Day 9 of 21 "Ballyneety Golf Club"

 Another sunny day. Our luck continues! 🍀

We slept in, ate snacks for breakfast, then walked with our clubs on a pull cart to the Ballyneety Golf Club restaurant "The Vines" for lunch and blog posting before our tee time at 2:58pm. It gets dark around 9pm, so there was plenty of daylight to finish 18 holes.

I've been wanting to try Irish leek and potato soup for a very long time, and today I was finally able to order it. Unfortunately, it was a disappointment, a bit bland. But the Caesar salad was excellent. Patrick also ordered Caesar salad and added grilled chicken to his. The chicken was fresh and tender.  I've heard that about Irish food. Overall, it's fresher and tastier. Most of the time, that's been our experience. 




As we walked up to the clubhouse, we saw a large group of players on the first tee box. Many were wearing the same shirt, so we made an educated guess that this was a golf league. We're not sure if that was the case, but it sounded good.






A view of the local Ballyneety neighborhood from the clubhouse. We've decided it's a small, affluent bedroom community just a short commute to the city of Limerick. It's quiet and safe, and very clean. The town of Ballyneety is so small, if you blink, you'll miss it, but it's got everything we need.



While eating lunch, the clubhouse was filled with families celebrating communion day for the wee ones. We saw several young girls in white dresses. If I hadn't seen the article in the Irish Times a few days before, I wouldn't have known what was going on. The article mentioned that children receive between 500-1000 euros for this milestone, and questions are arising, "Is this a nice ritual, or a bribe?" by Rachel O'Dwyer.  Patrick noticed that one young boy, about age 9, was holding his coca-cola as if it was a pint. 😂 Likely mimicking his "Da" (dad) without even realizing it.


Patrick's niece, Colleen, turned 40 today, so wished her a very happy birthday from across the pond. She's celebrating with her husband on vacation, sans children! Now that's a restful week for her, including a peaceful mother's day on Sunday. 🌹

And now for a bunch of golf photos. It's still sinking in that we are really really here.





                            These life preservers at every "deep water" pond are hysterical to me.



                                                A view of our Airbnb from the golf course.








                            The clubhouse from the #9 tee box. It was quite a hike to get there!


We walked all 18 holes and were glad to see that the back nine was a lot less hilly than the front nine.

Fairway #18 is below.

The clubhouse stored Patrick's backpack with computer, and they usually close at 7pm, but the woman in the pro shop stayed open until we finished at 7:30pm. We headed straight for the convenience store that closes at 8pm sharp, bought breakfast items, ordered take-away burgers at "Gourmet Kitchen," and while we were waiting for our food, a family was leaving the pub. It was another communion party with a young girl in white. It's common for families to celebrate in pubs, and the children are usually gone by 9pm. I've also included photos of the Garda (police) station/bus station, the convenience store, the pub, and a beautiful home that sits on the village corner. 






                                         This is all there is to Ballyneety. What a find!

                      We'll watch for Northern Lights tonight, but not keeping our hopes up.

And tomorrow, we'll rest and watch the final day of the Wells Fargo Championship. It will be so great to see Rory McIlroy win. 🏌


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