New tourism investment up to scratch

BORD FAILTE are reaping a rich dividend from their strategy of investing in major golf tournaments carrying international television coverage. Indeed, in the first year of the venture, the number of specialist golf visitors to this country has risen by a stunning 72 per cent.

Damian Ryan, the board's promotions executive with responsibility for golf, also reports a most encouraging response to its scheme to increase overseas membership of Irish clubs. Earlier this year, an attractive brochure was launched by the Minister for Tourism and Trade, Enda Kenny, highlighting the 24 clubs who are offering such memberships at £100 or $160.

When Padraig O hUiginn took over as chairman of Bord Failte, he quite correctly identified golf as an area of huge potential from a tourist standpoint. And he had a solid supporter in the then Minister, Charlie McCreevy. The upshot was Bord Failte sponsorship of the inaugural Irish Women's Open at St Margaret's in 1994 and further support of the event last year, when Guardian Insurance became the title sponsors.

Enda Kenny has shown an even greater enthusiasm for the scheme, with the result that taxpayers' money was also invested in two new events last autumn, the Smurfit European Open at The K Club and the Glen Dimplex Irish International Matchplay Championship at Seapoint. Meanwhile, the annual support of the Murphy's Irish Open was maintained.

Overall, it has been an eminently sensible strategy which was employed effectively by their brethren in Spain, through the Turespana series of tournaments. And the results reflect its success.

Though the Spanish tourist board made an annual investment in excess of £4 million in tournament golf in recent years, the Irish outlay has been a more modest £700,000 approximately. But return on the investment has already run into millions.

"Through television coverage of tournaments last year alone, the message of Ireland as a golfing destination was beamed into 300 million homes around the world," said Ryan. "Given the results to date, we plan to continue on this route. The product is here and we believe we must sell it aggressively."

"FEWER guys are picking our brains now than before. That surprises me. It might be because they have so much confidence in their game. They also aren't asking for practice round. When I first came to the US, I did that all the time." Greg Norman, who spent 40 minutes on the practice ground with his coach, Butch Harmon, prior to a triumphant final round in the Doral Ryder Open last Sunday.

DR HENRY HACKER, an eminent psychologist based at the Domingo Hospital for demented golfers, has offered his services to this column, claiming to have the solution to all our ills. Indeed he even went so far as to submit case histories, some of which were quite impressive.

For instance, there was the problem of "Stymied" from Stepaside who, in desperation, sought the good doctor's help. He wrote: "Dear Doctor, My wife has been playing golf for a year and now wants to take me on in matchplay. Despite being obsessed with the game for the last 30 years. I am still only a 24 handicapper. To be honest, I'm petrified she'll beat me or worse, outdrive me. What should I do?"

To which Dr Hacker replied: "This is really a most elementary problem. If she wins, you win. You see, in the eyes of even the most befuddled judge, such a result would be grounds for a legal separation or, in these enlightened times, possibly divorce. Make sure you tell her so before agreeing to the match. The outcome may surprise you.

Interesting, but we may have to consider further samples of Dr Hacker's work before making any decision on the matter.

LAST month in these columns, I referred to the historic achievement of US astronaut, Alan Shepard, in hitting golf shots on the moon. Ia fact it is 25 years since Shepard, as commander of Apollo 14, struck those two, giant blows for the golfing world with a specially adapted six iron.

As a fascinating postscript to the exercise, Shepard has since revealed that NASA initially rejected the idea as being "far too frivolous". The disclosure came in a recent interview by the 72 year old who is living in retirement with Louise, his wife of 51 years, in an idyllic setting on the Monterey Peninsula in California.

Determined that the golfing aspect of the moon shot should go off without a hitch, Shepard followed the lead of all successful players: he practised. "I got the confidence of the fellow who handled the pressure suits," he said. "Then, at night, after hours, I would go down to the suit room and put on the full (space) suit, with the oxygen tanks and the radios and all that stuff.

"Then I would practice swing, which I couldn't do very well. But at least I got to the point where I was making some contact. I wanted to be sure I didn't fall down, because I planned to do it in front of the television camera."

Convinced that he could carry it off in a professional, scientific manner, Shepard then sought permission from Bob Gilruth, director of the manned space centre, who could scupper the idea. On being informed of the astronaut's proposal, Gilruth replied: "No, I don't believe we're going to do that. It's far too frivolous.

Armed with photos he had taken from his sessions in the suit room, however, Shepard persisted, assuring Gilruth that he would go ahead with it only if everything else on the mission went smoothly. "I won't even retrieve the golf balls," he said. "I'll leave them up there. And I'll pay for them and I'll also pay for the clubhead so that there will be no expense to the taxpayer." With that assurance, Gilruth relented.

Shepard, who is a 15 handicap member of Monterey Peninsula CC, still does a fair amount of travelling, but at much more sedate speeds than the 25,000 mph he piloted Apollo 14 en route to the moon. One of the most admirable aspects of his moon golfing is that it had no commercial aspects. "Only one person knows the trade name of the golf balls - that's me," he said. "My wife thinks it's in the will. But it ain't."

I CAN just hear the mumbling among the big boys Imagine Barry Lane scooping a million dollar purse! Barry Lane!" Mind you since most of those leading players absented themselves from the inaugural Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf, they really had no business complaining.

It will be recalled that when the $3.5 million event was launched, there was no Greg Norman nor Nick Faldo nor Nick Price nor Ernie Els nor Colin Montgomerie nor Fred Couples nor Davis Love. Faldo, Couples and Love are still missing from this year's event, but Norman. Price, Els and Montgomerie will be there. So will Jose Maria Olazabal and Costantino Rocca.

Now at $3.65 million, the purse, which was announced this week, is the richest in golf. And the sponsors have a quality field to complement that cash, given that 21 of the top 25 players in the world are in this year's line up. The Europeans are: Lane, Bernhard Langer, Montgomerie, Olazabal, Sam Torrance, Rocca and Jesper Parnevik.

Teaser: In a strokeplay competition, A returns a card showing the handicap to which he is entitled and the committee applies the wrong handicap, or miscalculates the correct net score. This results in another competitor receiving a prize to which A was entitled. The error is discovered after the competition has closed. What is the ruling?

Answer: The committee should correct its error by retrieving the prize and awarding it to A. There is no time limit for correcting such an error. Rule 34-lb (claims and penalties - strokeplay) is not applicable since it deals with penalties and not with committee errors.