Memories of ‘the Brad’ at Blainroe
BLAINROE lost a direct link to the late Harry Bradshaw when John McDonald retired as head professional last year.
Having grown up next door to Delgany, he began his career as a 15-year old assistant to “the Brad” at Portmarnock Golf Club and learned from the master, who was then
64 and long past his best.
“Harry was still playing two or three rounds a day,” McDonald told the official PGA website recently. “The Americans used to fly in just to play with him. I remember one American millionaire, he was a member of Winged Foot, jetting in every August to play golf with Harry for a week.
“So he was out playing most of the time which meant that I was looking after the shop, often by myself.
“I got to meet so many people. The Irish Open was resurrected at that time so we had Nick Faldo and Seve dropping in to the shop to say hello.”
John continued: “It was a great start to my career but working for Harry wasn’t easy. He had come up the hard way, so he didn’t give me anything. But I was pretty easy going and because he knew my family from Delgany we got on fine.
“He did come round a bit and helped me with my game, particularly my short game, he was an artist when it came to pitching and putting, he was absolutely wonderful.
“You’ll not believe this, I was in the shop one day when he burst in through the doors, he was a like a little kid.
“He had been out playing with a member and he had 19 putts for 18 holes, the member confirmed it later. He was convinced that had Jack Nicklaus been playing his long game he would have broken 60!”
Appointed as Blainroe’s first fulltime professional in 1983, John retired last year to spend time with his late wife Sharon, who was coping with cancer.
“I used to love listening to him because he was a great story teller,” he added. “He would tell me about all the great players he had come against. He had an unbelievable memory and could recall the shots that he had played right back to the Ryder Cup.
“The Americans would come in and ask him to tell them about the bottle incident at the 1949 Open Championship and he would always finish the tale with the line – ‘and sir, I have been drinking milk ever since!’”