They wait for the arrivals of the stage coaches bringing in the players and its not long before there is a stream of the fancy dressed gathered on the board walks of the main street. Distinctive jumpers and a rainbow of slacks contrast against the greens men, some wearing their best PVC and rubber boots, others with an inkling of a corporate uniform - and a few who have brought bits of a hedge on century old jumpers.
Its high noon and from the saloon walks the man who wears red on a Sunday. There is a hush lasting minutes. The red shirted man steps onto the dusty street and from the far end of the street walks Aidan O'Hara. The two men slowly move towards each other eventually stopping 30 ft away apart at either end of a swathe of the greenest grass.
Aidan reaches into his pocket, pulls out a golf ball and throws it towards the man in red. In a flash, this player takes hold of a putter offered to him by his caddy. He lines up with the hole in the swathe of green grass, takes aim then strikes the putt straight into the cup. As the ball rattles around, the onlookers wait for a second before erupting into applause -
'These are the best ..', said Tiger in 2002.
2002 was very special because Tiger Woods won and to a man, the course and notably its greens were described as the best, including the Majors.
To dispel any insinuation about Amsterdam, Aidan O'Hara is the Golf Course Superintendent for Mount Juliet (and Fota Island) and whilst he is so laid back he's horizontal, its because he looks after a course which gained an unrivalled reputation not because the deep rough is full of weird looking plant species. He simple grows the best grass.
Greenkeepers, Superintendents, gurus, whatever title they claim, they are a protected species. At club level they can be heroes or villains. They flit from bush or drive boarded up tractors - or work only at night - when there is any hint of trouble around in the form of bad drainage, bad weather or over use.
When they are very good, they get more job offers and head-hunting requests than the best in City analysts. They also pass trends around like bored housewives or teenagers. The completely daft wobbly fairway reshaping on old courses was easily trumped when oval greens suddenly had to resemble a design by Salvador Dali. How many times does a good drive find an indent of rough when just yards longer or shorter, it would be perfectly playable or what putting skill is there in having to put off a green to get back to a pin set into a newly created niche? Its a grossly stupid way to make the game more difficult for the average golfer and this fiddling has the added problem of persuading more people to think they can join the small number of very good course architects.
I have not called on the skills of Harry Potter to find the Greens Compound at Mount Juliet, as is more than common in protecting the greens staff from interrogation by members and visitors. No, I am going to play Mount Juliet in the company of the great man of greens. He is standing next to the 1st tee. Its with trepidation that I move forward and hope that the tee is truly flat so that I don't have to re-peg for a fair stance.
As an afterthought, I could play snooker on the tee.
For the Tour Professional, the 1st and 2nd will be placed drives and very short irons in to those special greens. From the member's tees, this is a Nicklaus course and as such has wide fairways, bunkers which can be escaped from if you find the middle to back of the sand, and many greens which are better approached with a fade. Even if you possess a handicap verging into the 20s, a good drive and a bold pitch and you could be starting par par. Things are much more challenging though for holes 3 and 4.
Before getting to the water on the 3rd and 4th (lots of it), how were the first two greens? They look incredibly young, the tiniest leaves of grass making a carpet over some subtle slopes with little shelves and hollows here and there for championship play. On a number of occasions, the front of the greens have a narrower entrance and broaden out at the back. Put a pin here and players can criss cross from bunker to bunker.
Its a stroll down the hill to the 3rd tee to be faced with a lake and green and a little strip of land for the percentage player. The green is generous so bravery is all about the strike. Rising gently from front to back, I ask Aidan about their (the greens) present speed when a long putt which I think I've over-hit just reaches the hole. This is a perfect carpet which can reach speeds that would embarrass even the best but for the 2002 Amex, Aidan had to keep the speed at around 12 on the stimp meter. We've not played anything yet with huge slopes but a front pin here and the very best could screw a ball back into the water. I'm happy with my par as will be 99% of all visitors.
Hole 4 needs something long and straight from the tee and even then, a regular visitor may well play short of the green which has water half front, right and behind. Players possessing a little draw will be more comfortable.
The fifth allows a player to open their shoulders then for the brave, try to carry the approach defining crowd of sand 100 yards short of the green. Even if you make it over this expanse of bunkers, unless you've hit it far enough to be looking up the green its a wasted shot. Strategy is a must again.
The 6th needs a long iron fade and if you push you tee shot at the 7th, you'd better be able to produce a banana of a second to find the long green. Keep left for a chance at a par when you are trying to hit a green which is a few clubs long. The 8th is a long par five, our of reach for most and one where the landing area for a long drive is narrow and to find a position looking straight up the green requires another perfect long shot. Most will play across to the green, from over 130 yards.
The 9th needs a faded tee shot to run past the bunkers and probably presents the first occasion when the green design has some slopes which, if the green were prepared as natural linoleum would make some putts indecent. Hole 10 needs a perfect power fade to put the green in range - and like the 5th, the carry over the wasteland of very deep bunkers needs to be more than just that, making it to the front edge of the green. There is a distinct positional area left and this is first of two more old fashioned greens, a bit links like, lots of subtle borrows and rolls.
Its at this point in our round that I press for the secret of these greens, whether they are fast or controlled in pace. How does perfection happen? Aidan talks of a top dressing, enough of the stuff to have taken away some of the slopes and borrows that Nicklaus had intended and left when the course had first opened. The greens have been re-laid and the slopes exaggerated so that with time, they will go back to the way they were intended.
The top dressing question is obviously the secret. My grandfather used to joke with me, when I was a child, that Coca-Cola was made from crushed beetles. I didn't care then - I just liked the stuff - so if Aidan did reveal that his secret was mashed cornflakes mixed with strawberry jam, I would have taken proper note and passed it on. No, we were just going to talk about the top dressing and that was it - it was good stuff, the best.
The 11th is made by the deep bunker in front of the green. Its not a long way and it plays so. Visually the whole course, the views to the greens, everything appears shorter than it actually is. A yardage book will save shot after shot but this design facet does give a player a boost to try for a big shot. When the pin is back on the 12th, anything short will leave a huge breaking putt up a roller coaster of a green, a spine coming in from the left all part of the difficulty of the approach.
There are now four par fours left in the last 6. They are not brutes of holes and the first has another drive asking for a fade to the crest of the hill. Its now that the problems really start. At the front of this green is a tea tray of a ledge, 95 % of the green set back into the hillside on the other side of the valley. Its a tough approach putt if you go past the hole on any part of the green - if Aidan ever needed balls for the Pro Shop, he only needs to use the extreme front pin to come back the following morning and feel as if he is fishing for birthing salmon in a rocky mountain stream.
The 14th has bunkers all around the green and Hole 15 is much the same - find the fairway and you then will have a mid to short iron to another fortress green. The 16th is one of two long par fours (the 18th is the other). They play in opposite directions so one will be very tough. Seventeen is a big par five with a very small landing area - if you want to have a chance of going for the green is a tee shot which requires precision as well as length. Three trees ask the questions - carry the one on the left or draw the ball round it - or place it in a 15 yards wide rectangle defined by the two sentinels right. The green is a dropped handkerchief.
Its not been the best of rounds of golf but there is another course to play. Hidden away in a copse in front of the very splendid hotel is the Putting Course. I get to meet the designer of 18 holes of putting along banister rails that bend and twist and dive here and there. This is a true description of the lines required to try to hole in one on all eighteen. What you actually get is individual long greens bordered by little lakes and streams or set on raised ground so that even a lay up needs precision whilst the brave are foolish. Never had so much fun on a golf course and Aidan tries his best to show us the percentage play. This enigma is at his happiest having fun whilst being very shy about whether he actually is the course record holder.
The players returning to Mount Juliet this Autumn will face a different challenge to that from September 2002. There will be much more rough and with a date four weeks later, Aidan will present the reds, oranges and yellows on the estate trees for the end of season, to go with fairways which are already perfect mid summer - and the greens. He looks a little worried and who wouldn't be when the only way is down, even slightly, having had the ultimate compliment.
There will be praise come early October, lots of it. Mount Juliet, as an estate, is in the elite of courses and hotels. Its so beautiful and all the facilities are cared for with pride. If is good enough for the best players in the World, its good enough for you.
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