A unique outing at St Margaret's GC tomorrow represents a lasting legacy to Peter O'Hara's term as president of the Golfing Union of Ireland in 1997. For it was the Ulsterman's idea to have an annual golfing get-together with officials of the other three main sporting bodies in the country - the GAA, IRFU and the FAI.

The inaugural get-together in July of last year was somewhat low-key given that time was a decidedly busy period for sports legislators. But it is felt that this year's timing will afford the opportunity for some useful discussion of matters of mutual interest.

GUI president, Percy Shannon, will lead his 10-member team into battle, as will Pat Quigley for the FAI. IRFU president Noel Murphy and GAA counterpart Joe McDonagh will also be in attendance, but only for the dinner, later in the day.

A total of 40 competitors will be playing stableford singles for an overall prize. But GUI secretary Shay Smith informs me that there will also be first, second and third prizes for each of the four sporting bodies.

"Essentially, it is a gathering aimed at finding out how the four bodies can help each other in matters of mutual interest," said Smith yesterday. "That would be primarily in such matters as youth policy, coaching and training facilities."

As it happens, three of the organisations are 32-county bodies which means they could also offer mutual enlightenment on how to tackle drugs in sport, a problem which has been causing the IRFU some grief of late. But there is no agenda, as such.

Meanwhile, in terms of golfing skills, the IRFU have two particularly useful performers in their line-up in Paul Dean (Blainroe) and Padraig Slattery (Portmarnock), both of whom are category-one players. But Donie Nealon, the former Tipperary hurler, is reputed to be a golfer of some talent.

Having been on the receiving end of a few thrashings in the annual match between the GUI and the golfing media, I can imagine Peter O'Hara being reasonably confident that his colleagues would acquit themselves admirably. In that context, it hardly seems that long ago since Jack Lynch, the current chairman of the Munster Branch, was mounting a serious challenge for the West of Ireland Championship at Rosses Point.

And here's a fascinating thought. At the end of the day, which of the organisations will be complaining about handicaps?