Shandon Ladies @ Lough Erne

Thursday morning my friend Patricia and I drove the two hours to Lough Erne for an away golf weekend--55 women from Shandon Park Golf Club in attendance. We stayed in a 3 bedroom lodge with four other women. Our tee time was 2pm and off we went to play 18 holes on the parkland Castle Hume course, followed by a very good dinner. I didn't bring my camera so can only relate that it was a beautiful sunny day on a lovely course. In the evening we had a sort of games night involving   popping balloons and passing mints on straws. In a way, kids stuff, but also a lot of fun with women you have gotten to know and love.

The highlight was day 2, when we played the Nick Faldo course. Oh my word. The course wraps around a lake and at some point there are lakes on either side of you. Here is Lough Erne resort in the background as I stand on the first tee, blissfully unaware of what lies ahead.

The course is so long we all had buggies--and it still took more than five hours to get around. We delayed our 11:50 tee time until 1:20 because it rained heavily all morning. By the time we played it was dry.

It wasn't that cold but windy on some of the holes and my trusty fleece hat keeps me warm and my hair out of my face. This is the first green--I'm looking back from the second tee. Notice the amoeba like bunker in front.

Of which there were many.

I remember being in one bunker midway down the fairway and taking a 6 iron and whacking it. Luckily the sand was hard and I got the distance I sought (if you don't catch sand, the ball goes farther). On the hole below, the green is behind the little round bunker on the right. I've taken this photo from the tee box. My friend Paula (my coach's wife) got on the green from the tee box. Bloody hell. I was just over the sidewalk you can see on the right. My second shot put me right of the bunker on the left of the green. I was delighted.

In case it isn't obvious, it is just a gorgeous course played on a gorgeous day. Here is Barbara putting, with Chris behind her and Patricia at the back--my foursome. This is the 9th hole, my first ding of the day. I had a good tee shot but my second shot went into the marsh grass on the right of this photo and was lost. I dropped a second ball and did the same thing. I thought I was aiming left--where there's a narrow fairway approaching the green, but I just couldn't get the angle right.

I was playing both rounds with my new irons and I have a long way to go to understand them. I used to have an 6, 8 and a 10. Now I have a 6, 7, 8, 9 and a pitching wedge. I don't understand the distinctions between them or how far they hit relative to my  old clubs, so everything is a guess.  

This hole was probably one of the most mentally challenging. The green is the bit sticking out into the lake in the distance (the next photo gives a close up). The straight line to the green is over the second and third tree from the right. But get that line wrong and you're in trouble. So we all hit straight off the tee (midway between the two trees on the left and the three on the right), hoping a short chip over a tall stone ledge on the right would get us down to the green.

It wasn't pretty but we all got there in the end. Here's the green, which is surrounded by water on three sides. To my right is the stone ledge, above which is the fairway running back to the tee. So it's basically a dog leg right.

We got all the way to the 14th hole without getting wet. But then it started raining and then it started really raining. We were absolutely knackered on the last few holes. Back to our lodge, quick change, then drinks at lady captain's lodge, then a lovely dinner, then a dance! A very talented hired musician had us rocking and bopping until 10 or 10:30 pm. I was dancing like a young thing, in an alcohol-fueled folly. To be regretted the next day. But it's hard to resist the energy in the room, when all my golf buddies were up shaking their thing. You would not have thought we'd played 36 holes in the last two days. It reminded me of my rugby days, when all aches and pains from the pitch were forgotten during the after party. Patricia captured this lovely moment when I had a napkin on my head, as you do. Former lady captain Paula started that look, which suited me as my hair had become wild from dancing. My partner here is Lorna McNamara, who is a very good friend of Hilary Bennett, the former owner of my house.

Next morning, Patricia and I went for a wee walk before breakfast. I was really lucky Patricia agreed to be my roommate/boon companion for the outing because we had a cracking time. Her sense of humour chimes with mine and what more can you ask for in a weekend companion--especially when you are slogging through some very challenging golf.

At breakfast I was told I look like an American tourist. Or like a hotel manager. I have worked at home for so long that I seem to have forgotten how to dress. I've always struggled with "dressy casual," as my wardrobe is either work clothes or dogwalking/running clothes. I also packed in a big hurry Thursday morning.

I asked about swimming in the lakes and was told the entry point is the jetty in the distance (to the left of the little island). Getting back to the hotel from the lake did not appeal to me so I want swimming in the spa pool Saturday morning before breakfast and before going for a walk, when I took these photos.

I found the light particularly captivating as we played Friday evening and it got mistier and softer. But it was also lovely on Saturday morning. After breakfast we bid Nick Faldo goodbye and hit the road.

On the way home, we stopped in Tempo, where Patricia visited her husband's grave. He'll be dead five years in a week, and she wanted to visit him and have a chat. It was very touching. Apparently he should be helping her with her golf more than he has. Then we visited the 300-year-old church next to the graveyard, where she met her sister in law, who had just arranged the flowers. Her husband's family is very prominent in that area--I was astounded to see that his aunt, a GP, played the organ for 39 years in the church. Church services were sometimes interrupted when she was called to deliver a baby.

All in all, the golf weekend was a great experience. A great group of women and golf on very beautiful (but challenging) courses.

29, 30 Sept. and 1 Oct.