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A
Dreamer And A Doer – Pat Ruddy's
European Club
takes its place among the Irish Golfing
Giants.
By
Ian Cruickshank
The
Irish are masters of the word. Although
the Emerald Isle is a relatively tiny
place, it's long been home ground to the
world's finest writers, singers and talkers.
Just a partial list includes Yeats, Shaw,
Wilde, Beckett, Joyce, Behan, even Bono
from U2. The language here flows as creamily
as the head of a pint of Guinness –
and in fact after of couple of pints the
locals will have you convinced that it
was really an Irishman named Willy O'Shakespeare
who wrote all of those English plays and
sonnets.
One
of the current masters of the word is
Pat Ruddy. His mezmorizing lilt rises
higher and higher as he gets wrapped further
into the conversation until it finally
bursts into a storm of laughter. The conversation
is usually attached to his passion. A
well known golf writer and publisher,
for years Ruddy dreamt about building
his own place, a links layout that would
be mentioned in the same breathe as such
Irish classics as Ballybunion and Lahinch.
For most folks it would be nothing more
than pub conversation, a fantastical idea
that never gets farther than the end of
the bar.
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But
Ruddy is both a dreamer and a doer.
In 1987, he saw a small snippet in
the Dublin papers about a piece of
land that curled around the edges
of Brittas Bay, an hour south of Dublin,
that was coming up for sale. Ruddy
being Ruddy, was able to borrow a
helicopter and zipped above the desolate
stretch of sand, marsh and farmland.
When he saw that dunes that heaved
higher than Sophia Loren's breasts,
he fell instantly in love. After scrapping
together enough financing to get started
he and his family built the dream.
In
1992 The European Club made its debut
and was an immediate success, even
a place of pilgrimage. In 2002 in
preparation for the British Open,
Tiger Woods and his pals Mark O'Meara,
David Duval and Scott McCarron played
the course with Tiger throwing down
a sweet 67, the new European Club
record. (In the first ten years of
the club's existence, the winners
of 35 major titles had made the trek
to the Club.)
A
little while ago I had the chance
to make my own trip to the European
Club and met Mr. Ruddy. He was standing
in the doorway of the pro shop, directing
visitors to the adjacent restaurant
and offering menu suggestions. "You
can't go wrong with the stew and the
apple tart. It has a nice bite to
it," he promised in an accent
that floated northward at the end
of each sentence. Ruddy is never short
on suggestions or stories and we talked
about some of the other courses he's
designed including Druids Glen, Ballyliffen
and the 36 holes on the Isle de Montreal.
"I love Montreal. The golfers
are maniacs. As soon as the season
starts, they're out there at 6 am.
It's wonderful," says Ruddy.
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His
heart though is at the European Club and
I can see why. The course has all the features
of the very best seaside layouts. The uneven
fairways dip and climb through the shaggy,
links land and are threaded through big
shouldered dunes that are whipped by the
breeze slicing in off the water. It's an
isolated spot. The only sounds you hear
are the rumble of the waves that break on
the beach running along the back nine and
the high pitched bleats from the sheep sheltering
in the field above the 17th tee.
What
makes the place especially memorable though
are the quirky bits. The bunkers are lined
with railroad ties. "Bunkers are hazards,"
reasons Ruddy. "They are not meant
to be pleasure beaches. They are places
of penance. Why have them if not to punish?"
The green on the 12th hole stretches an
astounding 127 yards making it the longest
green in golf. "When we decided to
build a new green at 12, I didn't have the
heart to tear up the original, so it kept
growing," he says mischievously.
And
instead of just 18 holes, the European Club
has 20."We opened two extra holes –
par 3's known as 7a and 12a – giving
us a 20 hole round simply because we like
the game enough to play a little extra."
he says. My favourite Ruddyism though is
on the scorecard. In bold red letters running
along the top of the card are the words
– Stay Awake – Get Around Without
Delays – You Are An Athlete. At the
bottom of the card is a small box where
players are invited to write, What My Score
Should Have Been.
There
are a number of other top-notch courses
in the Dublin area including the Montgomerie
and O'Meara courses at Carton House, the
36 holes at Druids Glen, the K-Club which
hosted the Ryder Cup , the Island Course,
Royal Dublin and the two courses at Portmarnock.
For
more information on golf in Ireland, contact
www.tourismireland.com
06/09
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