This seems silly to say after the episode but honestly the cameras weren’t close to doing the scale of the slopes justice at all.
Was an awesome episode I went this year with my dad / but my buddies and I will 100% go back early spring !
Fantastic episode. Loved Carne, loved the footage.
Pearl Jam is my favorite band but the Floyd comparison seemed even better.
And the third nine with the skins game was perfection. Wild golf, friendly competition. That episode was everything I love about TS.
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lol @thefriedegg would be proud
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I got it.
#25*
Did I cry during the drone footage of the 10th hole? Lock it in!
- Yes
- No
0 voters
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Such a great episode, truly their magnus opum.
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Wow. What an episode. The course, the story behind it, Jerry Maguire, the music. My bucket list grew by 1 course tonight.
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I just want to note, overseas lifetime membership for 5500€. For those of you who don’t have two kids, a mortgage, and your S.O.’s student loans to pay off.
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Dooks is 20,000€, so that’s a steal
That was inspiring. For me, one of the best parts is the clubhouse. It says everything you need to know about the place. “We’re not fancy, but we’re welcoming. And this place is mostly about the golf.”
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What a great video about a wonderful course! It’s near the top of my list. Once St Patrick’s opens up I’ll plan a trip up through Northwest Ireland to see Narin and Portnoo and Portsalon and others as well. It’s really fulfilling to help out a place that genuinely needs every customer they can get.
However, I’ll play the bad guy for a minute because who else is better cast in the role here?
When I see a beautiful gem like Carne, I can’t help but imagine how high its potential is, and what could be done about it. I remember Doak giving it a “dumb blonde” award and saying it really could have benefitted from a little earthmoving and a larger budget. And this is coming from Mr. Minimalist himself! Also, when you are playing something as wild and unique as Carne, you should expect less than ideal conditioning but some of those greens leave a lot to be desired. I’m just saying there is room for improvement and maybe a little more TLC could help them move up the rankings and attract more visitors. An investor needs to see the potential of this place and pump some money into it because it clearly should be ranked in every top 100 list/top 10 in Ireland but it’s just not quite there yet. It’s in the same boat as Askernish.
Looking at that beautiful landscape, I was imagining Jeff Bradley of C&C building the world’s best and most rugged and natural blowout bunkers. We saw a few stunning ones in the video, but also too many bunkers like this.
I think I’m out on greenside pot bunkers. They are incredibly overused in the UK and are always the same uninspired little circles. Call me a bunker whore if you want, but I would love to see more wild, natural looking bunkers in that landscape.
Lastly, I’m surprised that this hasn’t been mentioned by @Soly and the crew (let me know if it has), but a lot of these famous Irish courses are missing a core ingredient of great design. Look at the portfolios of Coore, Doak, and Hanse, there is one commonality of virtually every single one of their courses. One thing that they all implement time and time again. Width! Yes, welcome to The Fried Egg portion of this comment. It may be tired at this point, but width is truly the most important ingredient for great design. From Ballyneal to Tara Iti to Ohoopee to Friars Head to Cabot to Sand Hills to Pac to Dismal to Streamsong to Rustic to Rock Creek to Trinity to Sand Hills to Old Sandwich to Barnbougle to Lost Farm to Stone Eagle to Sand Valley to Dormie to No. 4 to Colorado GC, they all have something in common, wide to very wide fairways.
Most Irish courses have a lot of room to improve in this category. Even the classics like Lahinch are way too narrow for how windy they often are.
I know I sound like I’m being too negative, and I think you are an asshole if you play these great Irish links and complain too much about architectural flaws but why not improve what is already great? Widening fairways is not exactly asking for a total renovation.
Looking at photos of the site, I really think Doak’s St Patrick’s at Rosapenna will probably be the best course in Ireland when you take history out of the equation. I know it’s ridiculous to say that right now, but when you combine that site, with a wide and strategic Doak design and beautiful bunkering, it stands a pretty good chance.
P.S. Carne will be #cancelled by many on this forum…
Was DJ killing it on this trip? So many really really near misses on nice shots.
You said Mammoth Dunes sucks because it’s too wide, now you’re saying Irish courses suck because they aren’t wide enough? Which is it?
Also, is Doak really a minimalist these days? I think his budgets are pretty damn large.
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This is the first I’m hearing of this: how the hell did he get approval to build an entirely new links course?
Edit: nevermind, it’s a redesign. Carry on.
A complete blow up. Essentially a new course.
So I can’t believe that one candidate wants to enact taxes that are too high and another too low? Have you never heard of the phrase “happy medium”?
You misunderstand the meaning of the word minimalist. It’s not really about your budget. Doak has built a bunch of courses with relatively large budgets since Pacific Dunes.
Right, but since that land is already a golf course you get around the regulatory impossibility of building on existing, untouched links land.
The width critique is interesting, since the nature of the dunes themselves somewhat dictates how wide you can make holes without moving earth. The claustrophobia of the dunes closing in on your tee shots, messing with your lines and forcing blind approaches is part of what makes me want to go play Ireland so bad. For all the #width Ireland may lack, the dunes create hundreds of #angles.
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OK Boomer, maybe you just like to complain.
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Laughing
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