Thoughts From the Road

I've a few minutes available for hunting and pecking of the keyboard variety, so some thoughts from here as well as the wider golf world.

It's The End of the World as We Know It - That's perhaps a bit on the melodramatic side, but let's throw together some observations and writings.  One of the best commentators on the Brussels power grab has long been Andrew Stuttaford, and this post sums up the current state of play in forthcoming the Scottish Independence vote:

Scotland votes on whether to break from Britain on September 18. It’s long been assumed (including by me) that the “no” vote would win pretty comfortably, but, particularly in the wake of a disastrous performance in the second of two big independence debates byLabour’s Alistair Darling, the momentum is now clearly with the nationalists.

And this from a WSJ piece to which Andrew links (behind paywall):

A poll released by YouGov on Tuesday showed a surge in support for Scottish independence, giving a boost to the “yes” campaign and its leader, Alex Salmond, currently head of Scotland’s semiautonomous government.The YouGov poll showed that the margin of voters opposed to independence over those in favor has shrunk to six percentage points, from 22 points less than a month ago.

And Andrew gets to the crux of it here:

In the abstract, I’d be in favour of Scottish independence. As it happens, my ancestry is about forty percent Scottish, but beyond that I like nations taking control of their own

First Minister Alex Salmond with "Aye" cakes.

destiny (Flanders, soon, please, and Catalonia too), not least because it gives the lie to the claim by Brussels that the nation-state is over (it says something that there are now more countries in the world — and Europe too — than ever before: It is the centralizing, top-down EU model that is old school). In Scotland’s case, however, I don’t think that full independence is yet the way to go. The country already has a great deal of autonomy, with more ( the misguided “devo-max“) on offer. The best next stage from here would be to move to a fully federal U.K. not least because the English deserve self-government too, something that David Cameron is too unimaginative and too arrogant to grasp. Tellingly, UKIP’s Nigel Farage does not make the same mistake: He’s sympathetic to the idea of federalism.

My impression is that the Salmond-led independence movement is all too ready to cede control to the rampaging bureaucracy in  Brussels.

The one-size-ill-fits-all currency is a big part of the problem, but so is immigration.  We spent a bit of time in conversation with a waitress in Drogheda, who used phrases like "It's not our country any more."  I know I'm jumping around a bit between Scotland, the U.K. and Ireland, but the issues overlap.  The Irish have been ill-served by their E.U. and Euro membership, and it was foisted upon them through undemocratic means.

I hope dearly that Scotland votes to remain in the U.K. and that the English wake up to the threat that Brussels represents.  But these lands that we love so dearly are changing in ways that cause only the vaguest ripples in the remte reaches of Donegal (substitute Dornoch if you prefer) at present, but will fundamentally change these countries if allowed to metastasize.

So while I'm extremely happy to have Theresa's Irish passport in our kit bag, we're clinging to her American passport as well.

No more downer rants, I promise.

Scenes From the Road - Our favorite town name thus far is Termonfeckin, a small townland just

outside of Drogheda.  For those who care about such things, in the original Irish it means "Feckin's Refuge," though of course that's only useful to those that know what a Feckin is.

It's now entered our trip lexicon, with the following example of its usage: "Shouldn't we have reached the termonfeckin golf club by now?"  Feel free to use it amongst yourselves...

Our favorite town name remains the mellifluous Ballgally, where Lowell's wife Carol has a home.

As Ye Reap... - I've not seen a lick of the golf from Cherry Hills, a shame as it's a golf course worth a look (and certainly has its place in the history of the game for that 1960 Open as well as Phil's U.S. Amateur.  I shan't include Birdie Kim on that list).

But I've read a bit about our Phil's withdrawal, and I'm of a split mind.  There's this obvious note:

Call me old school, but I prefer mid-tournament withdrawals to occur when a player comes down with a slight case of pre-round broken leg. Or maybe when – apologies for the mental image - he can’t keep any food down on the course. Or even in the rare circumstance when he’s going to become a father and chooses being in the delivery room over 18 holes.

On the other hand...

Mickelson has never been shy about using his actions to help his agenda. He was never happy about four straight weeks of FedEx Cup playoff events, saying recently, “I want to

do everything I can to support the PGA Tour … But I don’t ever play four weeks in a row, outside of weeks that I’m staying at my house. To play four in a row is very difficult for me.” 

Maybe he’s using his status as a pulpit to get this point across. Maybe he really feels like two more days at home will leave him better prepared for the Ryder Cup. Maybe he’s just burnt out on golf right now and needs to get away from it. Maybe there are other factors at play that he simply didn't want to make public. For a man who has dealt with his own health issues as well as those of close family members, we can only hope he isn't masking any further problems in that area.

OK, Phil is is absolutely correct on the merits, as the schedule is quite insane.  Way too much high-pressure golf between the PGA (or even the Open Championship) and the Ryder Cup.  And that's why you see players skipping events.

But Phil wasn't one who would need to play the four straight weeks, because he hadn't done enough to qualify for East Lake.  But the zero-dark-thirty withdrawal is unbecoming and quite childish, especially at the venue where he won his U.S. Amateur and should not be condoned.

On the Ground at Lough Eske - It's very much as beautiful as it looked from a distance, and I can also vouch for their breakfasts (dinner was also quite exceptional).  As we walked the grounds yesterday, the wedding party dropped in on us:

The amusing part of the above, not caught by my camera, was that the bridal gown came equipped with a pair of hip-waders to get the sweet young thing across the wet grounds.  Not only was their transport more impressive than our own, but they were greeted a bit more regally than the lowly Yanks:

But the bride says I shouldn't be bitter.  Enjoying a drink later in front of a roaring fire, we were treated to a parade of the bridal party, more unfortunate hairdos per kilometer than is typical, but we wish the crazy kids the best.

Somewhere between Drogheda and Donegal we ran across this church and graveyard:

This was the oldest marker we identified:

The Wide World of Sport - A last minute improvisation on our itinerary is that this Friday Lowell and Carol are taking us the an Ulster rugby match.  They are quite mad about the game, having traveled as far as New Zealand to watch their boys compete.

At least I thought it was the game about which they are mad.  Carol e-mailed Theresa to explain the allure of the outing, including this photo:

Yes, the appeal of the...errr...game is becoming clearer.  Carol added that the gent in question has also played for the Irish, which I suppose makes it all a matter of patriotism and the like.  He looks a nice young man but I'll wager that he's no Lowell Courtney.

Rio Floppo - It's been one disaster upon another, but this one could prove fatal:

Gil Hanse

The Rio 2016 soap opera took another strange twist this week when a Brazilian judge ruled that no more ground could be broken at the site of the Olympic golf course. 

The irony is that course construction was completed months ago. Recent work at the Gil Hanse-designed layout, which will herald golf's return to the Summer Games after a 112-year absence, has been focused on grassing the course. Ten holes have been grassed, and five more are scheduled to be sown when Hanse makes another site visit next week.

One assumes that the right palm will get sufficiently greased, but I remain amused that the golf powers that be think our game will be enhanced (or, if you will, enhansed) by association with the notoriously corrupt IOC.  Their interests are their own and don't include golf, as the award of their games to the even more profoundly corrupt Brazilian government should, to those paying attention, clarify.

Perhaps the best outcome would be to have the course remain unfinished as a lesson to all.  

The Matches - As I peck away Madam is off getting a massage to ready herself for the resumption

Eddie Hackett

of matches this afternoon at Donegal Golf Club..  Built on the Murvagh Peninsula by the great Eddie Hackett (Waterville, Carne, etc.), the club is more familiarly called Murvagh and nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and Donegal Bay.

Madam has requested demanded an adjustment to our scorekeeping that would credit her for her back nine win at Baltray.  Awarding a point for each nine and a singular point for the overall I believe diminishes the value of the overall, but as the world has been saying for ages, "When Mama's unhappy, everyone is unhappy."

Thus the current standings are 3.5 - 2.5 in my favor, though my appeal is still pending.

The tenth hole at Murvagh, called "Round the Bend."