Young guns key as Dundalk comes of age
THEY say Cú Cúchulainn won his legendary fame with hurley and sliotar in the Cooley Mountains overlooking Dundalk Bay.
Today, there’s a new generation of young warriors showing off their skills with stick and ball and if they keep it up, it’s likely that Dundalk Golf Club will soon be celebrating a golden generation of young stars.
After all, there are close to 300 juveniles now playing the game under the watchful eye of PGA professional Leslie Walker and a merry band of volunteers at Dundalk, which was founded in 1893 when a nine-hole course was laid out at Deer Park on the Carrickmacross Road.
The early members included a certain Major Baden Powell, who would undoubtedly be proud today to see, not young Boy Scouts, but budding golfers, learning the game at Blackrock, which became the club’s home in 1904.
“It’s just a great place to work,” said Walker, who joined the club 17 years ago and could not be happier with his lot.
“It’s a great club and it’s a big club with fantastic facilities. We have a great practice ground, a great juvenile section and it’s full for membership.”
Walker is the driving force behind Dundalk’s burgeoning juvenile programme which is rapidly gaining momentum with three Dundalk players making Irish amateur teams in recent seasons.
“We are passionate about it,” said Walker, a former British Boys champion, who, along with Paul McGinley, is a product of the great Grange juvenile programme of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
“We had over 300 juveniles at one stage, and we now have in the high 200s,” Walker said this week. “It’s just fantastic.
“The juveniles have the course every Thursday morning, and we have four different starting points for five-hole players, nine-hole players, 12-hole players and 18-hole players.
“So we get about 150 out every Thursday and then there’s coaching afterwards too. I also do a lot of summer camps, so it’s fantastic. very juvenile friendly.
“I grew up in the Grange and we had a great guy in Donal Moriarty that was brilliant with the juveniles. Every club has them and Dundalk has great people like Pauline Campbell, Jim Caraher, Vincent Conlon and Paul Malone, not to mention another 45 people who help ensure that things are done right.
“It’s so busy that it’s a juggling act, but at the same time, everybody has found their niche.”
Walker is now seeing kids he taught as juveniles return to the club as full members with children of their own.
While juvenile membership starts at the age of 10, “cubs” take their first steps in the game at eight and enjoy sensational practice facilities and a wonderful course that’s recently undergone a major upgrade.
“We’ve probably spent in the region of €700,000 in the last three years in capital expenditure, redoing all the bunkers and hugely improving drainage,” Walker said.
“We’ve made a huge investment in machinery and then Ken Kearney and DAR Golf came in and did a lot of redesign, reshaping the fairway bunkers and making it more of a championship test.”
The club celebrated its centenary in 2005 and marked the occasion with the publication of a history of the club, the revamping of the clubhouse and practice area, a gala dinner and the hosting of the Ladies Home Internationals.
It’s also hosted the AIG All Ireland Cups and Shields Finals, the Irish Professional Championship and many other major events, including the popular Dundalk Scratch Cup.
Last year the U18 Boys team won the Leinster title in the Fred Daly Trophy and two of that team, current Boys internationals Eoin Murphy and Josh Mackin, are now members of the club’s senior panel which recently created a piece of club history by qualifying for the Leinster finals in both the Barton Shield and the Senior Cup.
The selection of another member of the senior panel, Caolan Rafferty, for last year’s Home Internationals saw him become the first Dundalk player to play for Ireland’s men’s team at senior level since Mick Ferguson and Barry Donnellan in 1952.
Last month, Rafferty almost
Developing new talent takes pride of place in heart of Louth.
emulated Ferguson’s feat of winning the 1949 East of Ireland Championship when he led in nearby B al tray with 11 holes togo but had to settle for third place.
Yvonne Cassidy, whose father and grandfather were both professionals at Dundalk, was Irish Ladies Open Strokeplay champion in 1997 and is also the club’s only ladies senior international although former Irish Ladies Close Champion, Deirdre Smith, who plays out of Co Louth, is also a member of Dundalk.
Although Dundalk has produced many fine players down through the years, provincial and national pennants have been rare with the Jimmy Bruen Shield in 2004 and the Smurfit Juvenile Girls Championship in 1982 the only national titles the club has won.
But two provincial pennants in the last three years – they won the Leinster Junior Cup in 2015 – suggests they are beginning to reap the benefits of having a large competitive membership and the appointment this year of Clem Walsh, Anne Doohan and Mary Lou Grennan as Men’s and Ladies Team Directors has led to new focus on the Dundalk inter-club teams.
As for the Dundalk Scratch Cup, the roll of honour is studded with big names from inaugural winner David Sheahan in 1961 to threetime major champion Padraig Harrington, who discovered several times during his amateur career just how tough Dundalk can be.
During the 1990 Irish Youths Championship, he had a two-shot lead walking off the 14th but bogeyed three of the final four holes to lose to David Errity.
Five years later he stood on the 18th tee needing a par to win the Scratch Cup and scraped over the line, as he told Paul Kimmage in the Sunday Independent.
“The last hole in Dundalk is awkward in that you can hit a variety of shots off the tee,” Harrington said. “I was confused with what club to hit and confused with how I should swing and it was a classic example of choking under pressure.”
He drove the ball right into the trees, then duffed his recovery from a reasonable lie and was fortunate to catch a branch and avoid the bunkers protecting the green.
“I was still in the rough, which meant I had no control over the third shot but I managed to hit it to a foot. And the amount of people who thought that was brilliant and came up tome afterwards and said ‘Wow, what balls!’ And me having choked like a good thing!!”
Since 1987, Dundalk has been the home to the PGA in Ireland with Regional Manager Michael McCumiskey and his team based in offices that overlook the club’s impressive short game facilities.
As for the course, the front nine loops anti-clockwise around the boundary of the course before turning clockwise on the back nine, offering a stern test that measures 6,140 metres off the blue tees.
The opening four holes and the closing four holes have the potential to wreck cards, but in between, there is potential to build up a good score.
With its award-winning restaurant, Dine, and popular bar and first-class facilities, Dundalk has truly come of age.
With its Open Singles Stableford each Wednesday and opportunities for visitors to tee it up on Thursdays and Fridays, now may be the perfect time to drop in and see one of Ireland’s top members clubs in full f low.