GOLFING IN THE GLENNS
After a tough few years, Birr is back to its brilliant best in time for the club’s 125th anniversary celebrations. By Brian Keogh
CHILDHOOD golfing memories are the mirror of the golfer’s soul.
Just ask former Irish international and South of Ireland champion Justin Kehoe, who is just one of a host of truly fine players to emerge from Birr Golf Club, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year.
The club was founded in August 1893 as the Kings County and Ormonde Golf Club and the first enthusiasts played on Mr Marshall’s estate at Barrone Court south of the Nenagh side of the town before changing its name to Birr.
The club survived at Barrone Court until 1909 when it relocated to more suitable ground at the Glenns on the Birr-Banagher Road.
Thanks to a generous lease from the Earl of Rosse of Birr Castle fame – a family whose descendants remained closely connected with the club for many years – a superb parkland course was carved out of natural woodland and eskers.
Its post-glacial setting provides a strong challenge for even the most accomplished golfers.
“The undulating fairways, the ridges, hills and hollows represent the nearest inland equivalent to the links courses around our coast,” historian Tom Nestor wrote in “Golfing in the Glens – The Story of Birr Golf Club 1893-2003.”
It was certainly a happy childhood playground for Kehoe, whose first memory of the place where he honed himself into a top class amateur, and later a tour professional, was rolling down the hills with his elder sister, Sinead.
“We had great fun rolling the hills,” Kehoe, now reinstated as an amateur and one of Limerick Golf Club’s top players, said just a few days after taking a trip down memory lane by teeing it up in the club’s famous Senior Scratch Cup last Sunday.
“It was always a course full of character and features and it’s still a course held in high regard, as we saw with the great field that came on Sunday.”
They were following in the footsteps of giants – Joe Carr and Tom Craddock, John O’Leary and Des Smyth, and in more recent years, the likes of Padraig Harrington, Keith Nolan, Peter Lawrie and Richie Coughlan.
“It was great to be reminded what a lovely hole like the 11th is, set there on the edge of the forest, framed beautifully by the trees,” Kehoe said. “There really are so many lovely holes, which is why I went back to play on Sunday.
“It had been eight years since I last played because when I go home now, I go to Shinrone to see my parents.
“But the greens were really fantastic and the trees were a sea of colour on a lovely day. It really was very enjoyable.
“I have nothing but fond memories of Birr. I was spoilt rotten there and given such encouragement. And the club has produced some fine players, such as Richie and Mick Coughlan, who was a lovely left-handed golfer. My dad often told me about Paddy McDermott too, though I never saw him play.”
Kehoe might have added such names as former West of Ireland winner Bernard Quigley, Joe Lyons and Stephen Grant, the former professional footballer who learned the game late in life and went on to win an Interprovincial cap for Leinster before turning professional.
Senior international Billy Donlon, Patrice Delaney, David O’Meara and three-time Irish one-armed champion Bill Owens all brought fame to the club which is slowly recovering from the hammer blows that rained down in the wake of the economic downturn.
Like many clubs that expanded during the boom – Birr built two new holes and renovated the course – the crash hit hard. But while the membership has shrunk to around 400 from 800 at its height, there is no shortage of enthusiasm.
Mountrath native Eoghan Buckley arrived form Charleville via Canada and TPC Sawgrass in March to take over as head greenkeeper. By all accounts, he is already winning admirers.
“We’ve turned the corner, and we
can see the golf course taking shape again,” said vice-captain Albert Kelly. “The greens, bunkers, fairways and aprons on the tee are all coming back to their best. It’s so aesthetically pleasing to the eye, and that’s the standard we strive for.”
The course has always been highly regarded – a par-70 measuring just over 6,500 yards from the tips and still very much a challenge for the best players around as Sunday’s level par winning score in the Scratch Cup attests.
“I remember going out to watch the last five holes when Peter Lawrie shot a course record 62 back in 1996,” Kehoe recalled. “He was tremendous – a great putter.
“And I remember Harrington too because at the 18th, his tee shot ended up in the valley, which you can bomb your drive over now.
“It’s a hole full of character because the fairway still has visible traces of the ridges left from the potato drills that date to Famine times.
“Anyway, Pádraig ended up on the upslope in the valley and hit maybe a two-iron stone dead to pip Mikey Horan, who owns the neighbouring driving range and golf shop.”
Players like Grant and Coughlan, who went on to win Walker Cup honours in 1997 and then his card on both the PGA and the European Tour in the same year, still speak with great fondness of their home club.
“Richie was amazing,” Justin recalled. “His achievements are tremendous. I think he made the Irish men’s team when he was 17. Someone so good brings a bit of electricity and class to a club. There was always a buzz when Richie was around.”
Birr has planned many big events to celebrate its 125th in style.
A medal has been specially commissioned and all former Captains and Lady Captains will be invited back on July 15 to join in the celebrations.
Before that, the Annual Classic will take place from May 25-27 with the entry fee just €120 per team of four with reentry for €15 and many great prizes on offer.
Open week takes place from June 24 to July 1.
As Mr Nestor reminds us in his lovely centenary history, Birr is a special golfing place.
“We occupy the most perfect golf country in God’s earth,” he wrote. “And if this work does no more than help remind us about the physical wonder of our golf course, it will have been worthwhile.
“We should remember that we do not own it, but rather hold it in trust for our children and theirs, for whom we have borrowed it. When we return it, it should be as majestic and as wonderful as when we found it.”