Golf on the Links of Ireland
Golf on the Links of Ireland
ISBN: Hardcover: 1-4257-0551-0
Softcover: 1-4257-0550-2
Library of Congress: 2005911422
Pages: 203
Graphics: One map and 30 photos of courses and historical sights
Binding: Perfect. Four-color cover and dust jacket.
Published in 2006
Foreword: By Pat Ruddy, golf course architect, golf writer and author of four books on Irish links courses. Founder, designer, and owner of Ireland’s European Club, ranked perennially in the top 100 courses of the world. “Most of my friends have been golfers – a group bonded together by a common love of a simple but intriguing game. … Golf means a lot to every member of this group. I felt that nobody could live the golf more deeply than the most intense of our number until Bob Kroeger came along with his burning, almost consuming, passion for golf and companionship – marvelous to behold and wonderful to share.
As a person who played a lot of golf in the company of his father, I responded instantly to Kroeger & Sons when they came to Ireland in search of adventure and fellowship. What a great way to spend part of two intertwined lives! Sadly, my father died while I was relatively young and has now been dead longer than we golfed together. But when the Kroegers visited Ireland on a golfing pilgrimage, I saw in them what could have been if my father had lived. We could have traveled together to Britain, to America, and to other countries to play golf and design courses. It would have been exquisite. … When you do come to Ireland be assured a Cead Mile Failte, which is Gaelic for A Hundred Thousand Welcomes. Come anytime because we play golf 365 days of the year. Just say that Robert Kroeger & Sons inspired you and we will understand.”
Highlights:
“A clever travelogue documenting not only the links courses of Ireland, but also many aspects of its colorful history. I enjoyed reading about the golf courses as well as ancient sites, such as the beehive huts on the Dingle Peninsula. I also enjoyed looking at the many photos of the courses and the players. What a lovely thing he did, exposing his sons to this wonderful experience!!”
Amazon reviewer, 2014
Excerpt: From Chapter 1: A family photograph taken in 1918 shows my mother (at the tender age of two months), her mother (born to Irish parents in Pennsylvania), her mother (also born to Irish parents in Pennsylvania), and her mother, Catherine (Kitty) Reed, who was born in Dublin in 1827. The name Reed is not Irish; so perhaps she had an English father. Who knows? But I am lucky to still have this photo of four generations of women, tracing back our roots to the potato famine in Ireland. Kitty would have been 17 when the famine started and she may have left Ireland in a coffin ship bound for America or Canada …
From Chapter 11: Connemara Isles Golf Club: We parked in the gravel lot and walked through gentle raindrops to the old white stucco farmhouse covered with a brown thatched roof. Sure enough, this was the clubhouse, filled with the woodsy smell of a peat fire and Gaelic chatter of a dozen wizened souls whose eyes riveted on the two of us as we made our entry into their sacred turf. Once they sensed we were Americans, their defenses fell and they went back to their Guiness and storytelling…. The young lady at the bar … told us that one of the owners would be here to meet us when we finished. …
[after the golf] We packed our clubs into the car and … walked into the all-Gaelic room, many eyes again turned our way, trying to figure out why these two foreigners played their course in the rain. After a brief silence, a mustached man in a green logo shirt at the bar waved us over and introduced himself. John Lynch had a good story to tell.
His family owned the golf course and built it in 1995 as a community facility, not for profit, to attract tourists. He bought us sandwiches and drinks and sat down with us at a small barroom table, the kind that is level with the knees, not the hips. He asked if we had any Irish connections. …
When I speculated that my great-great-grandmother … came to the USA on a coffin ship in the late 1840s or 1850s, John told me that his great grandfather, Martin O’Flaherty, was a crew member of one such famine ship, the brig St. John, that carried Irish immigrants to America and Canada. In 1849 the St. John wrecked on rocks off the coast near Boston. Ninety-nine of the 113 aboard died but Martin survived. Disillusioned with his job, he returned to Lettermore Island and in 1851 built this thatched cottage [the golf clubhouse] where his descendants and he have lived for nearly150 years.
For information on purchase and shipping, please visit our ordering page.
ISBN: Hardcover: 1-4257-0551-0
Softcover: 1-4257-0550-2
Library of Congress: 2005911422
Pages: 203
Graphics: One map and 30 photos of courses and historical sights
Binding: Perfect. Four-color cover and dust jacket.
Published in 2006
Foreword: By Pat Ruddy, golf course architect, golf writer and author of four books on Irish links courses. Founder, designer, and owner of Ireland’s European Club, ranked perennially in the top 100 courses of the world. “Most of my friends have been golfers – a group bonded together by a common love of a simple but intriguing game. … Golf means a lot to every member of this group. I felt that nobody could live the golf more deeply than the most intense of our number until Bob Kroeger came along with his burning, almost consuming, passion for golf and companionship – marvelous to behold and wonderful to share.
As a person who played a lot of golf in the company of his father, I responded instantly to Kroeger & Sons when they came to Ireland in search of adventure and fellowship. What a great way to spend part of two intertwined lives! Sadly, my father died while I was relatively young and has now been dead longer than we golfed together. But when the Kroegers visited Ireland on a golfing pilgrimage, I saw in them what could have been if my father had lived. We could have traveled together to Britain, to America, and to other countries to play golf and design courses. It would have been exquisite. … When you do come to Ireland be assured a Cead Mile Failte, which is Gaelic for A Hundred Thousand Welcomes. Come anytime because we play golf 365 days of the year. Just say that Robert Kroeger & Sons inspired you and we will understand.”
Highlights:
- How to arrange a game with Irish club
members
- A short history on Ireland
- The evolution of Irish golf
- Two trips the author designed and took
in 1989 and 1991: 35 courses in Scotland and five in Ireland
- Details on matches on 35 courses in Ireland
and Northern Ireland
- The golf course architecture of Ireland,
including commentary on Old Tom Morris, Alister Mackenzie, Harry Colt, Eddie
Hackett, and Pat Ruddy
- Information on Irish traditions in golf
- How to get on the exclusive courses
- Tips on travel and accommodations
- Listing of courses and contact
information
- Websites for Irish golf
- Extensive bibliography
Synopsis: This book, its cover featuring a color photo of the stunning Old Head golf course, is a classic. Even though published in 2006, its advice on taking your son or daughter to play on Irish courses with club members is relevant today. Most golf clubs have websites, making communication via email so much faster than the snail mail method used decades ago. Some courses that don’t have websites are still worth exploring. The experience of playing with Irish club members is priceless.
Golf on the Links of Ireland features over 30 golf courses found along the spectacular coastline of Ireland. The author is a lucky man: he’s been blessed with a wonderful wife, five children, and a great son-in-law … and has been fortunate enough to play on over 300 courses in the British Isles and Ireland. With a passion for golf on links courses and with maternal roots lodged in Ireland, he’s always dreamed of letting his sons see the unique and disarming beauty of this enchanting island. So, in the summers of 2004 and 2005, two of his sons accompanied him on such a pilgrimage. They wanted to discover the soul of Ireland, to smell the crispness of an Irish morning on a seaside links, to hit that ever-intriguing blind shot over a sand dune. Dave, Mike and their dad played matches – some against each other and some against Irish golf club members. The author can honestly say that, although he’s played on all but one of the British Open courses in Scotland and England, his most treasured memories are those games against local club members.
“A clever travelogue documenting not only the links courses of Ireland, but also many aspects of its colorful history. I enjoyed reading about the golf courses as well as ancient sites, such as the beehive huts on the Dingle Peninsula. I also enjoyed looking at the many photos of the courses and the players. What a lovely thing he did, exposing his sons to this wonderful experience!!”
Amazon reviewer, 2014
Excerpt: From Chapter 1: A family photograph taken in 1918 shows my mother (at the tender age of two months), her mother (born to Irish parents in Pennsylvania), her mother (also born to Irish parents in Pennsylvania), and her mother, Catherine (Kitty) Reed, who was born in Dublin in 1827. The name Reed is not Irish; so perhaps she had an English father. Who knows? But I am lucky to still have this photo of four generations of women, tracing back our roots to the potato famine in Ireland. Kitty would have been 17 when the famine started and she may have left Ireland in a coffin ship bound for America or Canada …
From Chapter 11: Connemara Isles Golf Club: We parked in the gravel lot and walked through gentle raindrops to the old white stucco farmhouse covered with a brown thatched roof. Sure enough, this was the clubhouse, filled with the woodsy smell of a peat fire and Gaelic chatter of a dozen wizened souls whose eyes riveted on the two of us as we made our entry into their sacred turf. Once they sensed we were Americans, their defenses fell and they went back to their Guiness and storytelling…. The young lady at the bar … told us that one of the owners would be here to meet us when we finished. …
[after the golf] We packed our clubs into the car and … walked into the all-Gaelic room, many eyes again turned our way, trying to figure out why these two foreigners played their course in the rain. After a brief silence, a mustached man in a green logo shirt at the bar waved us over and introduced himself. John Lynch had a good story to tell.
His family owned the golf course and built it in 1995 as a community facility, not for profit, to attract tourists. He bought us sandwiches and drinks and sat down with us at a small barroom table, the kind that is level with the knees, not the hips. He asked if we had any Irish connections. …
When I speculated that my great-great-grandmother … came to the USA on a coffin ship in the late 1840s or 1850s, John told me that his great grandfather, Martin O’Flaherty, was a crew member of one such famine ship, the brig St. John, that carried Irish immigrants to America and Canada. In 1849 the St. John wrecked on rocks off the coast near Boston. Ninety-nine of the 113 aboard died but Martin survived. Disillusioned with his job, he returned to Lettermore Island and in 1851 built this thatched cottage [the golf clubhouse] where his descendants and he have lived for nearly150 years.
For information on purchase and shipping, please visit our ordering page.