the 19th hole
Castles and golf courses – the lost years
forced to make a decision on whether the
improbability of achieving a professional golf
career is really a risk worth taking.
Michael Green
I fought the distractions for some time,
believing I could still play plenty of golf
while juggling these other commitments
but resistance was futile. Five hours at the
golf course in the hope I’d drop my handicap
by 0.3 and grab myself a sleeve of balls just
wasn’t cutting it anymore. Particularly when
there was study to be done, parties to attend
and a part-time job to fund all these extracurricular activities.
[email protected]
L
ahinch is a town on the west coast of
Ireland. It’s more of a sleepy, seaside
village than a town but it has a quaint
Irish charm about it and it has become a
popular spot for surfers – courtesy of the
regular and very cold swell that sweeps in
from the Atlantic Ocean.
As the membership fee went from a lowly
junior rate to a lofty adult one, the writing
was on the wall. The inevitable travel bug
soon kicked in and not only was I no longer
a member of the golf club, I was soon half a
world away – golf, for a time, was something
other people play.
For well over 100 years, though, it has been
home to one of Ireland’