As for literature, Dublin has long
been to writing what Florence has been
to art, a place where the very best in the
business lived, worked and played. Three
Dubliners have won Nobel Prizes for
Literature – William Butler Yeats, George
Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett. The
city is also where James Joyce set
Ulysses and where Oscar Wilde and Bram
Stoker went to school (at Trinity College).
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, and
also buried there. Men like these wrote
their most profound words here and
found inspiration for the characters they
immortalized in their creations.
A number of its writers made their
marks in Dublin as characters them-
selves. Shaw may have been a teeto-
taler, and Beckett not much of a boozer.
But many of the city’s best scribes also
happened to be scratch drinkers and
were often found in watering holes such
as Davy Byrne’s and McDaid’s. The con-
nection between pub and poet in Dublin
is huge, and perhaps no one personified
that better than the dramatist Brendan
Behan, who beveraged himself to an
early death in the early 1960s but not
before he declared: “I am not a writer
with a drinking problem, but rather a
drinker with a writing problem.”
Dubliners like their literature, and
they fancy their golf, too. And that’s why
my goal during a recent visit was to get
to know its golf, and writers, better. My
plan was simple: tee it up in the morn-
ings, and then turn to literature the rest
of the day, whether re-reading, say,
Ulysses or touring the museums and
libraries that celebrate the lives and
works of its scribes.
closest course to downtown, Royal Dublin. Founded in 1885, the track was built
on a 600-acre spit of land formed in the
early 19th century when Captain Bligh of
Mutiny on the Bounty fame constructed a
huge sea wall from the shore into Dublin
Bay, turning a series of semi-submerged
sand bars into what came to be called
Bull Island. The par-72 track routed
there is one of Ireland’s best, a classic
out-and-back with firm and fast fairways, subtle yet strategic bunkers and
greens that are very receptive to run-up
shots, even when the wind is howling.
Good as that course is, however,
nearby Portmarnock is even better, as
I am reminded my second morning in
town. The opening hole is set hard by
an estuary and backs up to a small pro
shop, giving golfers an instant feel for
what lays ahead – a lovely links with
rugged dunes, gnarly bunkering and
occasional water views.
The long, par- 4 fourth that runs
along the sea is a delight when it plays
down wind, requiring a big drive with a
slight draw to a dune-lined fairway with
a series of bunkers running down the
right side, and then a precise approach
shot to a large green.
I immediately decide that is my
favorite hole, but quickly change my
mind after playing the par- 5 sixth, and
then the par- 3 seventh. By the end of
the round, I have determined that I like
each hole there, which helps explain
why Portmarnock has hosted 20 Irish
Opens since its founding in 1894 as
well as one British Amateur (in 1949)
and the 1991 Walker Cup.
True to design, I follow my round at
Royal Dublin with a visit to the Dublin
Writer’s Museum, which is housed in a
restored, 18th century mansion in the
north side of town. And I happily spend
about an hour wandering through its
collection, which spans three centuries
of books, letters and personal items
belonging to Joyce and Beckett as well
as Swift and Shaw. The next day, when
my golf at Portmarnock was done, I
wander around the Long Room at the
Old Library at Trinity College. Measuring
some 70 yards in length, it boasts roughly 200,000 of the library’s oldest books.
Of course, man cannot live by books
alone. Especially a man with golf clubs
in tow. So it was back to the links the
next morning. This time, my game is
set for the Island Golf Club just outside
the north Dublin village of Malahide.
While the retreat does not have as
impressive a history of championships
as Portmarnock, its austere course de-
serves to be mentioned with the great
layouts of this land. Holes are deftly
routed among shaggy, rolling dunes,
and the undulations of the fairways and
greens test both patience and skill.
