Gemma Clews – chasing her dreams

Last week, as a newly minted member of Delamere Forest Golf Club, I attended a fundraising event for a fellow member, a young British international player, Gemma Clews, who is hoping to turn her dream of becoming professional into a reality in 2017.  Several thousand pounds were raised and this will go directly to, and be managed by, the England Golf Trust fund set up for her use in travelling to compete in events at home and abroad.  Talented though she is, in all likelihood, the road ahead for Gemma will not be an easy one.

It is thirty years (help!) since I was poised to take the same step and become the first Irish woman to join the Ladies’ European Tour.  In those days turning professional did not demand the same high standard of play.  A maximum of a three handicap and the ability to identify the correct dotted line and sign your name sufficed.  The landscape has really changed…..or has it?

Common to all touring professionals is their office.  It moves…and frequently….and it’s bloomin’ expensive to chase after it.  Once I’d joined the tour in 1986 at least I knew I had a tour to play on – if I could afford it.  Nowadays, those who don’t survive the rigours of Qualifying School have a raft of smaller stages on which they can try their luck to create a pathway to the Tour and a guaranteed entry into a number of events.  These smaller stages, however, tend to be in far flung places with the prize money coming from the players’ own entry fees and, therefore, the rewards are fairly small beer, barely covering expenses.  But valuable experience IS being gained.

After finding tournaments to play in, the next big, central question for the player is “can you afford it?”  This challenge hasn’t changed over the last thirty years.  It’s the reason some of my peers slept in cars and Ian Woosnam survived on eating cold baked beans out of the can for his dinner.  If you have a dream you do what it takes and resilience is key.

On one occasion when I was bemoaning my lack of a sponsor Dad told me I couldn’t expect anyone to invest in my game if I didn’t put my own money where my mouth was.  So, I got on with my part-time job of working for a golf promotion company, saved hard to fund my tournament life and spent the rest of my time working on my game as much as I could.  Elsewhere in this blog (in Mo And The Marvellous Marquesa) you can read about my lucky break in meeting a sponsor, but it certainly doesn’t happen for everyone.

Nowadays when you make it on to the Tour you may find you are ineligible for the big tournaments because of a lowly ranking and/or position on the money list.  So, welcome to the classic catch 22 situation – players above you get into the big money fields, then have a good week and move further away from you in ranking points and money lists and the gap widens.  This is not the time to consider booby-trapping the locker room – just keep working hard and remember why you’re doing this.  You do love it, don’t you?

Just what are some of the ingredients for success for Gemma and her like?  An incredible work ethic; first-class time management; a clear vision of the path that needs following to achieve designated goals; capacity for travel; resilience; an ability to score, no matter what; and wholehearted dedication.  Oh yes, and a bit of luck wouldn’t go amiss.

Range work is only one ingredient needed for success

We all know that very few players manage to make a living from playing but if you’ve done your homework and decided it’s for you, then, take a deep breath, Gemmas of this world, step into the exhilarating, exciting, privileged world of professional sport and give it your all.

It was terrific to hear that Padraig Harrington had won the Portugal Masters at Vilamoura last week, in front of hordes of delighted Irish supporters.  The last time I saw him play was at the Open at Troon when his opening tee shot went soaring off over the grandstands towards the 18th fairway.  It looked like being a long day but Caroline, Padraig’s wife, was her usual equable friendly self, unfazed by the unorthodox route.  She’s well used to the ups and downs of a professional golfer’s existence and Padraig has never been orthodox.

The Dubliner, an accountant by training, many years ago,  has now worked his way back into the world’s top 100 after falling a long way from the glory years of 2007 and 2008 when he won three major championships and the years when he was a fixture in Europe’s Ryder Cup teams.   His autobiography, should it ever appear, will probably run to several volumes, not least because Padraig is anything but taciturn, always willing to share his current theories and, more often than not, baffle more simple souls with the twists and turns of his thought processes.

Padraig back to winning ways.

A modicum of research reveals that Paul Keane has written a book called Obsessed:  Inside Padraig Harrington’s Head. I look forward to reading it but can’t imagine how Keane managed to survive the experience and squeeze everything into a mere 240 pages.  That’s a bit of a cheap crack from someone who loves listening to Padraig’s interviews and trying to make sense of the convolutions of a man who is always on the move mentally, thinking and tinkering, ever open to new ideas.  He also works his spikes off, physically and psychologically and will try anything if he thinks it will help him be better, even that ice cold cryo-wotsit-thingy that speeds recovery from strains and stresses.  And, of course, he does twice as long as anyone else.

I think it was the Irish journalist Brian Keogh who once suggested that Joseph Heller, who wrote Catch 22, should be Harrington’s biographer but perhaps James Joyce, author of Ulysses and famed for his singular way of thinking, would have been the man for the job.

Dave Alred, who helped Johnny Wilkinson hone the skills that kicked England’s opponents to oblivion, has written a book called The Pressure Principle:  Handle Stress, Harness Energy and Perform When It Counts and Harrington credited it with helping him win in Portugal.  He also putted the lights out after picking up a tip from playing with Matt Fitzpatrick and Andy Sullivan.  The ever-curious Irishman noticed that the two Englishmen had a black line round the ball and just rolled it along the line.  If you roll the ball the ball down the line, that’s good and if the ball misses, you’ve misread the line.  If it’s not rolling properly, it was a bad stroke/strike.  Simples, as a certain irritating meerkat might say.  “I’m having an obsessively good time practising it,”  Harrington said.

He has always been his own man and is always open to new ideas but keeps an eye on the numbers, as befits his accounting background:   “I keep my own stats because they show what’s good and what’s not and what it takes to win.  It’s never been about hitting fairways and greens.  Holing putts, getting up and down and pitching, those are the things that matter to me in a competitive week.  When I go back and look at my stats for scrambling this week [in Portugal], I would say I was better than 100 per cent.”

Way to go Padraig.

On a sad note, Dr David Sheahan, one of Ireland’s great amateurs, died this week at the age of 76.  Our condolences to his family and friends.  Learn all about the good doctor and his exploits by seeking out a copy of Shane O’Donoghue’s lovely book Legends In Their Spare Time.

A super book paying tribute to Ireland’s great amateurs. Full of fascinating stuff.

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Calling all Royal Portrush members of a certain age!  Here’s a wee challenge for you.  How many can you name in the photo below?  Let’s see if between us we can manage a full house by the 125th celebrations on November 5th.  I think the date is circa 1959.

RPGC – Ladies’ Branch circa 1959

It took 92 holes to separate the two young women at Blackwolf Run in Wisconsin in 1998.  One became the youngest US Women’s Open champion and a golfing legend, credited with changing the face of the game; the other gave up golf altogether and became a nurse.  Is that one of the small margins that coaches and sports psychologists are fond of talking about?

Jenny Chuasiriporn, born in America to Thai parents, was still an amateur, a student at Duke University, when she holed a 40-foot putt on the 72nd hole to tie Se Ri Pak, of South Korea.  The two 20-year olds were still tied after an 18-hole play-off but Pak eventually took the title with a birdie putt at the 92nd hole.  It was her second major championship of the season and the LPGA rookie had lit the blue touchpaper that caused the explosion of women’s golf in her homeland.

Pak, who’ll be 40 next year, has just retired from competitive golf amid emotional scenes in Incheon, South Korea.  There were three South Koreans on the LPGA Tour in 1998; in 2009 there were 47; in 2016 34.  Six of the top ten in the Rolex World Rankings are from South Korea and Lydia Ko, the world No 1, is a New Zealander who was born in South Korea.  And it’s no exaggeration to say that it’s down to the impact of Pak, who is revered at home.  Inbee Park, one of the current stars inspired by Pak’s exploits, once tried to explain what it was like:  “You know Coca Cola?  That’s Se Ri in Korea.”

Se Ri looking every inch the superstar.

That sort of mega adoration hasn’t made Pak’s life easy and she now stresses the importance of balance in a player’s life but she learned to cope.  She threw herself into learning English after deciding that an early interpreter wasn’t getting things right and she was a wonderful interview, if not always easy to follow.  It was worth trying to make sense of the sometimes tortuous construction because her grasp of nuance, her ability to express emotion and give life to her feelings was exceptional.  She knocked many of her English-speaking colleagues, whose use of their native language never rose above soggy bottom, into a cocked hat.  In short, she was a joy as well as an inspiration.  Thanks Se Ri.

Chuasiriporn tried professional golf briefly but realised it didn’t suit her and had the nous and intelligence to change tack and study nursing.  She, too, has made a huge difference to people’s lives.  Thanks Jenny.

Thanks also to Beth Ann Baldry (Golfweek), Randall Mell (Golf Channel) and Lisa Mickey (New York Times and others) for keeping us all up to date and well-informed.  Keep up the good work!

Congratulations also to the five people who will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame next year:  Lorena Ochoa, Meg Mallon, Ian Woosnam, Davis Love III and Henry Longhurst, the late great writer and broadcaster.

Modestly, I claim to have played a part in Ochoa’s victory in the Ricoh Women’s British Open at St Andrews in 2007.  The year before, at a very windy Royal Lytham & St Annes, we played together in the pro-am (and won, as I recall) and I, a child of seaside links, employed the chip and run to unusually good effect.  Lorena was intrigued, took note and, lo, became champion at the Home of Golf.  That’s my story anyway.

Ochoa, right, then the world No 2, looks on in….bafflement?

You’re welcome, Lorena. Muchas gracias.