Ballyliffin

The Great North Links Challenge has begun. The day dawned with bright sunshine and gentle breezes, after a night of heavy rain and gusting winds. Breakfast and exit from Rosapenna was smooth with excitement and The smell of competition was in the air. Our first round of the GNLC was scheduled at Ballyliffin on the Glashedy Course. Ballyliffin sits on the Inishowen peninsula in northern Donegal. We teed off in a gentle drizzle which was only present on two holes----the sky was bright blue with one cloud but the rain found us! Ballyliffin Glashedy is a terrific links course which is maintained beautifully. The greens were the best and most consistent we have played on this tour. The competition is a Stableford point system (bogey one point, par two points, birdie three points, eagle four points). Our goal was thirty points per man - which we thought would be competitive. The Ryder Cup was on our mind as we were probably the only American foursome in the tournament field. Concentration and grinding was the order of the day. Mission accomplished: Healy 30; Farrell 32; Haggerty and Considine 33 each. We attained our goal and registered a lofty (at least in our sotted minds) team score of 98, but we do not yet know how this score fared in competition with the GNLC field. The daily competition pitted Healy and Farrell against Considine and Haggerty. This match ended in a draw after Considine and Haggerty won the last two holes to earn the tie. More details later....after a few more pints of Guinness. Ballyliffin is one terrific place.