"Doonut boother lookin' at the card Laddie...
                                                        it's all ya gut in the bog."

0ne of the most remembered and appropriate quotes, I have ever heard uttered on any golf links!

It occurred when my brother John, and I were playing on the hallowed golfing ground of Royal Portrush Golf Club, located in Portrush, Northern Ireland. This famous seaside course was the site of the only British Open ever played outside Great Britain. Max Faulkner won that 1951 Open and big time golf returned there from 1995 to 1998 with the British Senior Open.

Royal Portrush may also fall into the British Open rotation again in the year 2001, celebrating the 50 year anniversary of the `51 event.

We were playing the beautiful links course, the Dunluce Links, for the first time. It was a cool, windy March afternoon. By the time we reached the back nine, the weather had turned ever colder, the wind brisker, and rain had begun to fall. Of course we were well prepared. We donned our gore-tex rain suits and played on.

The old links are a sight to behold... mounds, hollows, sand hills, dune grasses, and not a tree of any consequence in sight! We turned and headed toward the sea, playing "Skerries" the par 4 13th of 371 yards. Normally a drive and a short iron, this day, into a strong headwind, it required a good drive and a mid iron approach. By now the sky had darkened, the wind increased and the temperature had dropped noticeably.

Of course the locals knew what that meant; a short-lived, but fierce squall was blowing in off the North Atlantic. As John and I putted out on thirteen and headed to the fourteenth tee, the 4 ball ahead of us (members) had already taken shelter from the squall in a hut, built into the dune behind the 14th teeing ground.

Now the 14th at Royal Portrush, aptly named Calamity, is a very precise hole, even on a calm day! This par three measures 213 yards, with a carry over an intimidating gully of 190 yards. Anything to the right of the green drops literally straight down, a good 50 feet or more. Bogey is a great score from there and certainly far higher scores are common. The green sits like a plateau, miss it right... you know what, miss it left, there is a "bailout" area, where a par can be had with a deft pitch and putt. Beware, Calamity can be just that!      More>>             Page 1, Page 2, Page 3

Photograph by James J. Von Lossow