FITTINGLY, AT a time when Irish golf has a new generation of players capable of conquering the world, Christy O’Connor – the man known simply as ‘Himself’, the player who provided the inspiration for those who followed – was yesterday allowed to reappear into the spotlight at Baltray, where it was announced that he would be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
In becoming only the second Irishman to be so honoured, joining the late Joe Carr, O’Connor – who this week celebrated his 50th year as a professional with Royal Dublin – has joined an elite club of men and women that includes Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.
The induction ceremony will take place in St Augustine, Florida, on November 2nd.
When George O’Grady, the executive director of the PGA European Tour, first made the phone call to inform the 84-year-old O’Connor of his selection into the Hall of Fame in the veterans category, the golfer thought it was someone playing a joke. “Put it in writing,” asked O’Connor of the voice on the other end of the phone. It was only when he got the letter that he believed it.
And the popularity of O’Connor’s elevation to the Hall of Fame can be gauged from the fact that one of the first people to call to congratulate him was Jack Nicklaus.
During a career that spanned more than four decades on the European Tour, O’Connor won 24 titles including the 1956 and 1959 British Masters titles and played on 10 Ryder Cup teams. He became the first Irish player to win the Vardon Trophy for topping the European Tour money list, winning in 1962 and retaining it in 1963.
Yet, he never got to play in any major in the United States, purely, as he acknowledged yesterday, because “I couldn’t afford to . . . they were the days before sponsorship and such like.”
O’Connor added: “I have enjoyed a great life in golf and it has done so much for me. This is the cream, and I am quite overwhelmed.”
