Stephen Hunt
WATERFORD has produced its fair share of great sportsmen but former Republic of Ireland winger Stephen Hunt remains one of the most fascinating. Since he retired from the game, he’s branched out into sports management and while young Kilkenny professional Luke Donnelly remains his only golf client, it’s a game he’s loved since his schoolboy days, playing from dawn to dusk at Carrick-on-Suir.
1. How’s your golf?
It’s in good condition today, but tomorrow it could be bad. Let’s face it, when is your game ever good? For an 11.5 handicapper, I’m in form. But that could all change tomorrow.
2. How did you get started in the game?
When I started secondary school, I pretty much started playing golf. I must have been 11 or 12 and I always enjoyed it. I spent all my summers playing golf in Carrick-onSuir.
3. Choose your weapon…. Driver or putter? And why?
The putter. Definitely. My driving can be hit and miss.
4. Is your driving bad?
Put it this way, I can’t use a tee.
5. When were you happiest on the golf course?
When I was a kid, getting dropped off at Carrick-on-Suir at half seven in the morning and still be playing at half nine or a quarter to ten that night. I’d carry the bag and walk the holes, no problem. It was great. I’d play, have lunch, go back out again, come in for some supper and go back out again. Fantastic.
6. It’s a great game for kids, isn’t it?
That’s it. You get an education from golf and when I started out, it was probably a bit of an education for me as well because it taught me how to treat people and be with people.
7. Who’s your sporting hero?
There are always sports you have a passion for and hurling was something I loved. Other sportsmen and women provide inspiration. I looked up to Paul Flynn as a hurler. And Tiger Woods would have played a big part in motivating me as a sportsman in terms of how determined and steely he looks on the golf course and making me want to bring that across to football. Sportsmen all get a buzz off other sportsmen.
8. Name a footballer you especially admired and why.
Cristiano Ronaldo was the one who took off. From he first time I played against him, he just got better and better. I admired his determination to make himself a better player.
9. What’s your golfing ambition? Do you have one?
Not at the moment. I think I am capable of getting down lower than 12 handicap but I just don’t have the time to play as much as I’d like. I can’t beat Luke Donnelly, who is my only golf client and a great young player. That said, I’m always looking to take the money off my friends and my football
clients.
10. Name your dream fourball.
Well, they say never meet your heroes, but even so, Tiger Woods would be one and while they probably don’t see eye to eye, I’d have to put Sergio Garcia in there as well. Then I’d have another sportsperson, so Luke would be the one to make up the fourball. He’s a great worker and a lovely lad so I’d take him along so he could learn from Tiger and Sergio and pick their brains on the way around.
11. If I gave you a mulligan in your professional career, what would it be?
Probably the [collision] incident with Peter Cech, who now wears the helmet when he’s playing. If I could go back and change that, I would.
12. Is there a course you’d love to play before you shuffle off this mortal coil?
Probably Augusta. Everyone says that, but it’s the one we all want to play. I’d love to go along to the Masters some day.
13. Your favourite hole?
The par-three 12th at Druids Glen. It’s just spectacular. It’s a great parkland course.
14. If you could change one thing about your golf, what would it be?
My driving. I hit the driver off the deck. I don’t use a tee, believe it or not. But I am better off the deck than I am with a tee. I guess I’d change that.
15. So you’re a fader of the ball?
I can hit the draw as well. If I tap the turf a bit to give it a bit of elevation – the greenkeepers in Rosslare don’t like me doing it, I have to admit – and fire away.
16. If you could change something about your football, what would you change?
Nothing. If I could take the sacrifices I made and the commitment I had to making it and give that to some of my players, I would. Some of them have it, but some of them don’t.
17. What’s your treasured possession?
Having medals to look at doesn’t bother me. I have my memories. That’s why you play sport – to create memories. I have those in my head. Any yet I want my children to have my medals when I’m gone but they won’t have my memories, they will have their own little bits and pieces.
18. What’s your idea of perfect happiness?
A nice early round of golf followed by some playtime with my kids and then, as bananas as it might sound, some work in my office at the end of it all.