The amazing story of golfing great Sean Hunt
The life and times of golfing star Sean Hunt
SEAN HUNT learned to play the game of golf in Baltinglass. With his success in boys’ golf, he became the club’s first ‘home-grown’ player to make an impact at national level.
Turning professional, he went on to further prominence as a regular competitor in the British and South African circuits in the latter half of the 1960s.
During this period, he spent a considerable time teaching in Kenya. In his teens he had to contend with grazing sheep in Baltinglass, but in Nairobi players were told to beware of roaming lions!
His golfing ability provided Sean with an opportunity to see the world and to meet and play with the game’s greatest exponents.
Sean A. Hunt was born in Baltinglass on on December 31, 1942. His first introduction to golf was through Owen Spillane, a Baltinglass club member who boarded with the Hunt family while in the town planting trees for the Forestry Divisionat the Lord’s Wood. Sean began caddying for Brian Cantwell, an Army officer from Cashel who played in Baltinglass while at Coolmoney Camp.
He started to play in 1951, when he obtained juvenile membership for a guinea, and he remembers Dermot Mogg was one of the members who encouraged his development.
In his early teens he travelled to Carlow to take lessons with Ernie Jones, then the club professional there. Sean had his first taste of championship competition at the age of fourteen when he played in the 1957 Leinster boy’s at Sutton.
He really began to make his mark in Baltinglass in 1958 when, aged 15, he won the Mitchell Cup and the Gun Club Cup, the two match-play events for members, as well as contributing to the club’s second victory in a team event, when they won the South Leinster.
That year he made his second attempt at the Leinster Boys’ title, again at Sutton, and reached the quarter-finals.
However, it was in 1959 that he really developed, reaching single figures and fighting his way to the finals of the Connaught, Munster and Leinster Boys’ championships.
At the end of August, he played for Leinster Boys in a match against Connaught, winning both his games. Had there been a boys’ international team at the time, Sean Hunt would surely have been selected.
He was still eligible for competition at boys’ level in 1960, but he had already decided to make a career in golf. To this end he obtained the position of assistant to Alec Booth, the professional at Chilwell Manor, Nottingham.
How this came about was that Dr. Lyons used to subscribe to Golf Illustrated magazine and the occasional copy was left in the Pavillion. In one of these Sean read an advertisement placed by Alec Booth seeking an assistant, and he decided to apply.
Col. Mitchell and Dermot Mogg wrote him good references, and he was accepted. So, in March 1960 he left home to pursue his career. Going to England as a 17-year-old in 1960 was a daunting step, but the transition was made easy for Sean by the welcome he received from Alec Booth and his family. It was not long before he made an impact on the larger stage that was the English midlands.
On his first outing with the Notts Amateur and Professional Golfer’s Alliance he had the fourth best score and won the assistants prize. The golf correspondent in the Nottingham Evening Post commented: ‘Hunt shows great promise. He is quite long off the tee and has a sound putting touch.’
That September he equaled the professional course record at Chilwell Manor, held by Dai Rees. The 18-year-old Hunt was interviewed by an Irish Independent reporter when competing in the third big tournament of his professional career, the 1961 Irish Hospitals Tournament at Westbrook. The following description of his routine gives some insight into his determination: ‘Four mornings a week he rises at 6.30 and practices for two hours before breakfast, writing down in a note book for future reference what he has discovered to be wrong with his game and how he corrected the errors. After his normal duties of the day are finished, he goes out again in the evenings and practices until dark. He also plays in matches during the week with club members and with other professionals from the Nottingham area on his days off.
‘In addition, a good deal of his time is devoted to instruction, and he gives lessons to students from Nottingham University and teaches the game at a big indoor golf school.’
In Notts Alliance events he was the top money winner in the 196162 and 1962-63 seasons. Then in 1964 he was given time to play in all tour-naments during the year.
At the Gevacolour Tournament at Stoke Pogest he sponsors offered a prize of £10 for eagle threes at the 450-yard 9th hole. However, when Sean Hunt holed a 4 iron second shot for an albatross, they had to do some quick thinking, and came up with a prize of £20. Later in the season he returned to Woodbrook for the Carrolls International Tournament.
With a second round of 64, equalled on the day only by Argentina’s Robertode Vicenzo, the ‘unknown’ 21-year-old from Baltinglass made a name for himself. As described in the Sunday Press: ‘He holed a wedge shot for an eagle three at the third, exploded into the cup from sand at the fifth for a birdie, and drove the 12th green to hole from seven yards for another eagle’.
It was his best performance to date and he qualified comfortably on 138.
In his first full season he also took his first title, winning the Nottinghamshire Open championship at Chilwell Manor. A second-round of 66 gave him a final total of 140 for a one-shot victory over the future Ryder Cup player, Maurice Bembridge, then also an assistant.
In 1965 Sean made further strides. In April the Midland Professional championship was played in one day but, due to fading light, it was reduced to 27 holes. Sean Hunt was on 72 after 18 holes, and was not in the shake up. However, he began his final nine holes with three pars and then birdied the 4th and5th, eagled the 8th and birdied the 9th to return a five under par 30 and win the championship by two shots.
In August he featured in a more high profile tournament, the British Assistants’ championship at Hartsborne, tying for first place with David Butler and the 21-yearold Tony Jacklin. The title went to Jacklin in a one-hole play-off and Sean won £140 as joint runner-up.
Looking back on this performance, Sean regards it as the highlight of his career.
He finished 1965, his second full season, in 121st place in the PGA Order of Merit. That December he and four other young professionals flew to Johannesburg to begin a tour, sponsored primarily by Slazenger. They had practice and coaching sessions with Bobby Locke in Pretoria and Kimberly, and attended a barbeque at Gary
Player’s house.
Sean turned 23 during the tour. The boy from Baltinglass, who a few years earlier was reading about tournament golf was now being entertained by its greatest stars.
He returned to England in March, having played in South Africa, Rhodesia and Kenya. His best showing was eighth place in the Dunlop Rhodesia Tournament at Bulawayo, and he failed to qualify in only one of the eight circuit events he played, while he was a winner in pro-ams in Kimberly and Durban.
Sean was involved in another play-off in July 1966. This time it was with Vince Hood for Lord Derby’s Assistants’ Tournament at Formby, and this time Sean was the winner.
During the year he was contacted by Karen Country Club in Nairobi, as a result of his earlier visit to Kenya, and given a month’s teaching appointment. He went there in December. In January 1967 he travelled to Port Elizabeth for the beginning of the South African tour, on which he tied tenth in the South African Open.
In March he moved to Rhodesia, where he was third in the Flame Lily Open at Bulawayo, collecting a prize of £250. Later he spent two weeks competing in Zambia, and was placed fifth in the Kenya Open before returning to England in April.
The 1967 British season was a good one for Sean. In May he was joint leader on 67 after the first round of the Agfa-Gevaert Tournament at Stoke Poges, and he was in third position after a second round of 68, but unfortunately his putting deserted him in the last two rounds.
In July, Sean made his first appearance in The Open championship, played that year at Hoylake. Suffering from intermittent back trouble, here turned a first round 77, but that round included an ace at the 13th, the third of his career. It was also the first holein-one recorded at The Open for nineteen years.
Directly after The Open he travelled to Kedleston Park for an exhibition four ball with Max Faulkner against Peter Butler and Malcolm Gregson, that year’s most successful tournament player on the British circuit. Sean’s score of 65 was five shots better than any of the other three.
The following week he won the Midland Assistants’ championship at Walsall with rounds of 69 and 66. His afternoon round set a course record, and he finished six shots ahead of his nearest rival. Also that month, he won the Wills Variety Club Tournament at City of Newcastle with rounds of 70 and 66, beating a quality field that included Peter Thompson and Tony Jacklin.
For his efforts he received the biggest prize money of his career at that point - £275.
Sean had his second teaching appointment at Karen at the end of 1967, before tackling the South African circuit again. In March 1968 he broke the course record at Kampala in Uganda during an exhibition four ball playing with Maurice Bembridge against Jimmy Hitchcock and Peter Tutt.
The following month he was third in the Kenya Open. On the British circuit in 1968 he was joint eleventh in the Agfacolour Tournament and joint ninth in the Wills Tournament, and finished the season in 33rd position in the PGA Order of Merit.
This was to be the high point of his tournament career. During the winter he had his third teaching job at Karen, this time spending three months with the club.
He wrote Golf Illustrated in January 1969 about his experiences there, touching on golf, instruction and wildlife, noting that at Karen members were warned to beware of lions in the 17th!
Back in Europe he won the Irish Assistants’ championship at Dundalk, then run in conjunction with the Irish Professional championship, in which he took fifth place overall.
He qualified for The Open a second time, that year played at Lytham. Shortly afterwards he took up the position of professional at Saltburn in Yorkshire.
Then in September he and Mick Murphy of Royal Dublin were joint leading qualifiers in the Carrolls Irish Match Play championship at Galway.
At the end of 1969 Sean was 58th in the PGA Order of Merit. He continued to play fairly regularly on the British circuit in 1970 and 1971, and he qualified a third and final time for The Open the latter year, when It was held at Birkdale.
After that his opportunities to play were reduced by his duties as a professional at Saltburn.
In 1976 he left Saltburn and professional golf with the intention of entering the priesthood, but after a year of clerical studies at All Hallows he decided not to pursue that path.
He took the position of professional at Thurles in September 1976. Sean is still swinging the clubs to the best of his ability in Thurles and he left many happy memories for all those involved in Baltinglass Golf Club over the years.
RECORD
INDIVIDUAL - 1959 Connaught Boys’ Open championship runner-up; Munster Boys’ Open championship runner-up; Leinster Boys’ Open championship runner-up; 1964 Nottinghamshire Open Champion; 1965: (English) Midland Professional Champion; British Assistant Professionals’ championship joint runner-up; 1966: Kimberly Pro-Am winner; Durban Pro-Am winner; Lord Derby’s Assistant Tournament winner; 1967: Wills Variety Club Tournament winner; Qualified for The Open; (English) Midland Assistant Professionals’ Champion; 1968: Nottinghamshire Assistant Professionals’ Champion; 1969: Irish Assistants’ Champion; Qualified for The Open; 1970: Hartlepool Pro-Am winner; 1971: Qualified for The Open; 1972: Hartlepool Pro-Am winner; Wheatley Classic winner.
TEAM - Leinster Boys’ team v. Connaught 1959.