Golf at Dooks

Michael, Kevin, Margie, & Bill at Dooks

Margie's famous back swing

Today we played Dooks, a links course that is the second oldest course in Ireland. It was founded in 1889. The course was very challenging, especially because the wind was stronger today than at any time this week. It was a typical links course with some of the toughest fescue we saw all week.

The vistas were spectacular, mountain backdrops, Dingle Bay, and rolling green fairways.  The temperature was close to 80, with a bright sun the entire round. Our caddy says it was the best weather in over a year. The consensus was that this layout was comparable to, if not better than, Ballybunion. You had to bounce the ball onto the greens because the ball did not check up like it did on the other courses we played. The greens were beautiful and extremely undulating, leading to several three putts. However, the greens were fun to putt and the caddy did his best to keep the three putts at a minimum. Each of us had some memorable holes, some horrendous and some very good. In spite of the fescue, Jim did not lose a ball, Dennis one, Pat two, and Denny several. We did not get a lost ball count from the Kelly foursome, but we did see Marjorie hit a beautiful shot to a par three, the only tee shot on the green.

We played in four hours, in spite of a good deal of searching for errant shots. It was a great day to finish our golfing. We played on four days free of rain which was the first time this year that this occurred in any given week.It would be fun to return some day to this beautiful, most scenic country.

Posted by Dennis