Ireland the Sequel

It is not often that a sequel is better than the first...in fact I cant think of any sequels that top the first movie or book. My golf experience in Ireland however is a different story. As I said in the first post about Ireland we stumbled onto the little course had to rent old mismatched clubs. Yet still this was a great experience because it was my first golf experience in Ireland. My next time would be light night and day compared to that day. On the next trip i would have a chance to play Adare Manor, Home of the Irish Open. It all starts getting off of a plane at about 6 in the morning Ireland time...Well I should say it all starts with a most gracious and appreciative thank you to my future mother and father in law for taking me to Ireland with them on a family trip. Now back to that plane. As the group of us got off the plane early in the morning and for us more like midnight or 1 AM we were a group that looked as though we had just been a part of a combat mission. Waiting in line lying on benches and barely able to hear any of the others due to what I can only describe as my ears being so clogged that I thought someone had jammed potatoes in them. We went to the rental car booth and Kelly's dad came back and said the van was ready for use. We hopped on the shuttle to the parking lot in the misty rain towards the vehicle we would be spending loads of fun filled hours in over the next 9 days. As we pulled up it shone like a dark gray beacon in the night...THE TRANSIT it was the most beautiful box shaped van I had ever seen. Steering wheel on the right shifter on the left hand of the driver looking like Austin Powers' family van. We piled in and headed for Adare Manor, where we would spend our next 2 nights. We had a tee time for 10 that morning which for us was really 4 AM back home. We arrived at the facility to be greeted by an old...no a VERY old castle sitting beautifully on a vast expanse of green. There were so many shades of green It looked like they had gone through a packet of paint swatches and pulled out one of each sahde of green that existed and put it somehwere in the landscape. There were also beautiful flowers and shrubbery that looked as though there were people who's sole occupation was to care for each one individually. This place was like nothing I had ever seen. We unpacked the transit and headed in for breakfast before we played that day. I am a total fan of Irish breakfasts. The black and white pudding, the sausage, eggs, and hash browns its like the breakfast version of a meat lovers pizza. After breakfast we headed for the course. The rain had subsided and given way to temperatures of about 85 degrees. This never happens in Ireland it was crazy. We stepped up to the first tee. Kelly's dad said he would hit last. Jake (Kel's brother) hit first and hit his drive right down the middle. I stepped up and crushed my drive down the left hand side. Mr. Winn came up and with his lefty swing hit a little cutter from right to left down the left hand side. The starter who had been staring at us as if trying to read our mortal souls seemed to sigh in relief that we were not just American hackers here to ruin his course and slow the entire day down. Although we were all tired, we pulled it together and played pretty well..until about the 7th hole where we all decided that it might be a better option to just play 9 that day. Coming down the 9th fairway you got a photo quality shot of the castle in the background and the amazing scenery. It was then that it all hit me...I was playing golf at one of the best courses in Ireland AMAZING!!!