OF COURSE I'LL ADMIT IT. I’m addicted to golf. Whether playing it, watching it, reading about it or even sometimes writing about it, I just can’t seem to get enough of the game. Having indulged this addiction around the world, there is one aspect of this engrossing obsession that’s yet to be fully satisfied, a proper understanding of the oldest and purest form of the game. Links golf. I did once hack round Royal Liverpool not long after first swinging a club but the memories of that initial encounter at Hoylake are both dim and painful. Consequently, I feel like half a man. I mean, how can you possibly call yourself a golfer when you don’t really know how to play a traditional links? The opportunity to go to Ireland and put that right was just the type of fix I needed.
For the uninitiated, the word ‘links’ is derived from the Old English word ‘hlinc’, meaning lean. It originally referred to the sandy area of land near the seashore. Over the course of time the elements (not the last time you’ll hear them mentioned) moulded this land into the kind of grass-covered dunes we’re now familiar with and it was here, presumably because it wasn’t much good for anything else, that our ancestors started playing golf. Ireland claims to have nearly a third of all the links courses on the planet and when you see the ‘lean’ but ruggedly beautiful coastline in the southwest of the country, it’s not hard to understand why Henry Longhurst called them “the greatest courses in the world, in layout, in scenery and in atmosphere”. The perfect place, then, in which to learn at last about the nuances and subtleties of this centuries old art.
My lessons would begin some 40 minutes from Shannon Airport, along the coast of County Clare on the course that Greg built. Situated on a mile and a half stretch of land adjacent to the crescent-shaped Doughmore Bay, DOONBEG is the famous new kid on the block. Opened in 2002 and designed by Greg Norman, this par-72 course measures 6,885 yards from the back tees and despite its youthfulness, it’s set up in two classic loops, nine out and nine back. The raised first tee gives you a panoramic if somewhat daunting view of the course as its undulating dunes hug the stunning coastline, with the breakers thundering in as far as the eye can see. The temptation at this point was to take up surfing but that wasn’t what I’d come for.
Having been lulled into something of a false sense of security over the first three holes, all of which are relatively sheltered, it was something of a shock to suddenly find the ocean only 50 yards to the left of the 4th tee. From then on it’s clear that this is links golf as it’s supposed to be.
The 8th is a long par-five which involves a tricky uphill approach shot to a green completely at the mercy of the wind. The 9th is a devil of a par-three that runs parallel to the adjacent beach. Go left here and you’re in need of a bucket and spade; go right and you’re faced with three deep pot bunkers ideally placed to absorb any misdirected tee-shots. Staying straight and hitting a long narrow green is the best, although not necessarily the easiest, option. Look out also for the imaginatively placed pot bunker on the 12th. You’ll find it somewhat incongruously in the middle of the green. By the time I’d reached the 13th, with its blind tee-shot through the dunes, I felt I was slowly beginning to understand some of the basics of links golf. Not, however, enough to help much with my tee shot at the short 14th. With its small green precariously placed just the other side of a huge crater, and the sea directly behind, it’s destined to be a much talked-about hole.
My Radio 2 colleague, legendary Irishman and Togmeister supreme, Terry Wogan, is a member of the club’s advisory board (along with the likes of Ronan Rafferty). Not surprisingly, he loves the place. To him, it’s a more difficult course than, say, Lahinch and “as spectacular as anywhere in the world”. It certainly looks more mature than its age and when the new clubhouse is finished it’s set to be a top destination.
As an introduction to my lessons in links golf it was fabulous, though little did I appreciate how fortunate I was to have played it in relatively benign conditions.