CLUB FINALS:PADDY GRIBBEN is one of life's survivors. Through periods of highs and despairing lows he turned professional twice, regained his amateur status twice and in between was the only Irishman on the winning 1999 Walker Cup side.
But now the plus-two handicapper is back doing what he enjoys best and looks forward to representing the Warrenpoint Senior Cup team once more at the All-Ireland Cups and Shields Finals in Monkstown Golf Club this week.
Gribben's epic golf journey began back in the 1980s when, with a spring in his step, he was part of an almost untouchable Warrenpoint team that was picking off All-Ireland Senior Cup and Barton Shield titles for fun.
Warrenpoint did the Senior Cup and Barton Shield double in 1987 at Clandeboye. They successfully defended the Barton Shield in Cork the following year before winning the Senior Cup again at Westport in 1990.
"It's been 18 years since Warrenpoint last contested the All-Ireland Senior Cup. We had four or five great years back then," Gribben recalls.
"We had a great team with players like Raymie (Raymond Burns), Jim (Carvill), Gary MacNeill, Danny Parr, Kenny Stevenson and Pat Trainer.
"We had such a strong panel back then we could nearly have put two teams out. They were great years and Gary McShane was a great captain."
As it turns out, McShane, a solicitor from Newry and a "great motivator", is back at the helm and leading another Warrenpoint team to Monkstown some 20 years after first tasting All-Ireland success. This time around Gribben and Carvill are the veterans in an otherwise youthful team that possesses yet more Gribben influence.
"Aside from Jim, Colin Campbell and myself we've got the young cubs on the panel: Colin Campbell jnr, who is a nephew of mine through marriage, and my blood nephew Ryan Gribben plus Paul Reavey. They've heard of good Warrenpoint teams in the past but now they're doing it for themselves and they were brilliant as we sneaked out of Ulster to reach the All-Ireland."
Gribben speaks with genuine enthusiasm about returning to the All-Ireland cauldron but it's the unique road he travelled in the intermediate years that makes the most compelling tale.
At its best he won the Walker Cup, had good finishes on the European Tour and led the Irish Open, albeit briefly at Ballybunion, but the low ebb saw him ditch the clubs for years, so disillusioned had he become with golf and life in general.
"I turned pro the first time in 1991 as a 22-year-old and that lasted three years before I went into the desert for about four years," notes the 40-year-old with much honesty.
As things have come full circle for Gribben the competitive juices still appear to be flowing after all these years. "I turned the dreaded big number last week, 40. The oul body has been battered and bruised and I have to accept my game isn't what it used to be, but hopefully there's a few good years left. We have a great team heading to Monkstown and we're in with a shout, that's all I'll say."
