As the world of golf prepares to celebrate the centenary of Christy O’Connor’s birth, Dermot Gilleece pays a personal tribute to ‘Himself’
It can be said with some assurance that 1924 was a very good year for the game of golf. It was a time when Bobby Jones captured the US Amateur title at the seventh attempt, prompting him to set his sights on the elusive Grand Slam.
That same year, Jones was also runner-up to Cyril Walker in the US Open, when a little-known Irishman named Peter O’Hare from Greenore, finished seventh at Oakland Hills. It also marked the first of what would become a record four successive US PGA Championship triumphs by Walter Hagen.
You will gather that I’m thinking centenaries, which made 1924 notable right to the end of the year. While players in the US were coming to terms with the sanctioning of steel-shafted clubs for the following April, a baby boy to be christened Patrick Christopher, was born on December 21 to Margaret O’Connor and her husband Michael, in the townland of Knocknacarra outside Galway City.
Interestingly, it was with hickory-shafted clubs, discarded by local professional, Pat Quinn, that young Christopher took his first, tentative swings at a game he would grace with rare distinction. And at the tender age of nine, he won his first competition against fellow caddies of Galway Golf Club, playing off scratch, naturally.
Christy O’Connor developed a special affection for Royal Dublin where there are plans to mark his centenary later this year
Favourite practice routine
We’re informed that during those formative years, a favourite practice routine was for young Christopher to stand back from a tree and hit mid-iron shots around the right-hand side of it, then the left-hand and finally over it. This taught him how to shape shots with limited equipment which also forced him to learn how to vary distances, entirely by feel.
It could be said that burgeoning skills, which were to captivate golf enthusiasts at home and abroad, had their formal unveiling to the wider public at Royal Portrush in 1951, the first staging of the Open in this fair land. That was when as a 26-year-old attached to the Tuam club, he carded rounds of 79,74,72 and 74 to claim a share of 17th place with Kel Nagle, 14 strokes behind the winner, Max Faulkner. Christy O’Connor was on his way.
A move to Bundoran, meant he was entitled to compete in the Ulster Professional Championship. And it was this match-play event which delivered his first important tournament victory in 1953, when he beat former champion, Jimmy Henderson, by 3 and 2 in the final at Knock. A year later, he retained the title by beating no less a figure than Fred Daly in the final at Royal Belfast.
O’Connor, who passed from us at this time in 2016, would readily acknowledge that the best decision he ever made was to marry the former Mary Collins almost 70 years ago, on October 12, 1954. And I remember Mary telling me that as they walked down the aisle, she turned to her brand-new husband and said: ‘Do you realise, Christy, that we haven’t a shilling between us.’ To which Christy replied: ‘Don’t worry Mary, I’ll earn it and you’ll look after it.’
In mouthing this promise, Christy was aware that the earnings he aspired to were to be found only on the international tournament circuit. It is now part of European lore that his maiden victory in the Swallow Penfold Tournament of 1955, was for Europe’s first £1,000 cheque. From then until 1970, he won at least one official tour event every single year, with the exception of 1958, when handsome compensation came to him in the Irish Professional Championship at Royal Belfast and the Canada Cup in Mexico City, where he partnered his great pal Harry Bradshaw to a memorable Irish triumph.
Lee Trevino said the O’Connor swing was like fine wine
A year later, he captured the Daks Tournament on the West Course at Wentworth, which was to become one of his favourite stomping grounds. By a charming coincidence, it was created by the great English architect, Harry Colt, who was responsible for re-designing Royal Dublin after World War 1. Mastery of Wentworth spoke volumes for the quality of O’Connor’s iron play and fairway-wood shots, reflected in a record, West Course aggregate of 274 which stood unchallenged for 28 years, until Bernhard Langer surpassed it en route to victory in the PGA Championship of 1987.
Six PGA Senior and two World Senior titles followed a total of 24 European Tour triumphs, of which the most notable was undoubtedly the John Player Classic of 1970 at Hollinwell, where victory earned him a then world-record first prize of £25,000. It also brought him the honour of becoming the 12th Freeman of Galway, joining four Presidents, five cardinals, a Papal Nuncio and a former Mayor of New York.
At the presentation ceremony, incidentally, Himself brought quite a chuckle from the distinguished gathering, by confessing that he had given himself the freedom of Galway Golf Club on numerous occasions, by scaling the perimeter wall as a youngster.
After the Canada Cup victory when he was attached to Killarney, Royal Dublin made the admirably wise decision of looking to him as an ideal candidate for the post of club professional, vacated by the departure of Christy Kane. He took up the job on April 1st 1959.
It meant himself, Mary and their young family moving into a new home in Blackheath Park, Clontarf, where they remained. To the best of their recollection, it cost the princely sum of about £2,000 and while they had looked at other places, they always felt there was something special, something lucky about that particular house. The first thing Christy noticed was a laneway at the back, leading all the way down to Belgrove School, which their six children attended. In fact laneways led right down to the seafront.
Along the way, he developed a special affection for Royal Dublin where there are plans to mark his centenary later this year. Despite considerable changes in the layout, he made an indelible impact on the closing three holes, in the famous eagle-birdie-eagle finish which secured him the Carrolls International of 1966.
Meanwhile, a particular incident in Christy’s home some years later, emphasised for me his impact on Irish sporting life through the decades. While I was there, Mary produced an old, sepia-coloured newspaper, which was found under a discarded carpet. It was a copy of the Irish Press dated Monday, May 31 1965 and a sports headline which read: ‘O’Connor Snatches Title at 76th.’ This was the story from Mullingar of his sixth Irish Professional Championship win in eight years, which he captured after a play-off with Nicky Lynch and Norman Drew.
There had been some doubt about his participation because of the wrist injury which affected him from time to time throughout his career. Anyway, Paul MacWeeney of The Irish Times felt it was clearly the story for preview day. Whereupon Derek Jones informed the great MacWeeney that he had run the story in the Daily Express a week previously, to which the bold Paul famously retorted with his polished, characteristic stammer: ‘My dear Jones. Readers of the Irish Times wouldn’t pick up the Daily Express … not even with a pair of tongs.’
Glowing tributes
Breathtaking golfing skills, brought glowing tributes from the highest level. Indeed I can remember Lee Trevino remarking during the 1985 Irish Open at Royal Dublin that the O’Connor swing was like fine wine.
Peter Alliss, who never passed up the opportunity of singing O’Connor’s praises during his wonderful television commentaries for the BBC, once observed that a supreme test of a golfer was how long his skill and nerve endured. In this context, he included Christy in the same class as Roberto de Vicenzo, Sandy Herd, Sam Snead and Fidel de Luca.
On the last Monday in October 2009, special displays recounting the historic paths of each of that year’s inductees, were open to visitors to Florida’s Golf Hall of Fame. Among dozens of items in the O’Connor memorabilia as an honoree, was his trophy for the 1970 John Player Classic.
Then there was the Carrolls International trophy, featuring a design based on his swing, which he kept as a three-time winner of the tournament in 1967, along with several Ryder Cup items, including his European team bag from the tied match in 1969.
Among treasured mementos that I have been fortunate to gather through my golf-writing over the years, are two rather special items given to me by Mary O’Connor. One is a Fred Smyth Christy O’Connor three-iron and the other is a beautifully finished, MacGregor ‘eye-o-matic’ driver.
In idle moments, I think of the magic wrought with them by a true master of the game.
