Ballybunion: The Old Course
The next day we were rosy of cheek and spirit as we climbed the first tee at 07.something. Cheery caddie and starter, and well wrapped Americans. Too early for the Cemetery we struck out and were surprised by the relatively flat opening holes. No sandhills to dominate but the wind is the master here. More subtle, more un-definable than the Cashen, with bunker positioning crafted over years to penalise the pusillanimous or wayward. I didn’t find myself in one bunker I didn’t deserve to go in or propel one soaring shot that fell like Icarus to a sticky end.
A lot of hard graft takes you to the seventh hole where the course really builds for me. Further from human form, the link fencing and the houses , here you are buffeted by the sea; this is a land of myth and legend. This was where we met by a golfing genie rubbing his lamp to grant our wish of golfing heaven and ‘’Puff Puff’’ here it was before us.; glimpses of sea, rising sandhills, rich fairways and wild marram grasses. But just as suddenly as the genie appeared the vista was snatched from our grasp by a sea fret that blew in and then burnt off. The genie would appear on the next tee while we were still engulfed by the sea fret and ‘’Puff Puff’’ it would disappear as our wish was granted again. Three times this happened and three times our wish was granted. [For illustration please refer to the Instagram feed]. These are sublime holes where any victory is a great one.
The landscape is everything. They define the layout. This isn’t a planned out and back design, two par 5s play consecutively on the front nine and then whilst the back nine opens and closes with two par 4s it runs 3, 5, 3, 3, 5 in the middle but that is because the terrain said so. Having not lost any balls on the Cashen I left various offerings for the Gods and I should have shredded my card too but the smile was just as large when I left the 18th as it had been after a great round on the Cashen.
They are difficult holes to describe not least because reincarnating them before you removes their immortal status. Mere physics cannot bind their greatness. They have to be played to be appreciated and played on 365 consecutive days to begin to be understood. You have to go, prostrate yourself, and be immersed in golfing wisdom.
