Tom Craddock was just a truly class player, a joy to watch and he made it look so simple
1. Your international career lasted 15 years from the late 1970s until 1992. How did you get into golf in the first place?
My father joined Woodbrook, and while I started playing at 11 or 12, you couldn’t join until you were 14. So I started playing a lot more when I didn’t get picked on some cricket team.
I felt I should have been on the team and the guy who got picked hadn’t even gone to the practice sessions! So I said, I’ll play golf. It’s an individual game and whatever you shoot is there to be seen. I decided to give the game a good go.
2. And the rest, as they say, is history!
Well, Woodbrook is a great course and it tested every club in the bag. It was and still is a very good course to test your game. The practice facilities are second to none now too. It’s a super place.
3. You played 100 times for Ireland, which says it all but what was the first big step?
In 1970 I got to the final of the Connacht Boys totally unexpectedly and then I got to the final of the Leinster Boys the same year. I was playing off six at the time and while I wasn’t long, I had a good short game. So that got me on the Leinster junior interprovincial team for a few years and that gave me a nice start. After that, I was off.
4. Can you remember who beat you in those Boys finals 48 years ago?
Paddy Egan from Athlone and Hugh Duggan from Mourne, who beat me in Clontarf, went on to win the Leinster Boys again in 1971. I just enjoyed getting out to hit a few shots. And I still do!
5. Do you recall winning that first South of Ireland championship in 1977? You were runner-up in the “West” that year too.
I was disappointed to lose the “West”. But it made me more determined to win the “South” and to beat Mick Morris in the final was great at the time because I made the Irish team for the European Team Championships in The Hague.
6. Brian Hoey beat you in the final of the West that year. Sorry to remind you.
He holed a monster putt on the last – a tram-liner – when I was only about 12 feet away. I horseshoed out. But it was nice to come back and win at Lahinch.
7. If you had to pick someone to hole a four-footer to save your life, who would you pick?
I’d have to say Mark Gannon.
8. You’re 65 now and it’s all changed. Would you fancy being 20 again?
Wouldn’t we all? It’s different now with the kids getting trips away, coaching sessions and advice on nutrition. They get so much, I sometimes think they might be better working on their own games a little more and playing more on the circuit in Ireland.
They get sent away and think they are perhaps better than they really are. Now they have the Bridgestone Order of Merit here but I’d like to see the Scratch Cups circuit revived.
9. Who stood out as the most special player of your era?
Well, he was a little before my time but I’d have to say Tom Craddock. I ended up playing him in a Senior Cup match at the Castle and before I went out all the lads said, “You’ll beat him, he’s past it and he’s not a great putter.” So off we went and I was around in one over and beaten on the 14th, 5 and 4.
10. How was his putting?
He used to walk up to the putts wondering if he would go left-handed or right. He was almost looking at you as if to say, ‘Which way will I go this time?’ He was just fantastic. A truly class player.
I ended up working for him in Ready Mix. He was on the interview panel so I was lucky to get the job. And very lucky to play a lot of golf with him.
11. What made his game so special?
He was a fantastic driver of the golf ball. Very straight. And he had a great wedge game. He was never more than 15 feet from the hole. He was a joy to watch. He made it look so simple. He didn’t have to hole every 15 footer to shoot four or five under.
12. What was the highlight of your career?
I was lucky to be in the game so long. Winning the Triple Crown at Lahinch in 1987 was special. It was Ireland’s first Triple Crown and that surprised me because I thought Craddock and Joe Carr would have won one.
I remember I beat Paul Broadhurst in the singles in the Europeans that year in Austria too.
Then to win the Triple Crown again at Conwy in 1990 and get the putt for the deciding half point in the last match is a great memory.
13. Pádraig Harrington and Paul McGinley were on that 1990 team. Did you see a major winner in Pádraig even then?
Yes, even though he didn’t hit it great back then, he was a fantastic chipper and putter. If there was only one tree down the fairway, you might end up chipping out from behind it if he was your foursomes partner. (Laughs) But he had great determination.
14. Name your dream fourball.
My three kids and my dad would be the ultimate five-ball. But my three idols were Arnold Palmer, Seve Ballesteros and Tom Watson.
I tried to copy Watson’s technique, Seve was a great European and Palmer did so much for golf and always seemed to play with a smile on his face. Tiger doesn’t seem to have any personality at all.
15. No regrets? If I gave you a mulligan what would it be?
Sometimes you wonder if you should have turned pro, but I wasn’t long enough. Even then I was 10 yards behind everyone hitting 240 or 250, but I had a good short game and it’s still working.
16. Rosslare is your club now. Are you playing much?
I still win the odd fiver playing off four. And I enjoy the Irish seniors circuit. It’s great to meet old friends.
17. Driver or putter? Choose your weapon.
I’m a good driver and never feared anybody putting. If I had to, I’d pick the putter.
18. Finally, name your favourite Irish championship venue?
I loved so many, but Portmarnock for me was the fairest of them all and I was lucky enough to get three of the four Irish Opens I played there.