People in Ireland love their golf, The Open will be a celebration more than anything
With just over 14 months to go until The Open Championship returns to Royal Portrush for the first time in 68 years, we took club professional Gary McNeill for a Quick 18 to reflect on his memorable amateur career and the countdown to the return of golf’s oldest major championship to Irish shores.
1. How did you get started in the game?
My father didn’t play golf but my uncle was captain of Warrenpoint Golf Club and having seen me whacking a hockey ball around he thought I might make a golfer so I started getting lessons from Don Patterson. Don had a great influence on me and my decision to make a career out of golf. He was a great mentor.
2. Driver or putter?
Driver. I drive it better now than I ever did. Some 20 years ago the putter was one of the key parts of my game. But if I had driven it then like I drive it now with my Tit lei st driver, I would have won a whole lot more amateur events.
3. Links or parkland?
Links. I grew up playing parkland golf but there has always been something special about links. I love the challenge of moving the ball in the air and playing with or against the wind, or using crosswinds. The are so many options.
I always loved going to Baltray when they held kids events in August. Then you get older and you go to Royal County Down and come here to Portrush. Links golf has always been special for me.
4. Did you have a favourite championship venue? I assume it has to be Portrush.
I always really enjoyed playing at Lahinch and Ballybunion is special because I won my Irish Close Championship down there. But I really enjoyed Lahinch. I always thought it was a cracking golf course. Quirky before the changes but wonderful. Portrush was always a fair course and to be honest, I enjoy them all.
5. What can we expect when The Open comes here to Royal Portrush in 2019?
Uff. It’s going to be an amazing spectacle. A real celebration of Irish golf going back 68 years to when it was last year here in 1951. When you think of all that’s happened in between with Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke coming through to win majors, it’s going to be great.
People in Ireland love their golf, as we saw when the Irish Open came here. It’s going to be a celebration more than anything.
6. Who do you fancy?
I certainly wouldn’t rule out an Irish winner. Look at these young guys coming through–Paul-Dunne and Gavin Moynihan are going to be strong. Whoever it is, they are going to have to play great golf.
7. Who was your sporting hero growing up?
Pat Jennings. What a fantastic guy and a great ambassador for Ireland and Northern Ireland. As a golfer, it has to be Jack Nicklaus.
8. Name your dream fourball?
It would have to be Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Bobby Jones to savour all that history. I’d pick Hogan as my playing partner.
9. Name a rival you really admired during your amateur career?
Pádraig Harrington was a year younger than me, and we played a lot of golf with and against each other. But Garth was the one we all looked up to. When I started playing championships in 1985-86, he’d just won the Amateur Championship and played Walker Cup. If you’d finished your round and he was still on the course, you went out to watch him finish.
10. What made him special?
11. If I gave you a mulligan in your career, what would it be?
I remember losing an Irish Boys the year before I won it at Royal Tara. I had a couple of three-putts towards the end, one of which was through a puddle. I took relief on the 17th and didn’t take enough relief. I didn’t know the rules well enough to know I could have dropped on the green. And of course, it stopped in the puddle.
12. You more than made up for it elsewhere in Boys and Youths events. Do any stick out?
I remember winning a Leinster Boys by 22 shots at Grange in 1987. When I played a practice round, I quickly realised that if you hit a ball into the bushy pine trees there, it wasn’t going to come out. So the driver stayed in the bag for the most part. I had this Ping Eye 2 one-iron, and as the tournament went on, I was hitting it further and straighter.
It’s no wonder Paul McGinley, who was a Grange player, was so good at strategy. He was always so disciplined. I watched him win the Leinster Youths at Delgany in 1987. It was baked, and I couldn’t work out how to play it.
But Paul was never out of position. After seeing him dissect the course, I knew exactly what game plan I needed to win there and got the victory two years later.
13. If you had just one more game to play, where would it be?
Augusta National. It’s somewhere I’d love to play. It’s just a special place. There’s a certain mystique about it all. I felt very privileged to be there last year.
14. What’s your favourite par-three?
The 15th at Ballybunion. I didn’t win the Close on that green but I played it well all week. It’s a long hole but the green is so inviting. It just suited my eye.
15. If you could, is there something you’d change about your golf?
If I had to do it all over again,
I wish I had practised differently and been a little more structured rather than hitting as many balls. I loved hitting balls, but I did a lot of wasted practice.
16. What’s your most treasured possession?
My Irish Close winning medal. It’s special because it was the centenary of the GUI and it has the centenary logo stamped on the back.
17. There have been many great winners. Is that part of its charm?
Absolutely. As the years go on, I am more grateful and proud that I won something that’s been won by so many great names in the game here. We didn’t have the Irish Amateur Open back then, so itreallywastheonetowin.It would have been lovely to win a provincial championship and walk into that club to see your name up there. But it was wonderful to win the Close.
18. What’s your idea of perfect happiness?
It’s when everyone around you is happy and well. But it’s being outdoors in the fresh air doing something you love. I’m a lucky man.