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Sunday warmup at Portmarnock Hotel and Links...


Peter McCormick

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20250.jpgThe group shook off any jet lag on Sunday with a warmup round at Portmarnock Hotel & Golf LInks, joined by course manager Fintan Brennan and his son/assistant Mike.

 

Not to be confused with Portmarnock Golf Club ("old Portmarnock", founded 1894, which we will play on Tuesday), the Links Portmarnock as it is called is a 1994 Bernhard Langer design.  The old Jameson family (of Jameson whiskey renown) estate was expanded to hotel size, and portions of their 12-hole private golf course were incorporated into the current Langer design.

 

A true links layout, the course hugs the shoreline of a peninsula that juts out into the Irish Sea.

 

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Our host Fintan Brennan shows how it's done, teeing off toward the Portmarnock Hotel.

 

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The staff of seven (typical for many Irish courses) rebuilt 40 of these revetted bunkers two years ago and another 20 this year, with some left to do.  The thick-cut sod is harvested on-property.

 

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The mounding along the 16th fairway is "moved earth", and was created to provide a windbreak for neighboring holes.  Not sure how that perimeter cut is accomplished.

 

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Panoramic view of the 8th tee complex, which plays left to right.

 

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Peeking over the dunes that separate the course from the Irish Sea.

 

 

 

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Mark Fuller CGCS (Connecticut Golf Club), John Gall (Cherry Hill Club, Ontario) and his wife Maureen, with Fintan Brennan and Jon Kiger.

 

 

 

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Cheryl and Matt Crowther, CGCS (Mink Meadows Golf Club, Martha's Vineyard) with Joan Colleran (wife of the late Paul Colleran, a TurfNet Supt of the Year finalist) and Eric Wygant (another SOY finalist) of Shannopin Country Club, Pittsburgh, PA.

 

Matt and Eric both found a few of the bunkers. No comment on how many Cheryl found her way into. Sometimes the best way out was not forward.

 

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Frank Tichenor (Forest Hill Field Club, NJ) with Steven Neuliep (Asheville, NC), Mike Brennan (assistant supt at Links Portmarnock, and Pete Radtke, guest of Frank Tichenor.

 

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Seems like every course has an idiot who doesn't know his way out of a bunker.

 

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The Brothers Gosselin (Tom, left, from Overbrook Country Club, and John, of Aronimink Golf Club, both in the Philadelphia area), enjoy a pint after their round.

 

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Fintan Brennan compares notes with Doug Ayres, who won his place on the trip by submitting the winning video in the Aquatrols Smart Water Video Challenge.

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