Golfing at Royal County Down

Happy Saturday!

It's pouring here, and I didn't sleep well last night so I opted out of my run this morning to save myself for another 11 miles tomorrow! I woke up to more beautiful photos from my brother's trip to Ireland, and since I have quite a few golf fans who like to read the blog, I had to share! 

According to Golf Digest in February 2014, Royal County Down Golf Club in Newcastle, Northern Ireland has the fourth best golf course in the world. How lucky my brother was to get to play there while "working" in Ireland this passed week. Here's what Golf Digest had to say about the course…

4. ROYAL COUNTY DOWN G.C.

Newcastle, County Down, Northern Ireland / 7,186 yards, Par 71

"On a clear spring day, with Dundrum Bay to the east, the Mountains of Mourne to the south and gorse-covered dunes in golden bloom, there is no lovelier place in golf. The design is attributed to Old Tom Morris but was refined by a half dozen architects in the past 120 years, most recently by Donald Steel. Though the greens are surprisingly flat, as if to compensate for the rugged terrain and numerous blind shots, bunkers are a definite highlight, most with arched eyebrows of dense marram grasses and impenetrable clumps of heather."

Looks like they had a bit of an overcast day, but still so gorgeous! 

Now lets get back to the 10 Day You Challenge. We're almost finished up! I'm not a huge movie buff by any means, I'm actually quite far from it. But, I think I can pick a few movies that I've really enjoyed.

1. We Are Marshall

You knew it was coming. It's hard for this movie not to be a favorite when you have been a part of the tradition and history of this school as an athlete. Here's how Rotten Tomatoes described the plot:

Movie Info

A true story of tragedy, hope, and resilience comes to the screen in this sports drama. Huntington, WV, is home to Marshall University, a school where college football is a way of life. Huntington is also a town that learned to deal with tragedy in the fall of 1970 when Marshall's "Thundering Herd" boarded an airliner to return home after a football game in North Carolina. The jet crashed into a hill due to bad weather, and 75 members of Marshall's football squad and athletic staff died thatnight. The accident dealt a crippling blow to the city of Huntington, as well as Marshall's faculty and student body, and university president Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) considered abandoning the school's football program. But instead Coach Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) was recruited from Ohio's College of Wooster to rebuild Marshall's football program. Lengyel was not naïve about the task ahead of him, and working beside Red Dawson (Matthew Fox), an assistant coach who narrowly missed the doomed flight and was one of the program's only survivors, he came to understand his job was not just to put a team on the field, but help a college and a community heal their wounds from the tragic accident. 

2. For Love of the Game

This is my all-time favorite movie! It brings me back to my passion for softball and the love story intertwined within makes it such a great film! All baseball lovers must watch this movie!

Movie Info

This film takes a provocative look into the professional and personal passions of Billy Chapel, a legendary baseball pitcher nearing the end of his career who is forced to re-examine his priorities when confronted with unexpected circumstances: Not only is he about to be traded after 20 years with the same team, but the woman he has been with for several years, Jane Aubrey, is leaving him. In the midst of pitching a perfect game against the New York Yankees, Chapel, who has been the heart and soul of the Detroit Tigers, thinks back upon his long career and his tempestuous relationship with Jane. Aware that the stakes in his life have increased dramatically, the veteran ballplayer knows that he has some serious decisions to make by the bottom of the ninth inning.

3. How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days

This movie is a lighthearted, romantic comedy featuring my favorite actress, Kate Hudson. She's absolutely hilarious in this movie, you can't help but love her. Here's what Rotten Tomatoes says:

Movie Info

Two New Yorkers fight the battle of the sexes to a standstill (without entirely realizing it) in this romantic comedy. Andie (Kate Hudson) is a young journalist who longs to cover political stories, but in the meantime she finds herself writing for a women's magazine called Composure, where her editor Lana Jong (Bebe Neuwirth) has her writing a fluffy advice column. After hearing of the latest dating laments of her relationship-challenged friend Michelle (Kathryn Hahn), Andie sells Lana on the idea of writing a piece on the things women do to alienate the men they love, which she'll demonstrate by winning and then driving away a man in a mere ten days. Meanwhile, Ben (Matthew McConaughey) is an advertising man who wants to land a prestige diamond account at his firm. Ben is competing with his pals, Spears (Michael Michele) and Green (Shalom Harlow), for the assignment, so Ben tells his boss Phillip Warren (Robert Klein) that he's the man for the job because he understands the fair sex so well he can make any woman fall for him in less than two weeks. As fate would have it, Andie and Ben end up choosing one another for their mutual assignments, with neither knowing about each other's secret agenda as Ben strives to hold on to Andie while she does everything in her power to annoy him. 

Now, it's your turn!

What are your favorite movies of all-time?

For my PNCC folks and golfing friends, what's the best course you've ever played on?