Dustin Johnson’s golf weekend with Dermot Desmond and the boys

Dustin Johnson, the world’s number four golfer and one of the favourites for this week’s British Open at St Andrews, apparently prepared for the event with a weekend in Dublin visiting his friend Dermot Desmond.

Desmond, who has previously invested in golf resort developments in the Caribbean, is a keen golfer. He knows many of the sport’s highest- profile players, and often partners Irish stars such as Shane Lowry or Pádraig Harrington during pro-am tournaments.

Johnson spent the weekend in the capital with Daon founder Desmond’s family, including his sons Brett, Ross and Derry, the trio who brought the Five Guys burger franchise to Ireland.

“I just hung out with the boys and played some golf,” said the world number four. Johnson played Portmarnock and Royal Dublin links courses while he was in town. There is a video online of him cracking a tee shot down a fairway at Royal Dublin.

Sandy Lane Set

It was posted by Eoin Ryan, an executive with the betting company BetVictor, which is owned by Desmond’s fellow member of the so-called Sandy Lane Set, Michael Tabor.

Meanwhile, Aer Lingus, which is busy finalising its takeover by Willie Walsh’s IAG, caught a flier when it misplaced the clubs of Canadian golfer Graham DeLaet while flying him to Scotland to compete in the Open.

“Ok @AerLingus, enough is enough. I kind of need my golf clubs for @TheOpen. How is it possible to not even know where it is? #figureitout,” tweeted the pro golfer.

The airline’s customer services department rather sheepishly responded looking for a reference number. After more than two days waiting, his clubs finally appeared – another DeLaet arrival for Aer Lingus.

When DeLaet opened the bag, he discovered a pack of protein powder had exploded in transit, covering his clubs in dust. He still managed to shoot a respectable 71 on Thursday.

Mind you, that was still two shots behind Irish amateur Paul Dunne, who is the son of The Irish Times's finance executive, Colum Dunne. Perhaps Desmond will partner with Dunne at a pro-am at some time in the future.

I wonder if Desmond will tell me his handicap if I ask him nicely?

That’ll be the Daon. . .