Gort Scratch Cup - Limerick Golf Club

The Voice of Midwest Golf by Ivan Morris
Mayor Joe Catches the Golf Virus
General Elections aside, when you have as busy and as stressful a job as the Mayor of
Limerick, Joe Leddin, a certain amount of soothing, wise counsel from one’s wife is always
welcome. Former Summerville Rovers footballer, Councillor Joe Leddin, admits that in the past
he regarded golf with a modicum of disdain and as a waste of valuable time until his wife coaxed
him into enrolling for lessons at the McSweeney Golf Academy at Limerick County Golf &
Country Club.
Although coming from an enthusiastic golfing background, Mayor Joe’s wife, Kara (nee
Walsh), is too busy looking after her two small children these days (and another on the way!) to
have any time for playing golf but she hasn’t forgotten the game’s virtues. Her late father, Colm,
was a doughty match player off single figures and her mother, Ann, is a former lady captain at
Limerick Golf Club who currently runs the active junior girls’ section. Her three brothers,
Cathal, Daragh and Aiden, are excellent, low-handicappers while sister Orla is a former
schoolgirls champion.
“I never realized what a multi-faceted game golf is.” The Mayor told me this week. “I
knew I would enjoy the walk in the fresh air but the best thing about golf is that you cannot think
about anything else when you are playing it. A change in whatever is preoccupying your mind is
as good as a rest and very beneficial. No matter how frustrating my golf is I, invariably, return
to my office refreshed and can tackle my work with renewed vigor.”
The task of teaching Mayor Leddin to play golf has fallen to Limerick County’s Head
Professional, Donal McSweeney. Donal, who learned his golf at Charleville GC, is one of the
best coaches around and his academy at Ballyneety is kitted-out with all the modern technology
needed to teach the intricacies of the game to advanced players and beginners alike.

The latest swing aid to arrive at Ballyneety is a device called the EXPLANAR and it
matches McSweeney’s teaching philosophy dictum of, “See it, feel it, do it!” perfectly. For a
nominal charge of €10 per session of 15 minutes, you can be hooked into a giant wheel so that
you can groove the plane of your swing as consistently as Ben Hogan once did. It’s not a bad
workout either. 15 minutes of moving a heavy club weighing 6kgs will do your muscles,
flexibility and heartbeat a lot of good.
If practice alone were to make perfect, I would have been a better player but because
nobody told me that the practice had to be perfect in the first place, I wasted a lot of time in
misplaced effort, practicing the wrong things. If only I had use of McSweeney’s EXPLANAR 35
years ago, I could have been a contender! The EXPLANAR identifies the point in your swing
when you go wrong and ‘forces’ you to swing correctly at all times. So, mixing up a ball-
whacking session on the driving range with ‘moments of discovery’ on the EXPLANAR over a
period of time may uncover ‘the elusive secret’. Under McSweeney’s keen eye I learned that my
swing is virtually ‘perfect’ for three-quarters of the journey back before it is knocked out of
plane by an over-active sternum. That discovery gave me the idea of playing with a three-
quarters length backswing in future. Unfortunately, I doubt very much if I will have the
discipline and patience.
McSweeney’s Golf Academy offers extraordinarily good value to its students. For €50,
you can avail of a normal half-hour of face-to-face coaching that includes computerized video
analysis; a short session on the EXPLANAR; plus the free use of the fine short game facilities
that are also available. After each lesson the client is offered a film of his or her lesson in DVD
or email format. The McSweeney Golf Academy also offers a custom-fit club making and fitting
service. “To custom fit properly one must see the flight of the ball and that is why we always use
our Vector Launch Monitor when carrying out a club fitting.” Said McSweeney, before quoting
Sir Winston Churchill who once said: “Too many golfers are attempting to play a complicated
and difficult game with equipment ill suited for the purpose” Contact the Pro Shop at Limerick
County G & CC for a consultation/appointment, tel:061-352905. Or, check out the website:
www.golfacademy.ie/

o Golf followers are more used to dining on birdie-feasts when they watch touring
pros in action. With the partisan crowd showing nerves that were at least the
equal of the two play-off contestants, the Irish Open had an unusually ugly
finish. The difficulty of the course did not make birdies impossible but it did
punish the tiniest of mistakes very harshly. In spite of the tees being moved
forward, the golf course was ‘too tough’ for most of the golfers, as this column
predicted that it would be. Unsure of how they should react to the misfortunes
taking place before their unbelieving eyes, the large, appreciative Sunday crowd
was strangely mute. Padraig won’t mind. Another win on his CV will do him
nicely and not only ensures that he will be back again next year when hopefully
the starting field will be a bit stronger but his confidence will also be boosted for
the ‘horrendous’ upcoming trials and tribulations of Oakmont in the US Open in
mid-June. Full marks to John Coyle, the home pro, who rightly said ‘Harry
would win!’ Those of us lucky enough to have played the course will know all
about the difficulties that the 18 th hole can throw up when trying to grind out a
victory of any kind. The large numbers that turned up at Adare on Sunday did
the region proud. They helped to bring colour and atmosphere to what was an
otherwise strangely drab event.
Words of the Wise: “Swing back with your shoulders – that way you can’t swing too
fast but release powerfully with your hands.” - Julius Boros, double major winner.