There has been life after rugby in a sporting context, and for me, that has been golf. It has provided me with a competitive outlet that has undoubtedly been a great deal more frightening than any memories that my rugby days might conjure.

Golf is such a singular, individual pursuit that it offers a glaring contrast to team sports and has been capable of reducing me to a nervous wreck, a state that I managed to avoid in my rugby career. I have found the pressure in golf to be 10 times greater than any other sport I have tried.

That would even apply to the day that I won my first cap for Ireland in the first Test against South Africa in 1981. The sense of pressure that afternoon was mild compared to the effect that my early senior cup matches in golf produced - terror would be a more appropriate description.

In rugby, even though it was an amateur sport, we trained professionally. I would have my homework done before I got on the pitch and I knew the limits of my ability and played within those constraints. I knew what I was doing, something of which I cannot accuse myself in relation to golf, on occasion.

I remember playing a guy called Dave Noonan from Rosslare in one of my first Senior Cup matches for Blainroe. Dave was playing off about two and I think I was 10, at the time. He handed me the old dog licence, a 7 and 6 thrashing. I can only equate the experience to something like driving a motorbike at 150 miles per hour. . . . hanging on for dear life.

I found that very, very intimidating, having to hole small putts just to stay on the coattails of people who were patently far superior golfers. So it is against this backdrop that I judge golf and to me, having improved a bit (current handicap 2.6) it reminds me of my feet of clay in a golfing context.

I took up the game towards the end of my rugby career and have been fortunate to subsequently play some of the top golf courses in the world including Valderrama, PGA National, Chi Chi Rodriguez' course in Puerto Rico, Doral and Hong Kong.

To be able to play these courses alone would have sufficed but to score well was a bonus. Three over gross at Valderrama, one over in Puerto Rico remain outstanding memories. I suppose in one sense I am sorry that golf was never my main sport, just to see how far I could have taken it.

My favourite course in Ireland would have to be Mount Juliet, a place I dropped into recently to play a fourball with former international Michael Kiernan (11), Don Coughlan (2) and Fergal Deasy (scr). We enjoyed a superb afternoon. Coughlan finished under the card while Deasy enjoyed five birdies in-a- row.

I enjoy playing with my former international colleagues on the rugby pitch. Kiernan is a regular sparring partner over the years. Suffice it to say that I have more money belonging to Michael Kiernan than he has himself. Michael Bradley is another to stride the fairways with a greater purpose since hanging up the boots, now operating off a five handicap.

Golf has provided me with experiences like Mount Juliet (in my opinion the best outside of the links in this country) and the K-Club (level par), another great test. Rugby inspired many friendships and golf has unearthed many more.

One particularly memorable experience was breaking the course record at Blainroe, level par gross, but I have been usurped in that respect. Leo Corcoran, who I think was playing off seven at the time, shot a two under par gross to smash the record.

Despite terrifying me at times, golf has provided many magic moments, ones that I could not have matched in other sporting spheres, and will remain a central part of my life for as long as I can swing a club.