A quick 18 with GAA legend Dick Clerkin
HE’S been playing since he was seven or eight but after dedicating the best years of his sporting life to Monaghan and the GAA, Dick Clerkin is looking to get back into the swing and relive his childhood by getting his youngsters into the game.
1. How’s your golf? Well, I got a taste for it again last week in the Monaghan Irish Challenge Pro-Am at Concra Wood. I am not playing much, but I actually played quite well even though I was a bit nervous playing with the professional, Stuart Manley. I was a bit wild off the tee, but I might try to get into it a bit more again.
2. How did you get started
in the game? I played a lot when I was younger. I grew up beside Clones Golf Club in Monaghan. My Dad, Hugo, took myself and my brother out to swing a club on Saturday mornings when I was not much more than seven or eight, and it went from there. I had a great group of friends there, and I got my handicap down to six before I headed to college. But then I got into football and family came along and I just didn’t have the time to keep it at that level. 3. Choose your weapon…. Driver or putter? And why? Oh, driver! Growing up, it was the strongest part of my game, so if I am playing well, it sets me up nicely
4. Links or parkland? I love links and Royal County Down is still one of my favourite courses. We used to go up to play in Mourne’s Open Week every year to play the Championship Course. It was a summer ritual for five or six years. There’s something I really love about links. I just love the challenge, and the variation and the scenery is always breathtaking. 5. What’s your golfing claim
to fame? I once had 40 points in Royal County Down, and that was probably the last time I got cut. It’s a tough track so to score well, so it was very satisfying. I must have been off seven at the time, so I probably broke 80. It’s a while ago now.
6. Who was your sporting
hero growing up? Probably Jack O’Shea. I grew up watching him. My father played for Monaghan for a long time and he would have played against Jacko. We still have the old Betamax tapes of those games.
7. Name an opponent or rival you especially admire and
why. Seán Cavanagh was always very tough. We played a lot against each other growing up and throughout our careers. At his best, it was hard to manage his scoring threat. He was the best and toughest opponent I faced.
8. What’s your golfing ambition? Do you have one? I’d like to get back playing competitively off single figures again. As a young golfer, that’s your goal. I got there quickly when I was younger but just didn’t play enough after that to maintain that level and it got frustrating because you are not competitive. Hopefully, when I get back playing with a fair handicap, I can start competing again because I love the challenge.
9. Name your dream fourball.
I’d take the Bomber Liston down in Kerry, he’s supposed to be an avid golfer. So I’d put him in for nostalgia and craic with Tomás Ó Sé, who is a keen golfer and more my generation. Myself and my Dad would take on the two boys. That would be a good Monaghan-Kerry match up. 10. If you had just one more game to play, where would you tee it up? I’d go back to Royal County Down and the Mountains of Mourne.
11. What’s your favourite par
three? The 12th at Concra Wood is a beautiful par-three. It’s at the furthest point on the course with Lough Mucknoo on your left. So while it’s a tough hole, on a beautiful summer’s evening, it’s glorious.
12. If you could change something about your golf, what
would it be? My irons, especially from the tee. I am decent with the wedges I am just not consistent enough with my long irons.
13. What’s your most treasured possession? I have medals and jerseys, but I have no special possession in particular. If I had to say anything, I’d pick my two Ulster Championship medals with Monaghan in 2013 and 2015 when I was finishing up my career. We’d lost a few finals so to it was nice to get over that hurdle. 14. You were GAA’s longest-serving intercounty footballer when you retired. If I gave you a mulligan in your football career, what would it be? I was there from 17 years from 1999 to 2016, and the one regret I have was 2013 when Tyrone beat us in a quarterfinal. Of all the games we lost, that was the one I look back on as one we left behind us.
15. What would you do differently? I had a few opportunities in the second half and took a few wild options. If I had been a bit more composed, it might have been different. The margins are very fine, but I think that had we made more use of possession in that game, it’s one we should have won and perhaps gone on to bigger and better things. But c’est la vie.
16. What do you see when you look at the Dublin team now? Have they taken GAA to a new
level? It’s a great team with a great manager and a great culture. A lot of what they are doing is to be admired. It’s a case of other counties getting to their level now as opposed to trying to find ways to bring them back. They have some outstanding players and an exceptionally good manager. Sometimes when those two elements combine, it’s an impossible force, and we’ve seen that before over the decades. It’s not unique, but it’s a lot of good things coming together. I think the chasing pack will eventually catch up. They just need a bit of time. You can’t but admire Dublin.
17. Who’s your favourite
golfer? Like a lot of people I love watching Rory McIlroy when he is going well. But I am eternally frustrated with him. On Sundays, you are waiting for him to make the big charge and he just falls away. So while I love watching him blow away fields when he is on form, there is a frustration that maybe he doesn’t have that mental resilience to grind out rounds and wins when he should.
18. What’s your idea of perfect happiness? A clear Saturday with the family. For the last 20 years between football, travelling and work, being with the family, not having to go anywhere and playing some football out the back with my two young fellas – they’re five-and-a-half and three-and-a-half – that’s special. That and a glass of wine with my wife Alison on a Saturday night. Maybe I should introduce my eldest to golf soon, and I’ll have an excuse to bring him out. That’s how it started f or me!