THE EVIDENCE of a lifetime of achievement lies everywhere in the living room of his Clontarf home. On the sofa. On the carpet. On tables. Each item has a yellow post-it stuck to it, detailing its part in Christy O’Connor’s road to fame.
There are 125 artefacts and memorabilia, small and large, and the man from the World Golf Hall of Fame is bubble-wrapping each one in preparation for them being shipped over to St Augustine in Florida.
‘Himself’ is on an armchair, holding court for us in the corner of the room; and his 84-year-old brain has all the clarity of the crystal that adorns the shelves behind him.
On November 2nd, O’Connor – a native of Galway but indelibly linked with The Royal Dublin Golf Club on Bull Island not far from his home – will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame along with Jose Maria Olazabal, Lanny Wadkins and Dwight D Eisenhower as the Class of 2009. The four will bring the total number of inductees to 130.
As every inductee before him has been asked to do, O’Connor has selected artefacts to tell his story. Some will remain on permanent display in Florida, the rest – which will be on display for a year – will be returned to him. O’Connor, who played in 10 Ryder Cup matches and won 43 professional tournaments, has no shortage of such memorabilia. All around him, there are photos that serve as a snapshot of the past.
One of them is in black and white and three men in front of the crowd seem mesmerised by his swing. The men? Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer and Lee Trevino. It was Trevino who once remarked, “Christy flows through the ball like fine wine”. Another photograph has a picture of O’Connor playing golf with US President Bill Clinton, who has a handwritten note on the end. “Thanking you for a wonderful day wishing (I) had your swing,” wrote Clinton.
There’s replica trophies in abundance. A miniature of the Canada Cup. Another of the Carrolls International. One of the Matchplay championship he won at Turnberry in 1957. There’s a Ryder Cup bag and a full set of John Letters irons. There’s a copy of his biography, aptly titled ‘Himself’ and several newspaper clippings and newspaper photographs, one of them with his nephew Christy Junior on the occasion of receiving honorary doctorates from NUI Galway.
There are also hickory shafted clubs in his collection, much like the ones O’Connor first used when he’d jump over the stone walls at home in Knocknagaa in Co Galway onto the adjacent golf course in Salthill. He remembered how, as a young child caddying, he got his first clubs.
“How we got them; you carried a bag and steel shafts were just coming in and (club members) were getting rid of their old clubs and you’d say, ‘sir I see you got a new three iron, what about the hickory shaft?’ and you’d get it. And that’s how we started.”
That start in golf was to serve O’Connor well, as he found fame and a little fortune on his travels. Although he never won a major – he only competed in the British Open, his best finish being runner-up in 1965 (one of nine top-10 finishes) – O’Connor had the distinction of winning the then largest ever first prize in golf when he won the John Player Classic in Hollinwell outside Manchester in 1970.
Although the first prize of £25,000 was then the largest ever in golf, it was made out for £24,375 – minus the PGA levy – and a framed copy of the Midlands Bank cheque and an orange champion’s jacket are destined for the glass exhibition case in the Hall of Fame. As he sat in his armchair yesterday, the centre of attention, O’Connor recalled how he very nearly didn’t make it to Hollinwell for the tournament. “I was stuck in Holland, fog-bound, and the plane was late getting to Manchester,” he said. Worse, the car that was due to collect him had gone and O’Connor had to get a taxi with a driver who didn’t know where they were going. Eventually, he got there, arriving in time only to change his shoes and grab a sandwich. And, then, he went out and made history.
But O’Connor is glad he had his day, and that he isn’t playing on tour nowadays even though the purses have skyrocketed. The reason? Slow play!
“It’s crazy, they’re taking six hours to play a round of golf now. We used to be able to play two rounds, 36 holes, in six hours around Wentworth . . . . and win!! It’s sad to see that (now). You miss a putt, you take your ball, and you clean it, and you line it . . . . I wouldn’t like to be playing now and I’d say a lot of my friends from England, Scotland, Wales, Belgium, anywhere, wouldn’t want to play. They had their rhythm, had their swing and got on with what they had.”
And of all the swings, Christy’s was the purest and has seen him joining the game’s greats in the Hall of Fame, where he will become the second Irishman – joining 2007 inductee Joe Carr – among those so honoured. The memorabilia will be showcased for a wider audience in the World Golf Hall of Fame museum. The world deserves to see them.
