Difficult to avoid catching the golf bug

SCHOOL REPORT/ CONVENT OF MERCY, ROSCOMMON: Richard Fitzpatrickon the influence of parents and teachers which is driving the Roscommon school's golf success

THERE'S NO getting away from golf at the Roscommon Convent of Mercy. If you're a guest visiting the school, the first person you'll probably meet is Paula Keane, the school secretary, a jaunty character who moonlights as registrar at Roscommon Golf Club.

Of the 41 staff members, some "15 or 16" play the game. Even the principal Tom Judge plays "a biteen". Indeed, his daughter, Deirdre Judge, is an assistant professional at The Island Golf Club in Dublin. She's a former pupil. Several others, including Lynn Sweeney and Deirdre Mahon, have played on the Ladies Irish golf team.

At present, about 60 pupils in the convent, including girls from the primary school, which is across the road from the secondary school, play golf. Some start to play as young as six or seven years of age.

The proximity of Roscommon Golf Club - which is within walking distance of the convent - is an obvious boon. "The groundwork is done there," says Mary Seymour, the school's art teacher who plays off a handicap of three and is a mainstay of the club's Senior Cup team.

The club's progressive junior golf programme also helps to foster the game among the girls; for example, it runs free lessons. Membership fees aren't too prohibitive. Juniors can join for €145 a year or €75 if they have a parent who is a member. Mentoring, particularly along family lines, seems to be the big driver in drawing girls to the game.

"If there is a parent playing, that's one advantage," says Judge. "The second would be if you have a teacher in the school that's pushing it. They're the two ingredients. It's very difficult to promote it to a student whose parents don't play, particularly for girls. They won't go on their own."

"You need to get a group of girls, of friends, together," adds Seymour. "Otherwise, they tend to drop off. They drop away from golf because their friends are up town or going somewhere else or to the cinema."

"It takes a lot of dedication," admits Julie O'Gara, the school's lowest handicap golfer. "When you're young, your friends are always going out, but you've to make sacrifices. You need to practise a lot."

Like her team-mate on the school's golf team, 15-year-old Aisling Hill, O'Gara will usually play both days over the weekend and maybe once during the week, squeezing in a few holes after school finishes at 3.40 pm.

When the summer holidays hit, the pair will play practically every day, partly because there's not much else to do, they half-moan. The stodgy, rain-lashed summers we've endured over the last two years haven't been a deterrent. Both girls say they prefer playing in the rain to wind; "once you've got good wet gear," qualifies O'Gara.

They also benefit from a sophisticated winter training regime run by the Junior Golf Ireland programme, which, besides providing them with golf lessons and physiotherapy, tutors them in diet and mental attitude.

"They teach you how you should focus on your shot when you're hitting it and turn off when you're not. Have your fun before you hit your shot and just concentrate when you're hitting it," explains O'Gara.

Although the option is there to enlist their friends as caddies when they play in tournaments, both girls haven't pushed the idea. "I wouldn't get any of my friends to do it," laughs Hill. "I wouldn't be able to concentrate with them there. I'd just be talking to them."

From their accounts, the junior girls' golf scene seems to be full of camaraderie.

"You get the rewards because you make loads of friends through the different championships," says O'Gara. "I've made really strong friendships through golf. There are around six big championships. When you go to them, you meet all of your friends."

"Golf is a game that you can play into your 80s," adds Judge about the benefits of the game. "There's a social aspect to it as well. A lot of the clientele you're likely to meet if you go into the world of business will play golf. Networking and all that sort of thing is important. People have a prejudice against golf, but it's not elitist anymore. You buy a few clubs and you're away."

It also has the attraction that it's a non-contact sport. With the exception of one time when O'Gara hit a tree and the ball came back and hit her - commendably, she called a penalty of two shots against herself as a result - one avoids the cuts and bruises associated with so many other sports.

"You might have your teeth and your mouth intact when you get home from playing a round of golf," jokes Seymour.

CONVENT OF MERCY, ROSCOMMON

School: Roscommon Convent of Mercy, Convent Road, Roscommon

Founded: 1929

Number of pupils: 550

Sports played: Athletics, badminton, basketball, camogie, Gaelic football, golf, gymnastics, handball, orienteering, soccer, swimming, tennis, trampolining, unihoc and volleyball

Golf titles: All-Ireland Schools 1986, 1991

Notable past pupils: Maura Quinn, former executive director of UNICEF Ireland, and 2FM DJ Ruth Scott

INSIDE TRACK JULIE O'GARA

Name: Julie O'Gara, member of Roscommon Convent of Mercy golf team

Age: 17

Handicap: 7

Golf hero: Tiger Woods

Favourite course: Ballybunion (Old Course). Her score wasn't recorded the day she played it. "It was more about fun that day," she pleads.

Highlight of school sports career: Partnered Anne McCormack to win the Connacht Schools in 2007

Highlight of golf career: Finished third best qualifier in the 2008 Connacht Senior Ladies Championship at Ballinrobe Golf Club with a round of 76

Illustrious family members: Her brother David scored the crucial goal to help Roscommon defeat Kerry, 1-10 to 0-9, in the replay of the 2006 All-Ireland minor football final; her dad, John played centre forward on the Roscommon team which lost to Kerry in the 1980 senior All-Ireland football final, "the best team never to win an All-Ireland," testifies Convent of Mercy's PE teacher Séan Boland

Play any other sports? Goes to the gym