Back in 1967 at his shop in Dolphin's Barn, Dublin, Cecil Whelan took a trade-in of five, interesting-looking golf clubs against a new set. By his own admission, the allowance was decidedly modest, given that it would have been possible to buy a very fine set of irons at the time for less than £100.
At The K Club last Monday evening, after the Smurfit Christy O'Connor Pro-Am, those modest discards were beautifully displayed in a specially-designed glass case. And in an auction in aid of the Hospice Foundation, they were knocked down to an American buyer for £10,000. The underbidder, incidentally, was Ian Woosnam, who stopped at £9,500. I should mention at this stage that the irons, two or six, were from a matching set carrying the stamp "Robt T Jones Jr - Spalding." They were, in fact, from the first-ever matching sets of irons, manufactured by Spalding in 1933 in co-operation with the Grand Slam winner of three years previously.
When I contacted Kathy Robbins at the company's headquarters in Massachusetts this week, she very kindly filled me in with details from their catalogues of the time. Whelan's clubs had steel shafts to which a so-called bamboo lacquer was applied, giving them the look of hickory.
The catalogue tells us that a Bobby Jones signature set - one to nine - of "Spalding Registered Cushion Shaft Irons Steel Shaft" for men and women, could be bought for $60. It was also possible to buy a set of six women's irons for $40. Individual irons were also available at $5 each. They carried the promise: "With your eyes closed, you cannot tell which of these clubs you are swinging. From driving iron to mashie niblic (sic), they all feel exactly alike when swung through the arc of a stroke. So, instead of trying to master six or nine different swings, you perfect one."
When capturing the so-called Impregnable Quadrilateral in 1930, Jones had 16 clubs in his bag, all of which were chosen by feel from a variety of club makers. So, when Spalding tested them while in the process of launching matched sets for the first time, they were amazed to discover that they all matched perfectly, with the exception of the mashie-niblick, or seven-iron.
On being told this, Jones made the intriguing disclosure that "I've always had trouble with that particular club." He and Spalding then entered into an agreement whereby the company continued to produce his signature irons until 1973, two years after his death.
"I didn't see them having any commercial value at the time but in the back of my mind I thought I might one day use them to raise money for charity," said Whelan, the indefatigable secretary of the Links Golfing Society. "They lay in a corner of the shop for years, until I eventually brought them home."
Meanwhile, their delighted new owner, Irish-American Michael O'Halloran, expects them to fetch as much as $75,000 when he auctions them for charity in the US. All of which proves that it sometimes pays to keep up with the Joneses.
"How am I going to make a living from this game, Des? I can't play." - Des Smyth this week recalling the comment of a thoroughly dispirited Ian Woosnam, when they roomed together in Nigeria, 18 years ago.
Billy Feherty could sense the yearning in his son's voice as they talked this week on the transatlantic telephone line. "I'd say David would give anything to be here at Druids Glen, competing in the Irish Open," he said, when we met on the 18th fairway.
But Billy and his wife Vi will be getting together with their son later this month. "We're travelling to Dallas on July 24th for the christening of our latest grandchild two days later," added Billy. The recent arrival, born to David's wife Anita, is Erin Torrance Feherty and according to the proud father, "she has more hair than me."
They called her after David's friend Sam Torrance, I suggested. Billy smiled. "I'm sure Sam would be delighted if you wrote that," he replied. "For all I know it could be true. But I happened to be christened William Torrance Feherty, the middle name coming from my mother's side of the family. I suppose you could call it a happy coincidence."
Away from his work with CBS, David Feherty spent a delightful holiday in Donegal last October. So, as a special gift, Billy will be bringing him a landscape painting of Fanad Head by Colin Gibson. "It should prompt happy memories," he said. Which is a charming thought, given that David couldn't wait to return to Donegal, when I met him in April at Harbour Town.
In their World Cup victory interviews at Kiawah Island last November, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley spoke with obvious pleasure of the golf they had played with Christy O'Connor Snr. And of course by their triumph, they had matched the success of Himself and Harry Bradshaw in 1958.
Brian Hewitt from the American magazine Golfweek was so taken by it all, that he began researching O'Connor's career, with a view to a major feature article. Over the last seven months, leading players, including Jack Nicklaus, were interviewed and Hewitt read all available material on O'Connor.
By way of completing the job, he travelled to the Irish Open this week and was thrilled to get a lengthy interview with his subject. And he then watched him play in the pre-tournament pro-am. Hewitt's verdict on the entire operation? "It may be that Christy is the undisputed, best player never to have won a major," he said.
WITH an apparently end less run of hole-in-one stories in recent months, it seemed appropriate to investigate the most famous venue for such happenings. So, while in the US recently, I caught up with the history of the Bel-Air CC in Los Angeles.
For the official club opening back in 1926, a crowd gathered around the tee of the first hole, a 115-yard par-three which, in a later re-routing, became the present fifth. Claude Wayne, the club secretary, stepped up to hit the first ball ever played at Bel-Air . . . . and had a hole-in-one.
The crowd went wild. In terms of dramatic impact, it seemed a highly appropriate baptism for a course which would attract some of the biggest names from the nearby movie studios. Indeed Clark Gable had a hole-in-one at Bel-Air. So did Richard Nixon, though his acting talents found expression on a different stage.
By way of commemorating the club's opening shot, each ace at Bel-Air is celebrated in the cardroom or the grill-room. In earler years, drinks were on the golfer but now, every member contributes two dollars to a drinks fund. And when the lucky golfer's name is posted on the bulletin board, drinks flow to a limit of $1,500 on the bar bill on Sunday.
THIS DAY in golf history . . . . On July 4th, 1965, Carol Mann completed a two-over-par aggregate of 290 to win the US Women's Open on the 6,222-yard par-72 Atlantic City course in New Jersey. The 6ft 3ins player carded two pars and a birdie on the final three holes to hold off the challenge of the 1956 champion, Kathy Cornelius.
But the event was particularly notable for the fact that it was televised nationally in the US for the first time. It was also the first time that the final two rounds were played on separate days. Mann, who won 38 tournaments in her 21 years on the LPGA Tour, manages her own consulting firm these days and is active in golf instruction and business development.
TEASER: Kildare reader C D O'Kelly has written to me about a remarkable occurrence in a recent inter-club match at Cill Dara GC where a player had a hole-in-one at the par-three 11th - and lost the hole! The situation is covered by Decision 2-4/11 on the Rules of Golf by the R and A. It concerns a match in which A played his second shot towards the green but could not find his ball. He conceded the hole to B, whose second shot was on the green. The following players then found A's ball in the hole. What is the ruling?
Answer: Since a player may not concede a hole after conclusion of the hole (Rule 2-4), A holed out in two strokes and won the hole if he made a claim before B played from the next teeing ground (Rule 2-5). If A did not do so, he lost the hole. It seems that in the Cill Dara situation, the player who had the ace, didn't claim the hole before playing off the next tee.
