Anyway, on Sunday, as in two days ago, we spent our day apart. Katherine and her sister Margaret and her sister-in-law Mary (Tom's wife - you will hear about Tom in Jared's paragraph) picked me up at 2. Margaret walked in with a huge stack of books all about Italy and plopped them down on our coffee table. She is so excited that I will be traveling there. She spent 7 weeks there alone some time ago and she is very knowledgeable on the topic. She actually happens to have a library on the subject, and now it is sitting in our home intimidating me. After picking me up we traveled to Lehinch and met Mary's two daughters which both have Gaelic names that I am afraid to attempt to spell (they are pronounced Neave and Ee-leam), and their close friend who is also named Mary. The older women left us younger women to have a cup of tea at the cafe and the four of us younger ladies went on a long walk up and down the coast. They were fascinated with me, and basically I couldn't stop talking because it was question after question. "How old are you?"..."And you are MARRIED?!"... "For almost 2 years...??"..."I'm 28 and my boyfriend won't even move in with me!"... "I'm 32 and I just got married!"... and so on. They told me my life was like a movie. I never really thought of it that way. Now that I am thinking of it that way, it is so true. I think I am probably the luckiest girl in the world.
After our walk, I was mentally exhausted. I was so glad when we joined the other ladies at the cafe and since they all know each other really well they talked a lot and I sat by the window and ate my soup quietly. The culture here is quite a bit different. I learned that the men propose first and then they go and pick the ring out together after the engagement. They measure weight in "stones." One stone is 14 pounds. They only tip at dinner, they never tip the bartender, 10% is standard, and if service is bad don't leave a tip at all. Jared and I definitely learned that one a little late. We have been tipping everyone no matter what meal or time of day... I bet we made some people really happy. They order things like juice and coca cola in pints and half-pints. I always just thought people ordered beer that way. I also learned that Katherine is relentless. She bought my lunch and absolutely would not let me pay her back for the car ride, the food, NOTHING. She is God's little blessing to us.
After lunch I went with Margaret, Mary, and Katherine to the Doonbeg Golf Club, which is really famous among golfers. They told me Tiger Woods has golfed there in tournaments. It was literally the most beautiful golf course I have ever seen. Miles of sandy beach and ocean lining the edge of the course. The course itself was even really fancy... it just looked really green and challenging. You should Google Doonbeg Golf Club and then click images. I would post a photo, but I forgot the camera. I was mad at myself all day for that. Along with the golf course, they drove me to multiple lookout points along the coast on the way there and on the way back. We saw the most beautiful sunset over the ocean. I had a really wonderful day with these women.
On the way home Katherine insisted that we stop so that I could bring Jared home a pizza. We went to one pizza shop that was closed. She said "No worries" and then drove me to the next town to that pizza shop so that I could buy one there. After getting the pizza and then taking me also to the grocery store they took me home. Jared and I arrived at the same time from our separate days and we spent our evening relaxing and telling each other about our adventures. We settled down and watched a Will Smith movie while we ate our pizza and Caesar salad. A perfect ending to a perfect day.
And now from Jared:
Lahinch Golf Club
It was a cold brisk morning and there was frost on the ground. The course had been closed all week due to frost and it was even closed today, Sunday, because of the frost. I looked up the course online and the website said they would know if it was playable by 11:30 and we were set to go at 2:00. I was praying and hoping that it would be open, looking about every ten minutes to see if a new post said it was open. I looked at 11:31 and sure enough a new post had come, “the course is open, come on Jared and play.” Now that isn’t really what it said but that is what I read. So I was super excited waiting on an email from Tom, our landlady’s sister’s husband. Sure enough at 1:00 I got that email that said he would be “calling” on me around 2:00, which means he would pick me up then. So I finished my episode of Law and Order SVU and started getting ready. Shortly after I was ready he pulled up and we were on our way. When I looked at the website it said it would be 50 Euros to play which I was more than willing enough to pay. We talked about how much I play in the states and how good I am, or bad I guess. Finally, after a much anticipated arrival we were there. He had a pair of boots that fit me perfect and he also had clubs for me. We got ready and headed on our way to the course. We got up there and we just went straight to the first tee and got ready. Now I hadn’t played any golf or even touched a golf club in about 5 months and I had to go straight up there and tee off. I was really nervous, especially after he tee-ed off and hit straight down the fairway. Well I went up, took a few practice swings and hit the ball. It went left, which is a lot different than how it normally goes-right, but it still had some good distance and it wasn’t too bad for my first hit in 5 months. Well I would love to give you a lot of detail the rest of the way too but it would make this blog very long and probably boring for those of you who don’t golf so I will just summarize the rest. The first nine holes were pretty much nothing but terrible. I had a few good hits and one par but I was either in the rough or in the rough and their rough isn’t like our rough….it is much rougher. If I wasn’t in the rough I was probably in the sand which is nothing like our sand at home. It is about 6 inches deep and our sand is more like cement. So that took some getting used to. Now for the putting, it is winter here so they probably don’t cut the grass that often so the putting green grass was fairly long which made the ball roll very slowly…..which I never got used to. My putts were always short and I usually three putted which is what tore my game to pieces. I probably golfed around a 55ish on the front nine. Now for the back nine…at this point my pride had been long gone and shot way out to sea…since we were right by the sea…and I didn’t really have anything else to lose. I was beginning to not be so nervous and Tom was giving me some pointers. He said I needed to just keep my head down and he would watch the ball. So sure enough I did that and the ball went straight down the fairway. Tom said, “so that’s how you usually hit, and that will be 50 Euros.” We laughed and then I told him that was how it usually went. So now I was in the fairway for the first time really excited. At the beginning of our game he handed me a 6”x12”x1” plastic grass thing. He said we would use this on the fairway because we aren’t allowed to hit off of the actually fairway. So I took it and set the ball down. I swung and hit the ball and it went right into a huge hole with a massive sand pit at the bottom. ..luckily I wasn’t in the sand but it was still really hard to hit out of. So now after almost figuring out putting, and now I almost had my drive back…I now had to figure out how to hit off of this plastic grass thing in the fairways. I almost didn’t want to ever be in the fairway again but sure enough I was. It got better though and by the hole 16 I had mastered everything but putting…I was still coming up short. It didn’t help that my putter had a rubber thing on it to help with fast greens. Oh…I almost forgot about hole 13. It is a short par 4 about 250 yards which I can easily drive but on this hole my drive went left again into the rough. I was on the side of a hill hitting out of about 6 inches of grass with about 40 yards to go to the green. I hit a nice pitch and it landed about 5 feet from the hole. Now I was really nervous….this was my first opportunity to get a birdie…plus I wanted to impress Tom…plus it is a Championship golf course in Ireland….so my heart was pounding and all I could think about was how terrible my putting had been….all in all I sucked it up looked at the lay of the green and it was a straight shot into the hole….i lined up and hit the ball like a man….and it dropped. I got a birdie on a par 72 course in Ireland. Yeah it might have been on a really short par 4 but who cares…it’s still a birdie in Ireland. Like I thought…Tom was impressed and I was really excited. He let me shoot first the rest of the time. Okay well my wife is rushing me now so I will sum it up…..i got a few more pars and probably shot the back nine with a score of 45ish….which was much better than the front nine. We ended our 18 holes right at dusk which is at 5:15 so we golfed 18 holes in a little over 3 hours which aint to shabby. Plus it was free….i didn’t have to pay a thing. God really knows how to provide for us while we are here and I have seen Him do it numerous times…not only in fun things. All in all said it was an experience of a life time to play on a course in Ireland…by the sea…without a tree in site….on extreme hills….on a course where pro’s play and practice…on a course that is over 150 years old…for free…with a really awesome Irish man named Tom…and many other reasons. Well that’s it…hope you enjoyed this really long story of golfing in Ireland.
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