Player, course designer and one of world golf’s most loved characters

Nothing appealed more to Christy O’Connor jnr, who has died aged 67, than the acclaim from the galleries gathered around the 18th hole of a golf course at a tournament.

“I think that is the greatest feeling anybody could ever have,” said O’Connor, who also relished the fact that he came from a “little town in the west of Ireland” yet became one of global golf’s most loved characters.

O’Connor jnr was a professional golfer, an acclaimed golf course designer and philanthropist. A native of Galway, his iconic two-iron approach to the final hole at The Belfry of the 1989 Ryder Cup – to defeat Fred Couples in the decisive singles – was heralded as one of the greatest ever played in that biennial match between Europe and the United States and a moment forever associated with him as a player.

Yet there was much more to O’Connor’s career than just that one memorable shot: he won four times on the PGA European Tour – the Martini International in 1975, the Irish Open at Woodbrook that same year, the Jersey Open in 1989 and the British Masters in 1992 – and, following the tragic death of his son Darren in a car accident in 1998, resurrected his playing career to claim back-to-back Senior British Opens in 1999 and 2000. In all, he won 17 professional tournaments.

As a boy growing up in a bilingual household in the fishing and farming village of Knocknacarra, then on the outskirts of Galway City, O’Connor jnr used to see his uncle, Christy snr, practising late into the evening, pitching and putting to a lighted candle placed in a tin box.

Work ethic

For the young primary school pupil in Claddagh National School and later as a secondary student at St Enda’s, watching and later joining his famous uncle on the practice ground provided a golfing education and work ethic that would stand to him when years later he too became a golf professional touring the globe.

Golf ran through the veins of the O’Connor clan, as Junior’s older brothers Seán and Frank became club professionals. And, as a 16-year-old, and against his parents’ wishes, Christy jnr too embarked on that career – even though estimating his handicap to be “around six” at the time – initially at South Shields in the north of England and then under the guidance of his uncle at Royal Dublin. He would also serve as a club professional at Carlow and Shannon.

Of that time spent learning the trade with his uncle, Christy jnr remarked: “He set out a tough schedule for me. Shoes had to be clean. Slacks had to be neatly pressed. Golf clubs had to be meticulously cleaned. Grips had to be washed . . . later in my golfing career, I was to observe the same sense of order in Jack Nicklaus, when I had the honour of playing with him.”

O’Connor turned professional in 1967 and became a stalwart of the PGA European Tour when it was officially formed in 1972. He finished in the top 100 on the Order of Merit in each of the tour’s first 21 years but, more significantly, he proved to have a winner’s instinct and his triumph in the 1975 Irish Open at Woodbrook – on the tournament’s revival – was typically emotional as some 35,000 spectators crowded around the 18th green to acclaim their tearful golfing hero.

The biggest win of O’Connor’s career came in the British Masters in 1992, when he defeated Tony Johnstone of Zimbabwe in a play-off to claim the championship. But the win was more extraordinary for what had gone beforehand: two weeks previously, O’Connor was involved in a helicopter crash when the craft lost power as he surveyed a course he was designing at City West in Co Dublin and plunged 200 feet to the ground.

British Masters

Remarkably, he emerged unscathed but would be forced to withdraw after the third round of the following week’s PGA Championship at Wentworth, suffering from delayed shock. A week later, he defied all the odds to capture the prized British Masters title.

But it was the Ryder Cup that provided his defining moment on a golf course. His first experience of the team competition in 1975 had proven unsatisfactory, as he lost his two matches on a team well beaten by the USA at Laurel Valley in Pennsylvania. O’Connor was given a second chance 14 year later when team captain Tony Jacklin picked him as a “wild card” for the match at The Belfry.

On the 18th hole of his singles match with future US Masters champion and world number one Fred Couples, O’Connor was left with 235 yards over water to the green and had a two-iron in his hands. “Come on, one more good swing for Ireland,” coaxed Jacklin of his player, and O’Connor duly delivered a stunning shot to four feet. Rattled, Couples, with a nine-iron, missed the green.

That two-iron became one of the most famous clubs in golf. It was subsequently auctioned off for IR£50,000 in aid of a cancer charity – one of O’Connor’s many charitable affiliations – but was returned to him by the buyer so that he could continue to play with it. However, O’Connor’s car was stolen in 1990 and when the Garda recovered the vehicle the famed two-iron had gone.

When he subsequently won the 1990 Kenya Open, he was approached by an elderly missionary nun who wondered if she could have the two-iron for charity. O’Connor explained that it wasn’t the same club as he had used in the Ryder Cup at The Belfry. “Ah, who’ll know?” she replied, and O’Connor’s two-irons would continue to raise funds down the years for many charitable causes.

Among those to pay tribute to O’Connor was Jack Nicklaus, the greatest golfer of all time with 18 Major titles. “I think it is safe to say that Christy gave back far more to the game of golf than it ever gave him over a very rich life, whether it was his contributions as a player, a course designer or a passionate philanthropist,” said Nicklaus.

With more than 30 golf course designs to his name – courses in Ireland, Portugal, Hungary, France and St Lucia bear the O’Connor design signature – he has left a legacy for other players. As Tom Mackenzie, the president of the European Institute of Golf Course Architects, said: “Professional golfers do not always make great golf course architects but Christy was an exception. His talent, enthusiasm and dedication to the sport made him one of the most prolific architects of recent years and he will be mourned by the whole of the golf industry.”

He is survived by his widow, Ann, daughter Ann and son Nigel.