Jesus, Terry you just hit it right on the nail, while the old relaxation stimulant might help keep the Yanks at bay in Afghanistan, for the rest of us, our little fix of sport is really what life is all about!
See the Terry Eagleton quote from his recent book 'The Meaning of Life' that I posted earlier and his views on Sport - HERE.
Recession, what recession? Budgetary measures to get us out of the mess the Bankers got us into to? Education of course is the way out of doom and gloom, or is it? Last week 2 Leaving Cert students were interviewed on Sky leaving the stadium in Bari after Ireland secured a fantastic result. The two 17 year olds had gone to Italy with parental money given to them to buy Books to study for the Leaving Cert!!! Who really cared about budget deficits when the Rugby team won the Grand Slam? Was the economic crisis on the mind of many as Bernard Dunne claimed the World Title in an epic encounter? Will trade imbalance and negative equity stop us touring Soweto if ‘Il Trap’ takes us to South Africa? Who will give a toss about Fingleton and Fitzpatrick if Harrington is fitted out for the green jacket at Augusta this week? The Celtic Tiger was fine while it lasted, but financing the lifestyles of the corporate sector just doesn’t do it for the plebes, but sport does!
3 years ago the biggest sporting event in the world was held in this little corner of Western Europe, and to cap it all, one quarter of the 12 man team were from Ireland, boy do we punch above our weight when it comes to sport. We might be minnows in political terms world-wide, no Imperial past to merit a place on the G20, a dot on the world map geographically, although we did spar on equal terms financially with our own ‘Tiger’; but in the sporting world we are up there with the best: Italia ’90, Stephen Roche, Geordie Best, Barry McGuigan, Hurricane Higgins, Ronnie Delaney and many others including the triumphant triumvirate of Harrington, Clarke and McGinley from the K Club! To have three Irishmen on the winning Ryder Cup team was nothing short of sensational and they followed in a long list after Christy O; Connor, Philip Walton, Eamonn Darcy and indeed Paul Mc Ginley at the Belfry who have contributed so much to Ryder Cup history.
Golf has come a long way from the stuffy image of the better off in society having a bit of fun ‘with the chaps!’ and then closing the business deal at the 19th! The 19th, thankfully still does good business, but the funny jumpers, even funnier trousers and the stiff upper lip has been replaced by the masses who have taken up golf in the past 25 years. Once the preserve of an elite in society, the game has opened up and become a game enjoyed by everyone. 420 courses in Ireland and 18 in Donegal alone, the natural and rugged landscape has blessed us with the majority of Links courses out of a total of 400 worldwide! [The only disappointment with the Ryder Cup was that it wasn’t played on a Links course!]. It’s great when you watch one of the 3 boys adapting shots to suit the moment, knowing they have perfected them on home links. When the Sky commentator is perplexed as to how they played ‘that’ shot, you can smile and just visualise the shot from Royal Portrush, Portmarnock, or Dunfanaghy!
Strolling around the K Club was akin to watching the great and the good parade along the red carpet at the Oscars! What an array of talent – and that was only the WAGS! On the 10th fairway, leaning against a tree, smoking a massive cigar, was the 6’5” frame of the 6-time NBA champion and twice Olympic Gold winner, Michael Jordan. Once the richest sportsman in the world, he was in the entourage following his inheritor, the Tiger. Two legends of world sport, walking in the footsteps of Mohammed Ali, Michael Shumacher, Diego Maradona and Edson Arantes de Naisimento-the incomparable Pele! There’s a glow about these men, albeit mere mortals like ourselves, but who have achieved greatness, which puts them on a special place, we reserve for only a select few. Around the 7th, a nice little Par 3, strolling along quietly appears Ray Houghton. Nobody paying any attention to him, but maybe in his own thoughts he remembered the adulation of the mass crowds at Stuttgart when he ‘put the ball in the English net!’ Funny enough further down the course, working for BBC, was an old adversary from that famous day in 1988, Gary Lineker. Possibly Ray’s thoughts might have drifted to the Giant’s Stadium, New York in ’94, when he chipped the Italian keeper, a sublime chip that the Tiger would appreciate! The magic of sport, the opium of the masses, that magical moment that makes people work all week in a shit-boring job to participate or watch their heroes at the weekend. They used to say in Glasgow in the economically depressed days of the 1930’s, that ‘when we had nothing, we had Celtic!’ Sport can have that effect, as they say ‘a bad day on the golf course is still better than a good day at work!’
Dr Michael Smurfit came along, surveying all he had made, what delight he must have had, seeing the best players in the world at play in his ‘garden’! His vision had come to pass and only the torrential rain had made us wish it had been played on a true links as we ploughed through the muck! Suddenly a massive roar from a green up ahead as we huddle under trees and umbrellas, well stewarded by club players who had their few moments in the sun [and rain!]. Big Darren has just chipped in to win the hole, the roar as loud as the day Donegal beat the Dubs in 92; after Packie saved the penalty in Genoa; Loftus Road as Barry Mc Guigan defeated Pedroza or memories of Dennis Taylor or Sonia or Jack Kyle at Landsdowne, or Christy at the Belfry and all the memorable moments in Irish sport. As a people we are different, we live on the adrenaline fix, we live for the underdog to succeed, we suffer to achieve that magic moment, that’s what makes us different, we might be Europeans in the general sense but we have that magical Irish twist. Big Darren, off the green, rain dripping off him, no safety shot to scrape a half, but the magic of the unexpected, the delicate touch and feel of the wedge as he drops the ball perfectly and watch it roll beautifully into the hole. The gallery erupts, the crowds stretched right along the fairway join in appreciation, we might be soaked but who cares, it’s only rain, this was history in the making and we were part of it!
American Presidents, golfing legends, soccer giants and even bigger Basketball giants! This was the biggest show in town; the Superbowl, World Cup Final, Olympics, Wimbledon, The Ashes and the All Ireland Final rolled into one! To be present at the K Club was a moment in time to be savoured. It was a special place to be on a wet autumnal weekend in 2006. Tiger and the great ‘lefty’ Michelson might have been the media darlings, but McGinley, with the Donegal connections, and big Darren Clarke were our focus. The whole emotion of the occasion after the death of his wife made for tearful viewing. My thoughts, even 3 years later, are of the emotional outpouring of joy, as Clarke won his match with Zach Johnston on the 16th. Europe had retained Sam Ryder’s famous trophy, but the moment was surely Clarke’s. The big strong exterior of the cigar smoking Tyrone man gave way as he was swamped with support and comfort from his teammates and family, and the galleries. There wasn’t a dry eye on the course.
Bill Shankly once famously observed, ‘Football’s not about life and death, its more important’! Well in reality we know its not, but sometimes in the emotion of it all, sport transcends life, and aren’t we all the better for it?
Titus
