The 19th hole is a place to celebrate or commiserate with your fellow golfers, an extension of the course that helps extend our time away from the pressures of life. For many golfers, the 19th hole is the hole to which they look forward to most.
Last week, while attending the PGA Show in Orlando, I came across what has to be the coolest 19th hole in golf, if not the most charming: the Pub Og.
Not much good has from the pandemic. The Pub Og is an exception. In early 2020, a group of friends from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, formed their own watering hole when the pubs were forced to shut their doors. Good times followed, and so did a business idea.
“In Ireland, all the pubs were closed for 18 months,” said Richard Hill, Pug Og’s business development director. “We had this little tiny pavilion in the garden, I think it used to be a tennis changing room, and we stuck a little bar in it and we put some memorabilia up and invited a few friends over. Some of those friends were from the golf industry, professional golfers, and such. They said, ‘You’d be crazy not to build these.'”
These aren’t your ordinary handymen who came up with a way to mass-produce the concept. The Deluxe Group, which builds sets for everything from Disney World attractions to Game of Thrones, ensures every Pub Og is top-shelf quality. The hangouts are handmade in Ireland and feature a local touch: the bar tops are from a fallen Irish Chestnut tree planted in 1756. You truly own a piece of Ireland.
While the bar top gives this pub a nice touch of Irish history, this is a 19th hole featuring all the modern amenities you could ever need. There’s an under-counter fridge that holds two kegs, a smart TV mounted on the wall, an overdoor fan and heater for all climate conditions, doors and windows up to building code, a shingled roof, and indoor-outdoor lighting.
“You just need to plug it in for some power, a hose for the waterline, and it’s good to go,” said Hill. “To help give you the true Irish experience, we include peat, from an Irish peat bog that takes millions of years to form. If you burn a little bit of it, you’ll even have the scent of a true Irish pub.”
For special occasions, there’s a secret compartment behind the bar to stash that special bottle.
With a price tag of $80,000, the Pub Og doesn’t come cheap. However, each pub is one-of-a-kind. The decor is custom to your preferences, and there’s a limit of one per neighborhood to preserve the novelty. The price includes all shipping and assembly, too. The only work required on your end is to pour your own Guinness.
I’m currently house hunting, and backyard space for a Pug Og is now on my “must” list. Though I’m secretly hoping one of my neighbors invests and doesn’t mind residential regulars coming by instead…
