My favourite hole:
‘There were 14 people present. You needed 15 for a quorum. We were co-opted onto the council’ he said, continuing ‘I seen a lot of changes. I seen a lot of times there was no money in the coffers.’
Years later things turned right round where those wishing to join couldn’t be accommodated. The council arrived at what they thought was a solution where council members could bring in a new member and the captain could take in two members, but it wasn’t satisfactory, causing dissention , particularly among those who couldn’t be accommodated.
Joe stated that the club had a great loyal membership from Northern Ireland down the years— right through the Troubles when it was not easy travelling up and back with checkpoints to contend with and still have to this day.
He saw the game become one for the ‘ordinary five eight’ and he made substantial progress as a player, working his handicap right down from 24 to five. He is back up to 24 in spite of his best efforts but glad to be out playing two and three times a week pulling his own trolley prior to the closedown of courses with the pandemic.
One fond memory he cherishes is playing in the club’s first pro-am in 1970 when he was on the four man winning team. It was the first pro-am held outside Dublin, and attracted all the leading professionals of the day, and was a big occasion with a marquee erected at the clubhouse.
‘I was absolutely over the moon. The reception was in Ballymascanlon Hotel. The profession who was a cousin of Christy O’Connor says to me I have to make a speech; could you give me a hand. I made out a bit of a speech for him.’
Another playing highlight was representing the club in the Barton Cup against neighbours Dundalk, and his partner Tom Farrell holing his approach shot on the last hole in Dundalk to tie their match, recovering from dormie two down.. This forced the tie into sudden death which Greenore lost and the overall match.
Joe’s son Joseph has followed in his footsteps being a member and is the current honorary secretary of the Peninsula club. The pair holds the unique distinction of Joseph holding the office of captain and Joe of President in the same year in 2016. Joe was captain in 1974. 372 yards from the white tees and an imposing 422 from the back off the blue tees. Carlingford lough to your left and trees to your right there is simply not a more beautiful and scenic hole on the course with mountains and sometimes blue skies above.
However the 12th hole at Greenore has a bite, long off the back tees with water left and trees right, a bad shot tends to be the bail out to the right. Sometimes you have no choice in this with the wind howling off Carlingford Lough. To make matters worse there are bushes to the right of the fairway strategically placed to find a not too errant tee shot.
Your approach is then played in towards the clubhouse where people having a drink or a smoke collate to watch the chips and putts.
The green is slopey and extremely quick so if you get the wrong side of the pin a two putt is the result. It is surrounded by trees on the left and three tricky bunkers to make your approach even more vital, many a man has