 So for those of you who missed me, I've been on a little trip and it started a week or something. So that was Sunday morning and that was the ferry crossing from Anglesey over to Dublin port and a quick drive and journey over two and a half hours, other side of the country, into Sligo. Sligo was where this whole thing started and before I start, let me say a massive thank you to Lynch Pintours, Lowell Courtney who helped me organize all this, a massive thanks to Lowell and Lynch Pintours and if you are looking for similar trips then that is the place to go because he organized every little bit of this and it was organized to perfection. For what was, it was just a brilliant week for me personally and then I have a video this is to share with you but I want to give you my guided tour around for the five or six days and what I experienced and why I've come back with a little bit of man flu but ultimately blown away and fell in love again with Ireland, been there many times but not for a few years and I absolutely adore this place, but let's get back to where it all started in Sligo. Stayed at the Glass House Hotel, great locations right in the middle of Sligo on the river, nice little views there, nice little place didn't stay there long enough to decide exactly how much is going on there but there's plenty of little pubs, bars and restaurants as with all little towns and villages in Ireland and we're a little bit of a night out and come across these bunch of musicians of the highest quality that apparently had just met together few of them know one another but they get together for what's called a session and one starts on the fiddle the other one joins in and away they go for absolute hours and it was absolutely brilliant and just a it's just great entertainment it's so that the whole bar was so enthusiastic about it all and like I said the quality what they would do absolutely brilliant Anyway, that was day one That was the evening of day one following day was the real start to the tour I went over to County Sligo Golf Club It's in a place called Ross's Point and seriously the views from this place are absolutely breathtaking What I'm going to run now is a quick video of Give you an idea of what County Sligo Golf Club is all about Okay, so after the golf it was back on the move and I moved up to Bali Liffing Went to stay in a place called Bali Liffing Townhouse Which I was in Bali Liffing four years ago and apparently this place had just been sort of taken over and renovated Brilliant place to stop off really nice Rooms were superb great food in there breakfast was absolutely brilliant as well and a real good stop off there Ready and prepared for the following morning, which was to visit Bali Liffing Golf Club, which I said I've been to previously Two courses the old course and the Glashidi links and the Glashidi links will host the Irish Open in About three weeks from now. I got a real opportunity to play the course and To experience well eight just from the first team where they the sort of backdrop is in with all sponsors names and DDF Irish Open did you buy duty-free Irish Open as it is? Just standing on those tee boxes Pretending I was part of that Irish Open for just a few minutes and losing yourself is that it's a great experience And then coming down the 18th with the grandstands in place to the right of the green I couldn't help but take me cap off and wave to the imaginary crowd It was a great great moment. So again, here's a little insight to what Bali Liffing Golf Club is all about So there you go absolutely stunning Stunning it was a macular condition as you'd expect it to be for the world's top players arriving in a few weeks time But it was and to be fair when I played there four years ago It wasn't exactly the same absolutely pristine condition. What a golfing experience. Absolutely loved it But again, it was back into the car back on the travels and we do stop Very shortly for a few nights, but it was off into Northern Ireland and into Port Rush now quick tip If you travel from Bali Liffing to Port Rush, it's probably about an hour and a half drive But there's a little shortcut and you can go to a place called Green Castle and get on the lock for your ferry Which costs you about I think it's 14 euros and that's about 10 minute crossing across the lock Rather than driving all the way down to the bottom of it and round and it probably saves you about I don't know Maybe an hour's journey 45 50 minute journey Time so that was great But also I love the little ferry crossing itself a nice little time to just stop off Taking the views and sit back for 10 minutes and a break from driving in To Port Rush where we stayed for the next three nights at a place called in on the coast Which yet again, these places are all perfect locations for Experiencing the Gulf And all these golf courses are basically in the near in the near vicinity So we played Castle Rock and Port Rush which again from in on the coast to sort of all about 10 or 15 minutes away Either side so perfect locations in on the coast very good as well stayed there Quiet night in after a bit of traveling following morning. It was open out Castle Rock Golf Club for an early start It was a bit dull on the day, which was a bit disappointed and we were nicely the sun shining But we perhaps didn't catch the course in the best light in terms of the film about to show you But having said that you will certainly get the idea of again. What a fantastic place Well, this is just a golf region. It's just heaven Every golf course I have played there. I can't really find any that I've been critical of I love links golf as you well know I love golf courses with views These all these golf courses offer both of them, but then you get classic quality links tracks as well to boot So here's a look around Castle Rock and what we experienced at their golf course They're a really enjoyable day at Castle Rock and experienced some of the changes They made quite a few changes on that course over the last it reopened or the changes were reopened I suppose you'd say in about April May time and it's great to see me You'd hardly notice that the change were made this I think six holes where they've had some Alterations done and done a lot of good work, but quality work and again course superb, but then on the Wednesday evening we ventured into Port Rush Town centre, I suppose you call it a friendly body who's been there You'll know that in and around the harbour is where the sort of a lot of activity goes on one place in particular is The building that's known as Ramore and within that building and in and around it the sort of pubs the harbour bar There's another bar to the right. I think they're all part of this Ramore group and Great location in terms of a vantage point. You're right on the harbour All different types of food within these different restaurants that they clearly own and again It's great great food great great atmosphere and we then went into the harbour bar inside of the harbour bar real little quaint place loads of character Great atmosphere lots of pictures on the wall of when Darren Clark has been in there with his open trophy. Graham McDowell has been in there with his his picture of the US Open Trophy so Great history of the place, but again a great great atmosphere and then as I went to the To the toilet I had some noise coming from upstairs which sounded like some live music That's what was going on. Yeah, somebody playing live upstairs went upstairs and unfortunately That was a mistake One two one two three four As a mistake was because it was absolutely brilliant the atmosphere in there was Electric it was a Wednesday evening. It was absolutely packed to the rafters But the mistake was I ended up drinking too much Guinness and bearing mind I'm about to play Royal Port Royal ship eight o'clock in the morning. It wasn't the best idea. However The following morning storm Hector decided to hit Northern Ireland, which effectively meant there was no golf being played. You could not get out You couldn't stand up. I mean it was literally howling 70 man on our gales So we didn't play at seven o'clock. We played at around eight o'clock We played at five o'clock that day, which gave me perfect time to get over to hang over and be geared up and ready to Experience the open championship venue for 2019 and one experience it was Absolutely superb Right up there for me with one of the best golf courses I've played and again because you've got to remember What it is I like about golf course is not the same for everybody. So it ticks the box in terms of links It takes the box in terms of the views. It's right on the seed The views were stunning the condition of the course was absolutely pristine. I mean trim to within an inch of its life It was really I stood on some tea position. My favorite tea position is on the fifth green Not tea position The green vantage point is the fifth green six tea you stand there and it's just takes your breath away Absolutely stunning. Here's a look at why I like Royal Port Rush so much As much as you can see from there pretty damn special I want to like to play it with a little less wind because it was near blow me over still at five o'clock that day But that said I actually played all right around there and enjoyed it immensely And then that was our last night in the following day. We traveled over to Dublin Where we decided to have a little bit of a walk around temple bar and enjoy all the enthusiasm of the Irish people in and around Dublin city We had a great night out and I should run a clip right at the very end of this video Which will show you our little time at Dublin But what I want to talk about is before I do that It's a couple of things the videos that will come from this is every corner man versus golf hold challenges at the four courses That I mentioned so they're the videos that will come out They'll show you the courses in a little bit more detail rather than just these little overviews that I've shown you today They'll be coming out in the weeks to come I hope you all enjoy those, but I just want to talk about Ireland for a second as a golfing destination Like I said a lot of links tracks there's a lot of parking tracks don't get me wrong But the stretchy coast is wild Atlantic way as they call it It's it's unbeatable in terms of the sort of views the quality of golf course everything I've already mentioned is brilliant, but on top of that It's the nature of the Irish people is unbelievably welcoming and You sometimes question when people are being overly nice And polite and friendly and helpful Sometimes in certain parts of the world that can be You sometimes question is that because it's part of the whole tourist job that they're encouraging people to be nice and A false environment is what I'm getting at and that is certainly not the case and it doesn't feel like the case in Ireland People are so They're so friendly. They're so helpful It's almost like I said from my day-to-day life It's something you're just not used to experiencing and it is real It is a real nice touch like I said as soon as you go in the barn on the first day went the bar at county slide Go guy behind a bar comes over and he's chatting away And he wants to know a little bit about you and it's just so so nice and then back on the final day We travel from Port Rush over to Dublin and a little bit of a stop off at a McDonald's I Drive through McDonald's and even there, you know The guy just cannot do enough to help you to make sure that you've got everything you need So it's like I said a real really friendly friendly country great great golf courses great hospitality great enthusiasm And as you know when you get to all these bars Guinness music and great times seem to be everywhere in and around Ireland so I had an amazing week like I said really grateful to everybody who helped With the planning and the people with the accommodation and the golf courses allowing the average golfer to turn up and play and Film it was a real privilege, you know, and I loved every minute of it I'll play you out with our little trip to Dublin and give you a feel for the atmosphere there and Hello, I've got a little bit of man flu to get over. It was well worth it Island I'll see you very very soon and as for everybody else that's watching Give it a thumbs up the comments the likes all of things and I'll also see you very soon with some man versus golf all challenges