After Baltray, Rich and I checked into the Marker Hotel in downtown Dublin where we joined a group of 20 other golfers on their own Irish pilgrimage. There is debate about where the best place to drink Guinness is, with most people believing the Guinness gets better the closer you get to Dublin. Well, we were at Ground Zero, so it was time to collect some data points on pints.

Over the last 7 days with Rich, we have consumed several pints and I have been introduced to the local custom of “splitting the G.” When served in a proper glass, the challenge is to gulp the contents until the top level of the beer (foam doesn’t count) finishes at the midpoint of the G in the Guinness logo. Also, you don’t begin to consume said Guinness until the foam has settled and the beer is black. It requires patience and practice, and Rich was making sure I got plenty of reps.

“Splitting the G” is much like lag putting. Good putting requires mastering the speed first, and I have not solved this riddle. Greens are rightfully much slower so balls don’t blow off in high winds. They are smooth, but not perfectly manicured like the surfaces I’m used to. The winds significantly affect putts, and you have to keep your speed up on the short ones to make them. Finally, the nuances on links greens are hard to read and calculate because Mother Nature built them.

My iron game has been sub-standard this whole trip as well. This is usually a strong element of my game, but I think the sandy soil has me swinging more steeply. I like a little cushion under the ball so I can sweep it, but that’s not an option in Ireland. As a result, I am leaving myself 30-40 feet for birdies and I am three putting a sizable portion of those.

Today we would be playing Royal Dublin, founded in 1885 and the 2nd oldest course in Ireland. It has a rich history of hosting Irish Championships with winners being luminaries like Seve Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer. It sits on a massive plot of land just across from the Dublin Port and offers panoramic views of the city and surrounding areas. Winds were 10-15mph during the warm up, which is a significant decrease of what we’ve been facing.

We would be joining our two new tour professional friends, Fredrik Lindblom and Hannah Gregg. Besides being outstanding players, they run very successful businesses as content creators, merchandising, golf instruction, and game improvement kits. I have seen Fredrik hit some of the best short game shots I’ve ever seen over the last few days, so I was excited to watch another clinic. He and Hannah are very competitive with one another, which I thought was cute and reminded me of my past life. The teams were me and Hannah against Fredrik and Rich. Fredrik would play the back tees, we would play the one ups, I would get 4 shots and Rich would get 9.

Things got out of hand very quickly. Fredrik was firing on all cylinders, making eagle on 2 and a birdie on 5. When Freddie wasn’t teeing off on us, Rich was making his standard pars, net birdies. Hannah and I had zero mojo and found ourselves 5 down at the turn. We won the 10th, but immediately lost the 11th to another Lindblom tap-in birdie. Then they just choked the life out of us. The match ended 5 & 4.

Fredrik hit a nifty chip on 4 that must be mentioned. Off a tight lie, uphill to the green but over a knob and then downhill to the hole, he almost holed it. Then on 16, he made a 50 yard pitch from the fescue for an eagle. On the 18th, he hit it left under a tree. His ball was sitting on a downslope in very uneven, sandy soil about 40 yards from the hole. Somehow, he caught it clean, kept it under the branches, it bounced a couple times on the fringe and released to 4 feet. Of course, he canned it for a closing par. Hannah’s up and down at the last might have been even better.

I didn’t make any up and downs, because as most of the people following this blog know— I’m not just short off the tee, I chip one handed. But I did up and down some pints at a live music pub that evening!

Tomorrow, we play the third ranked course in Ireland, Portmarnock Old.