Last Links to a noble enterprise

GOLF:With one of the great institutions of golf about to call it a day, PHILIP REIDtalks to Cecil Whelan, a man synonymous with the fund-raising society

DUSK IS about to fall on an era. The Links Golf Society, a remarkable institution that was born some 45 years ago out of golfing friendships with a hankering to give to charity, is to call it a day. On August 23rd, a final outing will be staged at The K Club – an appropriate venue in that the 2006 Ryder Cup there perhaps signalled the height of the society’s propensity to generate money for charitable causes – and, in truth, we’re unlikely to see its like again.

Cecil Whelan came to be the face synonymous with the society, but, over the years, he has worked with a number of like-minded individuals who contributed immensely to golf. Its influence can be measured from the fact that, over the past 15 years, it raised €10 million for various charitable causes.

And it also served as an important part of a young golfer’s education in life, as the country’s top amateurs were introduced to professionals, businessmen and celebrities with a round of golf as the focal point for raising money.

It is hard to believe the start of The Links back in 1966 generated the princely sum of £13 and 10 shillings in old money. It started out with a group of friends – amateurs and professionals – having an outing in Baltray. There were 27 amateurs there that day and three professionals: Wattie Sullivan, Jimmy Kinsella and Christy O’Connor Snr, then one of the greatest players in Europe.

“We couldn’t have started any smaller,” recalls Whelan in that gentle, whisper of a voice that over the years has found friends in some of the world’s top golfers and stars from the world of entertainment.

The day after the outing, a number of the society’s founders went up to Cappagh Hospital in Finglas and handed over the proceeds. “We took in £13/10 shillings and gave £13/10 shillings out,” said Whelan.

By the end of the year, The Links had raised £350. To put some context on the amount raised, a family home in 1966 could be purchased for £1,000. It was to be the start of a wonderful journey for all of those involved in the society.

Three years later, The Links held its first pro-am, a new concept to golf in Ireland and which was to prove one of its main sources of raising money for charities. At that first pro-am in Woodbrook in 1969, the society hit on the idea of connecting it with a celebrity. That year, it was the Northern Irish singer Ronnie Carroll. Impressively, no fewer than 17 Ryder Cup players turned up. Names like Peter Alliss. Bernard Hunt. Neil Coles. Serious players.

The next year, singer Val Doonican was the name associated with the pro-am. Over the years, stars of stage and film like Albert Finney and Olivia Newton John would grace the fairways. A template had been found that would prove hugely successful, augmenting other outings to Baltray and Royal Dublin and elsewhere over the winter months which gave top amateurs and leading professionals an opportunity to play golf in the then off-season.

In the society’s 25th year, in 1991, it was decided to have a celeb-am tournament. Chris de Burgh agreed to front it, and three weeks after Ian Woosnam won the US Masters he was playing in the event. Eddie Jordan. Nigel Mansell, Bernard Gallacher – big names, all giving their time for free; making giving to charity the common bond.

You figure that Cecil Whelan grew up playing golf, such is his love of the game. In fact, football was his game growing up. In his teenage years, Whelan played with St Patrick’s Athletic and won winners medals at under-14, under-15, under-16, under-17 and minor levels. Then, he switched to Shelbourne and maintained the sequence, winning a youths’ medal. Seven of that St Patrick’s Athletic team were on the Irish schoolboys’ team, among them Joe Haverty who forged out a successful career with Arsenal.

Whelan laughs when he tells you what position he played. Centre forward! He didn’t get to play for the Irish schoolboys team. “I played well that year, but in trials I played terrible.”

He played one year with Shelbourne and, then, something happened. He discovered golf. Football became the past. In his first year, he went from being an 18-handicapper to nine. He would be a single-figure handicapper for a year short of six decades.

“I went to 10 in the year of the millennium. I loved it, would have been very competitive. But not now. I hit it sideways, but I still go out every week with Johnny Fullam (former Irish soccer international), a great friend of mine.”

Golf became his sport of choice after discovering the game when holidaying in Skerries, north Co Dublin. “I loved it.” That was 1955. His first club was Newlands but then he also joined the Hermitage, with whom he is long associated.

“I left Newlands (in 1972) because, at the time, it was hard to get into a club. At the time, I wasn’t well. I had a heart problem and I felt I was taking up someone’s place because I wasn’t playing enough.”

The lowest handicap which Whelan managed to achieve was to become a three-handicapper and he played in two Barton Shield finals (losing to a Skerries team that featured Irish international Brian Hoey, the father of current tour pro Michael) and also played Senior Cup.

The money raised by The Links Golf Society was substantial, and those committee members who over the years gave of their time can reflect on years of dedication which helped young amateurs and tour professionals on their way. But it was more than just about golf, it was about using the sport as a reason for giving and charities the length and breadth of the country benefited.

“One of the first times we went up to Cappagh, there was a little kid there. A little princess. Val Doonican was with us. She was dead within three months, brittle bones. We went another night and there was a little lad who’d had two heart operations. I’m not good at seeing that. And Christy Senior was the same. He said to me, ‘Don’t make me do that again’. It was hard to see.”

But they were the kind of causes that The Links were able to help. “Senior was great. He was the biggest player in Europe at the time and he never missed a Links outing,” said Whelan.

Whelan will tell you there was a bit of luck involved at times in getting celebrities involved. Looking in from the outside, you could say there were times he chanced his arm. There is the story of Bing Crosby, for instance. Someone told Whelan he was coming to Ireland. Whelan wrote to him. One day, he was working in the family shop in the Liberties and Cecil’s father called out to him. “It’s Bing Crosby on the phone for you.” That’s how things happened, or were made to happen.

Crosby played and brought his two sons, Nathaniel and Harry, along with him. He put Nath out with David Graham, Harry out with Eamonn Darcy. Bing played with Christy Senior. “We made him an honorary life member. I had a letter the next day from him thanking us, which I lost. Can you believe that? A lovely letter thanking us for his (life) card.”

The Links was like a magnet for the great and the good of sport and entertainment as it went about raising money for charity. There was the time Jack Nicklaus, winner of a career-record 18 Major titles, flew in himself. No payment. But the occasion was marked by the Golden Bear being presented with a specially-commissioned piece of Waterford Crystal with the clubhouse of Augusta National and the clubhouse of the RA at St Andrews engraved on it.

“My favourite places. Not my favourite courses, but my favourite places,” he told Whelan.

Whelan reflects on those times with a sense of fulfilment. There were many great times. He remembers the time Michael Smurfit – a very good supporter of the society – sponsored the pro-am on the Monday after the Irish Derby at the Curragh and stars like Burt Bacharach and Shirley Bassey and Michael Ball would stay on for the pro-am dinner. There was the time when cricketer Ian Botham played. They ran out of champagne in the Berkeley Court that night.

Behind it all, though, was the incentive to raise money for worthy causes. When the Ryder Cup was staged at The K Club in 2006, the PGA European Tour generously donated a pavilion to The Links for the three days. “We made 800-odd thousand from that, enough to buy 20 mini-ambulances, which we distributed from Derry to Kerry.”

Over the years, as Whelan will point out, they have been blessed to be associated with many of Ireland’s top players, from Christy O’Connor Snr in the formative years to Des Smyth and Pádraig Harrington. Smyth, the president, has been a member for 40 years; Harrington for 25 years.

But, now, the closing curtain is being pulled. “In the ’90s, we were making €600,000-€700,000, huge money. And in the 2000s, the boom years, there were two years when we raised a million and a quarter. But you can’t do that now, with the best will in the world. All our people are honorary and you hate not to do well and we couldn’t do it now as well as we wanted it. Reality hit this year. If we don’t do well, then the charities are disappointed. If they don’t get what we like them to get, it is a downer . . . I can’t see any light.”

And, so, the time has come for one of the great institutions of golf to call it a day. “We had 27 Major winners play in The Links over the years. Fred Daly. Max Faulkner. Hubert Green. Jack (Nicklaus). Retief Goosen. I’ve had a great time out of golf, made great relationships and tried not to have a row with anybody. The clubs have been great . . . but you hate to be going out and not doing well. With the best will in the world, if it is not there you can’t. You’d love to think you could do it to 50 (years) but to have four bad years, and that’s what you’re looking at, isn’t what we want.”