The ‘South’ – One of the World’s Oldest Amateur Championships

  ​In recent years the South of Ireland championship has suffered because of the changing nature of amateur golf.  It’s important to remember that most tournaments have ups and downs in their fortunes.  The Open Championship itself has had peaks and troughs.  So...

Pat Doyle – a Forgotten Irish Golfer

Mark Frost’s 2002 book The Greatest Game Ever Played (later made into a film) is a somewhat fictionalised account of the 1913 US Open at Brookline, where the American amateur Francis Ouimet beat Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in a play-off.  Hidden in the background of this...

When Golf Came To Wicklow

  ​When the golf craze really got going in Ireland in the last years of the nineteenth century it took root in Belfast, Dublin and pockets of activity mainly in coastal areas.  Clubs that could afford to engage professionals had to entice them over from...

Philomena Garvey – Ireland’s Greatest Woman Golfer

  ​This year marks half a century since a female Irish golfer first turned professional.  That individual was Philomena Garvey, arguably the greatest woman player Ireland has ever produced.  Fifty years on, Paul Gorry looks at this remarkable player’s career, and...