Bike Ride to Deer Park Golf Course

So I went for a ride last week up north of Dublin to a town called Howth and rode by a few golf courses on the way. Karen told me a friend at work had heard of the Deer Park Golf Course up there and that it was pretty affordable.

I looked on-line and found it was €1 per hole, had a great view of the Dublin Bay and rented clubs. They actually have about 36 holes on their grounds. There’s a pitch and put course and a full 18-hole course too. It’s only 11.5 miles from our place and when I woke up on Tuesday, the weather looked perfect! I was going to wait a little while before I took a day to ride up and play, but the weather forced me into it today.

It was a gorgeous day… it was sunny, about 50 degrees and only a little windy up on that part of Howth. It was perfect golf weather. I was really looking forward to getting out on the course!

The ride up was uneventful. I left the house about 11 a.m. and got there about an hour later. It was awesome; I rode by the old castle/church on the course grounds, locked up my bike, changed shoes, rented my clubs and headed off to the first hole.

I was nervous on the first tee that I’d duff the ball or lose it OB someplace with clubs I’d never used before, so I took a 5 iron out of the bag to be conservative. I didn’t hit it too far, but it was right down the middle of the fairway. I thought it’d be easy enough to find that one!

It was a great 9 holes. I wouldn’t have minded being paired up with a few other guys, but the course was pretty empty so I went out by myself. That actually let me strap my camera on the pull cart and snap a few pictures without feeling too self-conscious.

I would have played a full 18 holes but I didn’t get there early enough in the day. I was done by 3 p.m. and home safe a little after 4 p.m.

I look forward to the weekends the most, that’s when Karen and I get to jump in the car and go exploring around Ireland. On the days when she’s working, I usually spend some time working on the toy shop website, clean up the house, do some laundry, walk to the grocery, etc. But today was a day I spent out having fun in Ireland by myself… it was my perfect day!

Here's a google map of the ride up to the course.