Ireland Visits Demand Special Preparation

The 16th hole at Enniscrone. Photo credit: Henebry Photography

Experienced golf travelers pretty much have the drill down: secure the passport, clean the clubs, check the golf ball supply, and so forth. A couple of days ago, though, I received a reminder that a trip to the northwest of Ireland – where three other A Position writers and I begin a 10-day excursion on Thursday – requires a bit of emotional preparation, too.

 

This reminder came in the form of a representative sample of images of some of the courses we’ll be playing, courtesy of Jeannine and John Henebry, renowned for their photos of golf architecture around the world. A number of these frames brought to mind a remark by the writer Richard Ford, who noted (I paraphrase here) that some Irish landscapes are gorgeous enough to make you cry.

 

It’s a characteristic shared, to some degree, by the area of upstate New York, near the Berkshires, where I live, and it’s part of the reason I chose the locale. The atmospherics here have lately been spectacular – a warm-up, if you will, for some of the vistas in store for us.

 

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