I’VE ALWAYS ENJOYED THE PUZZLE OF THE GAME AND THAT’S TAKEN ME TO COACHING
He’s a busy man setting up a new teaching academy — “Impact Golf at Leopardstown” with partners Hazel Kavanagh and John Langan. But former Walker Cup player and six-time championship winner Noel Fox took time out for a Quick 18 on his love of the game.
1. How did you get started?
It was caddying for my Dad, who had stopped playing football and needed another sport. So he turned to golf and the minute I was strong enough to pull his trolley at seven or eight, I was there.
At the beginning, it was a way to spend more time with him but as I got older, I thought, ‘I want to try that’.
2. No doubt Noel Snr let you hit the odd shot out of sight of the clubhouse. Who were you mentors growing up at a great club like Portmarnock?
I joined Sutton first and then joined Portmarnock at 12. And because I was starting to show some promise, the senior players really embraced me and then the Senior Cup players took me under their wing.
Peter Townsend was the professional at the time and so getting exposure to pros and caddying for him in the Irish Open made you want to be like them.
3. Was he a role model for you?
I heard he’d played on tour and then this suave guy drives up in a gold Jaguar, and I thought, ‘That would be a nice place to end up.’ But it was also the way he played the game. We had great players at the club, but he was exceptional, and that showed me there were different levels in the game.
4. What’s your relationship with the game now?
I just love the game so much that if I could find a career within the game, I was always going to do that.
Playing the game didn’t work out quite as well as I had hoped. But I have always enjoyed the puzzle of the game, and that’s taken me into coaching.
5. It’s a double-sided, 10,000-piece jigsaw, isn’t it?
That’s it. Nobody has ever quite figured it out and they never will, but there is a lot of enjoyment to be derived from helping people get more enjoyment from the game.
It is not just about teaching the good players but the buzz you get when a 20 handicapper breaks 90 for the first time. It’s great.
6. Which teachers left the biggest impression on you? Bob Torrance? Dewey Arnette?
I was incredibly lucky to spend as much time as I did with Bob. It was incredible. Then to meet John Jacobs, Pete Cowen, Butch Harmon and have conversations with them was wonderful.
To be a top-level coach you sometimes have to have an ego and they never have an open forum to discuss ideas. So my plan was to pick their brains and have the open forum inside my head and take the best of what they had.
7. What can each of them teach you?
Leadbetter teaches a great backswing, Bob Torrance a great transition, Pete Cowen the best concept of impacts. So I could pool all this information in my head. But I am still learning.
I recently went out to see George Gankas. So I don’t know all the answers. I have to keep learning so I can best help the people who come to see me.
8. You are close to Pádraig Harrington, who has tried everything. Are you the same?
Yes. You will do anything to get better. Some of it can be detrimental. You have to keep trying but sometimes the pursuit of swing can take away from what the game is about, which is shooting the lowest score. Scoring is an art that has to be taught too.
9. What about the black art of putting?
The two areas where I was weakest and had the most coaching were putting and bunker play. So I am very comfortable teaching those two aspects because I accumulated a lot of information.
10. Which player impressed you the most when you played with him?
I got the chance to play with some of the best in Europe from a young age but I remember playing with Jody Fanagan against Henrik Stenson and Jonas Torines at Portmarnock in the European Amateur at Portmarnock in 1997 and Stenson hit a shot into the 11th that made us look at each other and think, ‘That’s different!’ And Jody had seen Tiger in action.
It was a four-iron but it was the flight he created that made you think you’d never be able to recreate that even with a bag of practice balls. I’d have been shocked if he hadn’t done something amazing in the game.
11. John Jacobs was involved in the setting up for Leopardstown. Did you know him?
I was lucky enough to have some coaching with Dr Golf. He was a true gent and it was the simplicity of his teaching that stood out. You have to understand something completely to explain it simply. He made it look easy.
12. It’s an art form, perhaps.
Peter Townsend was brilliant at conveying information. It was only later I discovered his parent were schoolteachers. So he grew up in a teaching house.
13. What’s your favourite course?
If I were to jump in the car with my mates, I’d play links at Royal County Down because I love the drama and the backdrop; or Mount Juliet, which is a great parkland.
14. What about a par-three?
I always look forward to the 15th at Portmarnock. It’s a pure par-three. A great hole that’s never easy, no matter the wind. It’s very satisfying to hit that green.
15. What was your career highlight?
Days where you felt you had total control of the ball. The game is different on those days. The pictures your eyes paint, your body can recreate. It happened in the second round of the “East” one year on a course I love. [He shot a 64 and went on to win by five in 2002]
16. What was your favourite Irish major? The Close eluded you.
I loved them all for different reasons. But the biggest compliment I can give an event is that I’d love to have gone to the “South” and not played, just watched. There’s a lot of theatre down there. I might go back one day. But they are all special for different reasons.
17. And your dream fourball?
Ben Hogan, to have the experience of seeing (or hearing) one of his shots. And someone I might never meet, like David Attenborough. And someone who was a God to me as a kid in Portmarnock – Seve.
Until I saw Tiger, I had never seen charisma like it – that awareness people had of a presence in the room.
18. What about a mulligan in your career?
That’s easy. I missed from 18 inches on the 21st in the Irish Close semis against Pádraig at Lahinch in 1995. There was such a nice atmosphere in the game and I couldn’t believe he hadn’t given me the putt.
Later on, I was wondering why and he just said: “If you’ve seen it missed, it’s never given!”