I am exhausted! During the past week I played seven days of golf on six different courses in southern Massachusetts and Cape Cod, (played one course twice) and had a wonderful time. But I am happy it’s raining today and happy to keep the golf clubs in the trunk of my car this morning. (I was scheduled to play a round early, but all was cancelled.) I don’t know how the pros do it! It has to be fitness, flexibility and just plain stamina that keeps them going.

This was a special week of golf. If you are a regular reader you know that I visited Ireland a few months back with my friend Noreen and wrote extensively about the trip on this blog. (Click to see a sample post: Playing Hurricane Golf at Pormarnock Links.) In return, our hosts decided to visit us and were to arrive last weekend. Hurricane Irene arrived instead, and so they only arrived midweek. But once the hurricane had gone out to sea, we were very lucky — a long stretch of sunshine and 80 degree weather guaranteed that every day was perfect. And as we had already scheduled rounds of golf I had to play with or without our visitors.

Monday – a charity tournament at Indian Pond in Kingston. (A difficult course with lots of blind drives… you have no idea where your ball is going to land – you just have to trust and hope for the best. One hole, I think it is the 14th, it’s a blind shot over a lot of traps and trees to get to the green. I’m proud to say, I birdied that hole… but it was more luck than skill! A good following wind can be blamed for getting my drive up in the air!

Tuesday – my regular round with the Ladies League at Hyannis Golf Club on Cape Cod. We played two ball net… and though we did not win as a team, I had a pretty good score for my handicap.

Wednesday – Four friends joined Noreen and I at Ballymeade Country Club in Falmouth What is it about the 9th and 18th holes on this course? Each ends with a small pond between the fairway and the green. And it’s inevitable. That water gets into my head and I always lose a ball. I shouldn’t even be writing this down… it will penetrate my inner psyche and I’ll never get over the water! But it was a great day for golf!

Thursday –  Our friends from Ireland finally arrived Wednesday evening. We wined and dined and the next day headed out to join our usual Tee Club at The South Shore Country Club in Hingham. It’s a challenging course, especially the back nine. With only a few hours sleep to adjust to our time zone, the two women from Ireland played quite well.

Friday – We decided to give the Irish girls a taste of our own “links” like course, and took them to Souther’s Marsh in Plymouth. This is a unique course that winds through 100 year old cranberry bogs. Make a mistake and your drive goes right in the drink. Hit it well, and you are rewarded!

Saturday – This was the day we had set aside for our own version of the Solheim Cup! The Irish vs the Americans. We played the Jones course at Pine Hills in Plymouth. We created our own uniforms and did our best! The format was match play and through the first 17 holes our two teams were well matched, halfing most of the holes, never getting ahead by more than one or two holes. But in the end, it was the tenacity and skill of the Irish that beat us. It all came down to the short game. The greens at the Jones course are like putting on glass! and our Irish friends were just better at it that day.

Finally, Sunday – We headed back to Indian Pond for a second chance at playing all those blind holes. With four more friends joining us we set up two teams, the Irish and the Americans split between the teams. Happy to say my team won by four!

What a week of golf. I think I’ll day a day or two off before I head out again.