WHEN Paul Conaty, an 18-year-old member of Clontarf GC, died of cancer last October, I wrote in this column about a remarkable gesture by Nick Faldo. It concerned a long chat which Faldo had with the youngster during the course of a phone call to Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, a few days' before he passed away. Later, the player sent a funeral wreath in Paul's memory.
But the story didn't end there. Some members of Clontarf decided to hold a charity day to acknowledge the marvellous work done by Our Lady's Hospital. So, last weekend, the club played host to the Paul Conaty Memorial Tournament.
In finalising arrangements, it was suggested that Faldo might like to be associated with the occasion, perhaps through some items that could be auctioned. When I put it to him at The Oxfordshire in May, his response was entirely positive. All I had to do was remind him during the Volvo PGA Championship the following week. Which I did.
Then, prior the US Open at Oakland Hills, Faldo came into the media centre for a practice-day interview. Before a word was spoken, he turned to me and said: "That stuff is winging its way to you." And when I arrived home from the US the following Tuesday, there it was.
A large package contained one of the player's XXL shirts, with his signature across the front. There was also a signed golf ball, an official, bound chronicle of his 1989 US Masters triumph, signed, and some signed photographs.
When told of these items, Paul's father, Tom, determined he would have them at any cost. He succeeded - but not before the bidding had gone to £2,250. And as a bonus to the tournament fund, £500 was bid for the navy slipover which Philip Walton wore on the Saturday of the Ryder Cup at Oak Hill last September. The fund, not yet officially closed, is in excess of £13,000.
It was a memorable occasion, sprinkled with joyous memories of a young man who was both a fine golfer and a delightfully mischievous character. And though he has never met Tom nor Lily Conaty, Nick Faldo was very much a part of it all. THEY call it "Michael's Favourite" and given the renowned business-sense of its owner, one can readily understand why. Indeed Michael Smurfit must be rather pleased with the dividend being delivered by the pond fronting the notorious 16th hole at The K Club. Recently, a diver was hired to scour its 20-foot depth and fully equipped with air tanks, he recovered no fewer than 3,500 golf balls.
Buoyed up by this success, in a manner of speaking, he went elsewhere in search of treasure, including the lake bordering the left side of the 18th fairway. There, the haul was more varied and similarly lucrative. Apart from balls, he recovered three pullers and ... whisper it ... two of them were Pings.
"Did Duffy ring you yet?" Joe Kelly of Mullingar GC was in the Arnold Palmer Room last Tuesday, apparently more concerned with a hole-in-one story than his splendid victory in The Irish Times/K Club Golf Challenge earlier in the day. As it happened, he scored 38 points, off 10 - not at all bad for a 71-year-old.
Paul Byrne, a Dubliner who plays off 14 out of Castlebar, also had cause for celebration. In a special draw among the competitors in the Challenge, he won a set of Callaway clubs, woods and irons, presented by the distributors, John Swan Ltd.
But what about Duffy, you ask. It has to do with a story here last week from the Hennessy Hole-In-One files, about two aces in the same fourball, recorded recently by Brendan Reck and Jimmy Higgins at the 190-yard fifth at Murvagh. A first in Ireland? Not so, according to Kelly, who was captain of Mullingar in 1957.
He referred me to page 27 of David Walsh's fine history of Mullingar GC. There, we are informed that in May 1940, Tom Duffy was playing with Pat Glynn against Dermot Shaw and Peter Conroy. At the 153-yard 15th. Conroy hit first and had a hole in one. His partner then played, satisfied the hole was won.
Duffy did nothing to change that view but, outrageously, urged his partner: "I think you can do it, Pat." (I never met Tom Duffy, but knowing his son, Michael, the remark sounds very much in character). Anyway, Glynn's ball rolled into the hole already occupied by Conroy's. The 15th was halved - in one. Incidentally, Michael Duffy hasn't rung me yet.
SINCE its inauguration in 1922, the Portmarnock Gold Medal has been one of the club's most coveted prizes. And whatever the outcome of next Wednesday's final, the winner will be especially interesting.
Last year, the medal went to the youngest-ever winner, six handicapper Donal Quinn, who was aged 17 years and two months at the time. Now, his father Feargal, playing off 15, is attempting to establish the first, son-father sequence in the history of the competition.
But his opponent could also claim a unique distinction. For 12-handicapper Ross Formley happens to be aged 16 years and 10 months.
It shouldn't really have caused them such grief, given that his closest challengers, Jack Nicklaus and Ben Crenshaw, finished three strokes back in a share of second place. But Americans have never forgiven Seve Ballesteros for winning the 1979 British Open at Royal Lytham, after hitting his second to the 16th out of a car park on the final day.
Their pique was epitomised by the report from Mike Lupica in the New York Daily News. After a lot of stuff about golf in Britain being haunted by ghosts from the past and mystique and tradition, he wrote: "But there is one thing you ought to know about these golf courses where they play the British Open, golf courses like Royal Lytham and St Anne's Golf Club. The golf courses are mostly junkyards, is what they are.
He went on: "All municipal golfers everywhere in the United States should take heart. They play the British Open on your courses. Royal Lytham and most of the rest (Muirfield in Scotland is a rare exception) are just hard, unfair junkyard `munies'. Nothing more.
"These courses just happen to be in the British Isles, that's all. Good shots get penalised. Bad shots get rewarded. Pitch and run. Bounce and pray. Miss the fairway and end up in garbage. They may call it heather here. We call in rough."
Lytham admirers delight in that particular piece. They view it as unquestionable proof of American displeasure at the failure of their professionals to win the British Open on any of its eight stagings at Lytham.
They seem to forget that the first winner of the title at, Lytham was the incomparable Bobby Jones in 1926. And how different was his attitude to the carping of latter-day Americans. Having gone to lunch in the Majestic Hotel between the third and fourth rounds, Jones returned to the course only to discover that he had forgotten his player's badge. But rather than protest to the commissionaire who didn't recognise him, he went to the spectators' gate and paid 2s 6d to get in to win his first British Open.
In brief: Despite an entry of more than 140 pairs, some tee-times are available for the Flogas Mother and Son tournament to be played at Malahide GC next Friday ... Gerry de Renzy informs me that in this, the silver jubilee year of the McDonnell Cup, The K Club are at home to Royal Dublin in the first leg of the final this afternoon: the second leg is at Dollymount next Saturday ... Only 14 months after their old clubhouse was destroyed by fire, Phelim Henry informs me that Roscommon GC can now boast a splendid new building to complement an extended course of 6,900 yards off the championship tees
Those seeking a coincidence bet in next week's British Open should note that four years and eight days after taking up golf, Nick Faldo won his first title, the English Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham in 1975.
Teaser: A player finds a stray ball, which he mistakenly thinks is his, in a bad lie. He declares it unplayable and decides to adopt the procedure in Rule 28a (Play a ball as near as possible at the spot from which the original hall was last played). After going back, he plays the stray ball under penalty of stroke and distance at the spot from which his original ball was played. He then finds his original bail in a playable position. What is the ruling?
Answer: The original ball is lost and the stray ball played under penalty of stroke and distance is in play. The ruling would have been different if the player had decided to proceed under Rule 28b or 28c (Drop a hall within two club lengths etc, or drop a ball behind the point where the ball lay, etc).
