Bowing out A quick 18 with Irish golfing legend Des Smyth
ONE of Ireland’s best-loved sportsmen, Des Smyth admits he could be heading for retirement at the end of this season after 45 years on tour. But with his role as a tournament ambassador for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open keeping him busy, the 66-year-old Meath man has a lot to look forward to in 2019 with Lahinch set to be one huge party, even without Rory McIlroy. 1. How’s your golf? Are you tempted to follow Eamonn Darcy into retirement now that you’re 66? I am not sure. It may well be my final year as well. Your interest wanes, and you get involved in other things and wonder, should I be doing this any more. The chances of winning are totally remote now. Funnily enough, I have been thinking like that for a year or so, and once you start thinking like that, it’s probably time to go. 2. It’s been some ride all the same. It must be nearly 60 years since you first picked up a club at Laytown and Bettystown. It has been a lifelong journey and a very long and fruitful one. I have enjoyed it as much as anybody can. I have no complaints. I got as much out of it as you can. You always have regrets that you didn’t win this or that. But the journey has been great. 3. Is there a chance of giving it one last rattle and sneaking another win? (Laughs) If I gave anything a rattle, it would be a shock to me. But I will certainly play this year after playing only nine out of 19 last year. When you are not that keen on travelling as much as before, well, I can see the finishing post now. 4. You’re an ambassador for Dubai Duty Free, so I’d imagine the preparations for the Irish Open at Lahinch are keeping you busy. Yes, and I think it will be a big success. I only played the “South” once as far as I remember, back in 1973 because my amateur career was very short. But I have great friends in Lahinch, and the minute I heard we were going there, I said “great!” Lahinch has got a
sexy feel to it – a famous golf course with such great tradition and history. Anybody who is interested in golf in Ireland has played Lahinch. It’s an old fashioned course that’s been upgraded and moved to a much higher level condition wise. Like the 17th at St Andrews, there are certain holes you just can’t touch and the Klondyke, and the Dell at Lahinch are certainly two of those.
5. Choose your weapon. I’ve changed irons and drivers and putters many times, but I have an Adams hybrid two-iron I haven’t changed for years. If I was facing a difficult shot on a difficult hole, that’s the club I’d like in my hand. You can play all sort of shots – from 170 yards into a stiff wind, a regular one from 210-215 yards, or even get it up there and carry it 230 yards through the air. I can hit along the ground too. It’s a favourite. 6. Links or parkland? Links, no doubt about that (laughs). I have won on both terrains, but I love links golf. It’s a real challenge, and there is so much variation in the golf course every day. With a parkland, you can be playing the same clubs every day, but on links, as we may see at Lahinch, it could be a wedge one day and a four iron the next. 7. When were you happiest on the golf course? In the late ’70s and early ’80s, when I was playing very well, I was a prolific sub-70 shooter. That’s why I stayed up the Order of Merit for so long. But I almost enjoyed it more through my forties and fifties. Winning in Madeira in 2001 [aged 48 years and 34 days, a record which stood for 11 years] when I was struggling to hang on to my card, was a life-changer for me. 8. You must be impressed by the feats of a guy like Phil Mickelson, winning at 48, or Bernhard Langer, who is still cleaning up on the PGA Tour Champions at 61. It’s hard to play on the main tour in your mid to late forties, but there
are always guys like Mickelson, who is a class player. Then you have guys like Langer, Watson or Jiménez, who were never affected psychologically by the young kids bombing it. I know that it affects a lot of players. 9. Who was your sporting
hero? I was always a big fan of Jack Nicklaus. And I lived the dream and ended up playing against him in the Ryder Cup. So it was guys like him and Gary Player and Arnold Palmer, the Big Three. I always remember I felt like I had arrived when I was in America and one morning I was sitting in the locker room, and I was having coffee with Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, just the four of us, talking about life and politics. And it crossed my mind, I certainly have arrived now. It was a long way from playing for two and six in the Leinster Alliance. (Laughs) 10. Name your dream fourball. I saw Jimmy Heggarty said recently that he had great memories of playing those fun practice rounds on Tuesdays with the other Irish lads on tour. Those were very happy times because Eamonn and Christy (Jnr), Lord rest him, were always so difficult to beat. So whether it was myself
and Jimmy or Paul McGinley or John McHenry against Eamonn and Christy, you knew you were in for a tough battle and a lot of laughs. 11. If I gave you a mulligan in your career, what would
it be? If I could, I’d like to go back to the 12th fairway in Troon in 1982, when I finished two behind Tom Watson in the Open (T4). I was minus four at the time and what I misread was the difficulty of the golf course from there to the 18th. I was playing great and decided; I’ve got to get it to six to win this tournament. So I threw caution to the wind and challenged the pins and ended up short-siding myself on two occasions and made two bogeys. 12. What might you have done differently? If I had just played my game, I would have had a big chance of winning because four under was the winning number. Jack Nicklaus had that ability to think in those crucial moments, and he’d have just kept hitting the middle of the greens and had more patience. If I had had more experience, I might not have made that decision. 13. One last game of golf?
Well, I love the courses I live around and love County Louth and Portmarnock. But if I were
to say pick Birkdale. my favourite It’s a great course, golf I’d course it. with no trickery about 14. Pádraig What Harrington a win that was by in the Open there. It was special. Pádraig won the Open on two of the great links in Carnoustie and Birkdale. Carnoustie is the tougher of the two, but those were two marvellous wins. 15. What’s your favourite par three? A good par three makes a golf course. I don’t know about a favourite, but the hardest par-three I ever played was the 17th at Kiawah Island. That’s one tough hole. 16. If you could change something about your golf, what would it be? I’d love to have been physically a bit stronger and hit the ball a bit longer. 17. What’s your most treasured possession? I have no attachment to stuff, not really. Friendships and family and health are the things that interest me. 18. What’s your idea of per
fect happiness? As the Americans say, I am happy in my own skin. Nobody is perfect, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think I have done anyone a disservice along the way, so I am happy to say that.