As we rose into the mist, we were still optimistic since the weather forecast called for clearing in the afternoon, and we were scheduled for rounds in the morning and afternoon.

Now, Old Head is a new, swanky place – more of an American style plush country club rather than venerable, historic links course. It is more finely manicured and meticulously appointed with flowers and other imported flora. When we tee off, we could see about 100-150 yards down the fairway and no more. We couldn’t even see where Emmie’s drives were landing!! So, we were relying on our caddies heavily for every direction and shot. At times the Haar (the heavy, deep, thick, impenetrable, dense mist that is the inside of a rain cloud) was so soupy that we could not see 50 yards. Below is a picture of Paul and Chan about 40 yards ahead of me on the ridiculously beautiful #12 hole – at least when the Haar is not around. The green is straight over their heads about 100 yards ahead of them, and you can see a slight outline of the cliff on the left that falls 300 feet to the sea.

Our caddies were helpful, but the round proceeded slowly as you might imagine with constantly needing directions and looking for balls after they vanished in the mist. At no time in the first round could we even see the ocean 200-300 feet below, let alone the cliffs, the lighthouse or any of the landscape – not even a glimmer of sunlight! We still managed to have fun and play our usual game. Final results for the morning round:

Medalist: Jay Love (82) – a truly remarkable feat given the the next best scores were Ruberg (86). Blasewitz (87), three 89’s, a 98 and a 106.

Winning team: Blasewitz, Fisher, Ruberg, Saysana (-21 vs -9 – a laughable blowout!!!)

Skins: Blasewitz, The Greatest, Fisher (3), Ruberg, Saysana

After a nearly six-hour round we had to scramble at the caddie shack to rearrange teams, caddies and to get a hotdog and drink at the snack shack. I wish I had a picture of that scramble … like a bunch of women trying to coordinate their outfits without duplication while simultaneously trying to decide on restaurant for dinner and who was driving.

The good news is that the Haar started to clear as predicted with visibility increasing. There are quite a bit of undulations on Old Head, and Ruberg found the lower fairway on #4 – a mere 75 steps down a stone path, hitting up to a green that is surrounded by the cliffs (upper right).

[Note: at some points Blaze – with his fear of heights -  had to walk next to someone on the ‘inside’ of the course so he did not have to walk the paths along the cliffs alone). Soon, the skies turned blue and there were some wonderful vistas.

Alas, the beauty was short-lived – about 6 holes, and then the Haar came roaring back with a vengeance. The back nine was largely engulfed in the clouds and played with difficulty. Nonetheless, the lads persisted and finished the usual two-man best ball game. Of particular note during this round, Ruberg chipped in on the famous #12 par-5 hole from 50 yards out for a birdie (he had taken a drop there since it is believed he went off the island on his third shot, but no one knows for sure due to the Haar). That was followed by a tee shot that stopped 3 feet left of the pin on the ensuing par-3 that led to a tap in birdie. Note that Monachino and The Greater also hit tee shots into this par-3 withing 3-4 feet and most of them made the putt for birdie. Fast forward a bit … Ruby was cooking along at even par on the back, when on the #17 par-5, he got some seriously bad direction from his caddie and hit his second shot into the ocean [it was a dead straight pure 6-iron lay-up that others noted was mis-directed, which resulted in a 7]. He then sank a 25-foot par putt on the 18^th to finish 2 over on the back – the only nine under 40 along with Jay’s 39 from the morning round. The final results were:

Medalist: Blasewitz (81) [Fisher (83), Ruberg (85)] all others in the 90’s

Winning Team: The Greater, The Greatest, Fisher (again), Ruberg (-24 vs -18)

Skins: Blaze (3), Fisher (3), Ruberg (3), The Greatest (1), Love (1)

As a footnote to the scoring … if you have been following the scoring just a little bit, you will realize that handicaps are going up using the 4/3rds multiplier with a mini-max 4 shot adjustment cap. That explains in part why the two-man best ball scores have been in the 20’s. We are all proud of some shiny new mid-teen to low-20 handicaps at this point. When the cards are marked with dots on the stroke holes, it looks a bit like a mini-shotgun scatter pattern.

Also, if you have been following along, you will have noticed that the names Love, Fisher and Blasewitz show up a disproportionate amount of the time. For the first half of the trip, they are the leading money winners (in that order). Furthermore, we had a 72 hole tournament consisting of the net scores for each round using the better of the two scores from Old Head. The first three places got pay-outs:

1^st : Love (293)

2^nd : Monachino (301)

3^rd : The Greater (302)

The other scores were: 303, 305, 307, 307, 310.

So the best golfer got first and the highest handicaps got second and third with all others very close after 72 holes. Conclusion: the handicap adjustment system works !!!!!!

But, the day isn’t over yet. There was a raucous van ride to Killarney with more beer (Guiness, Smithwicks, Harp, etc.), more euchre, more boisterousness and more of the Jack and Jay Show. What a bunch of fun !!!

When we got to Killarney (a really cool, quintessential Irish town), it was 8:30-ish and we checked into a nice BnB - Killarney Lodge. 

Our driver had called ahead to make a reservation at McSweeney’s – does it get any more Irish than that?! We were hustling to walk there since they purportedly only took dinner orders until 9PM. Jack and Blaze got out quickly ahead of everyone else to secure our table and let them know we were coming. Jay, Steve, Chan and Bill followed 3 minutes later. The Doctors Emhardt not far behind that. When Jay et al arrived at McSweeney’s our table was waiting for us, but no Jack and Blaze. The Emhardts arrived a couple of minutes later and still no Jack and Blaze. Ruberg’s assessment: when we were walking to McSweeney’s we passed O’Toole’s Pub, and those two couldn’t resist popping in for a quick drink ahead of the others. All agreed and a flurry of texts and phone calls were made.

But Ruberg was wrong. When Jack and Blaze walked into the pub 10 minutes later (having NOT responded to any texts or phone calls), who in the world would you believe walked in with them ?!?!?!? Susanna!! Yes, the same Susanna that doubled up in Paul’s seat on the airplane and broke it. Some karmic forces were truly at work here. As Paul explained it, he and Jack were walking to McSweeney’s when they passed the outdoor seating at O'Toole's. Paul glanced at the place and there sat Susanna. She saw him at the same time and magic happened.

Susanna joined us for dinner and drinks (note that she asked Steve if his GRANDKDS were in college! Wow, was that an indication of the age gap between us!!!). Susanna fit right in and was engaging with the whole group – so much so that Jay actually ate his whole dinner before making phone calls back home.

    

We had a lovely time at McSweeney’s (they were VERY accommodating with serving us dinner so late). The sane ones went back to the BnB to sleep after a very long day. The crazies went out with Susanna to pubbing (or is it clubbing?). Paul allegedly got back by 2AM, but the only thing we know for sure is that he was at breakfast the next morning.