Day 9 - The End of a Dynasty

Day 9 – August 26 – Doonbeg (Trump International Golf and Resort)

The End of a Dynasty

We had a 10AM departure so the morning was leisurely – except for Jay and The Greatest who cannot let 90 seconds go by without some activity and went off to play tennis. The tennis courts were along the seaside and provided an exceptional view, even if the courts were not well-maintained. They didn’t have lines, so Jay and The Greater imagined who was hitting the ball in or out.

The day was MUCH calmer and warmer from the start. When we walked outside to load the bus, we were all relieved to have such clement weather. The bus ride took us through the countryside but also on a ferry across the wide Shannon River. It was a beautiful day to go ot the observation deck and see the water an ultra-green landscape on either side of the water. It was also dotted by dozens (hundreds?) of those giant windmills scattered across hilltops. It was so calm that even these monstrosities sat motionless against the blue sky.

We arrived at the luxurious Doonbeg Resort which was purchased by the Trump business some 4 years ago. They have put 10’s of millions into the place to re-design the golf course (make it more player friendly) and other buildings. The clubhouse is very cool, and lunch offered some very good and traditional Irish food. Seafood chowder (superb!), fish ‘n chips (wonderful!) etc. etc. all while looking out the window on a sunny day and the long first fairway along the coast (see picture below).

After spending time at the practice range and putting greens, we were off to the final round as well as the conclusion of the second 72-hole tournament. Caddies were smartly dressed in white jump suits as if to mimic Augusta National. As an interesting part of the design – a links course that is 9 holes out and 9 holes in – is that each hole is pretty much self-contained. One cannot see the other holes. Some in our group liked the more finely manicured fairways while other preferred the more “rough and ready” fairways of some of the other links courses we played. To be sure, there were plenty of pot bunkers and deep dunes grasses (see pictures below). For this author’s money, I thought Doonbeg was a great golf experience and I would do it again. The course was beautiful by anyone’s standards and it was accentuated by the sunny, calm afternoon. The walk between each hole was also a well manicured path through the dunes and up and down some of the dunes. I found this quite enjoyable as did some others.

On the picture above, note the medieval manor-like hotel at Doonbeg with the clubhouse to the left.

The teams were:

Bad guys – Love, The Greater, The Greatest, Saysana

Good guys – Blase, Fisher, Monachino, Ruberg.

The good guys were playing for the venerable and undefeated Jack Fisher. We could not keep track of the bad guys, but the good guys were having a terrible front (except for Ruberg) with Blase, Fisher and Monachino struggling to break 50 (which two of them did not!!!). So, we thought we were out of it. Nonetheless, Ruberg played the role of Dale Carnegie and the Power of Positive Thinking to keep the group’s focus on scoring points regardless of individual scores. Blase picked up the pace on the back nine and made a charge. Ruberg continued to play well (note: for some unknown reason, he was delivering very long drives and on several occasions was 30-40 yards beyond his teammates! Who knows why that swing was working so well today). We picked up 3 on one hole and then again on another. Coming into #18, a long par-4 right on the coast heading back toward the clubhouse and hotel, all four teammates hit drives within 5-10 yards of each other. All hit long fairway shots into the wind and onto the green (note: Monachino bladed a 5-iron that turned into 170-yards putt that ran forever and ended up on the green, running just by the hole and settling about 10 feet below the hole!). We finished the round with 3 pars, and totaled the score to -18, but we were not sure of the bad guy’s score.

When we met them outside the clubhouse, they were enjoying yet another Guinness, and proclaimed they were -20. When we confessed to a -18, the hootin’ and hollerin’ began in a most unsightly way for such a sophisticated golf resort and spa – but the bad guys didn’t care. They snapped Jack’s undefeated streak! Jack had no one to blame but himself since his 15-handicap enabled him to achieve exactly 1 point on the round. If he could have parred just 3 holes (seemingly a trivial ask), the outcome would have been different. His final score will not be published in these pages, and I will let him tell you whether he kept it under triple digits or not. Jay was surprised to hear jack’s score since jack had been playing well for the most part. Jay asked, “How many balls did you lose? Or how many penalty strokes did you have?” Jack replied sheepishly, “I played the same ball all day and had no penalty strokes.” Jay exclaimed, “You mean you shot X and you actually TOOK all those strokes?!”

Final results:

Medalist: The Greatest and Ruberg (82), Love (86), Blasé (87)

Team Winners: The Greater, The Greatest, Love, Saysana

Skins: Ruberg (2), The Greater, The Greatest, Love, Monachino, Saysana (1 each)

Later, on the bus ride to our airport hotel, when we were running the cards for skins, Ruberg noticed that Jack had mis-scored at least one hole. “Recount” was called, and Ruberg did an audit of the good guys’ team score. Alas, jack had made 3 mistakes giving the good guys 2 more points but also subtracting 1 point for a net gain of 1 point and a -19 official score. Still a loss for the good guys.