In Focus/ Women in golf: John O'Sullivantalks to four women who hold high profile positions in the game in this country.
It's not simply a gender issue but there's no doubt women are enjoying a higher profile in several top positions in the golfing industry, and not just in the distaff side of the sport. The women's game, mainly in the United States, generates billions of dollars through sponsorship and prize money and its appeal is broadening.
In Ireland, women are graduating towards more of the top jobs in the industry, and according to some of those who work at grass roots level, the sport is attracting larger numbers of girls. Teresa Thompson, executive officer of the Leinster Branch of the Golfing Union of Ireland, explained: "I think the ladies game has improved in leaps in bounds in all aspects over the past few years.
"Girls are definitely joining the game at a younger age and progressing more quickly and I think it has been a good thing that the likes of Tara Delaney and Martina Gillen headed off to the US to pursue scholarships a few years ago as it has given them great experience and also provided a trail for others to follow.
"Annika Sorenstam has raised the profile of the game through her skill and personality. I think fashion is now playing a bigger part and making it all look a lot more attractive. There was a time when young girls wouldn't be seen dead in the clothes that were available but manufactures have improved in this area.
"The media, especially TV, with the aid of sponsors are giving more air time to women's golf too which all helps in promoting the game."
The Irish Timestalks to four women who enjoy prominent roles in Irish golf.
MARTINA GILLEN
(Professional golfer)
Next week the 25-year-old from Dublin will take her first, fledgling steps on the Women's Ladies European Tour when she tees it up in the Tenerife Open, some 14 years after she was encouraged to pick up a club for the first time.
Her introduction to the game was similar to hundreds of thousands of others; in the role of the unpaid caddie. She smiled: "I suppose I was about 11 when I first picked up a club and prior to that accompanied my dad, Larry, and older brother Wayne, as a caddie of sorts."
Gillen liked the game initially but her sporting preference was camogie, playing with Marino until she was about 15 and forced into making a choice because of her success at golf. She admitted: "Starting out I used to get general group lessons on a Saturday morning at Beaverstown Golf Club.
"It wasn't until I was about 15 that I began to concentrate more on the sport.
"I suppose it coincided with making the Leinster girls side. The team ethic has always appealed to me."
Having completed her Leaving Certificate (aged 17) and already hugely successful on the girls golf scene, her immediate future was decided by a family holiday to the United States, a journey facilitated by a couple of former Beaverstown members, Mary Murray and Alvie Styles.
They had contacts at Kent University, Ohio and the Gillen family were invited out to view the facilities and the golf programme. "I loved the place immediately and was fortunate to settle in quickly. They were a great bunch of girls and I just really enjoyed my time there, even away from the golf course where I was enrolled in Business Studies."
Gillen enjoyed phenomenal success in American collegiate golf, winning six tournaments and being ranked number one player on her team for the first two years. Considering that Kent State were in the top 25 in American women's collegiate golf at the time it represents a brilliant achievement.
"I suppose I came from being a big fish in a little pond to mixing with so many excellent golfers. I think the important thing for me was the friendships I enjoyed out there. It allowed me to settle and just concentrate on my golf."
It wasn't only in the US that Gillen enjoyed her success, claiming the Irish Women's Close Championship (2003) and the Irish Women's Open Championship (2006) and also playing Curtis Cup, before last November making a decision to head to qualifying schools for the Women's European Tour. She negotiated that assignment successfully in the company of her close friend, Cork's Claire Coughlan. The two will travel together as European Tour rookies this season.
There is a very good career to be had in the sport for the top players but really the big money is probably more representative of what goes on in the States. "The Ladies European Tour (LET) certainly doesn't have the glamour of the men's equivalent and for the majority of the ladies on LET, it's a tough proposition to make a decent living. I have played in professional events during my amateur days so I do have an inkling of what it's like.
"I'm fortunate to have a good team behind me (she's coached by her dad and has recently gone for a couple of lessons to Leonard Owens) and I'm just looking forward to the challenge."
It takes about €35,000 a year to compete on the LET and Gillen is supported by a couple of members in her club, Beaverstown, who have made generous contributions and a Team Ireland Golf Trust grant of €25,000.
This weekend she heads for Tenerife to prepare for his first tournament on a tour where her ability to get into tournaments will be curtailed slightly.
On the evidence of her golfing career to date, there won't be many doors closed for long.
MOIRA CASSIDY
Director of golf
Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links.
"My introduction to golf came when I was about 15 years of age and my brother Declan needed a partner for the Junior Mixed Foursomes in Woodbrook.
"From memory, I think we finished second, although I seemed to be more preoccupied with horses in a field adjoining the course and at one stage recall playing the wrong ball. My parents were both former captains in The Island Golf Club.
"The initial draw towards golf from my perspective was because it allowed me to get a day off school from Loreto, Balbriggan, where I was a border, to play in the Aer Lingus Schools competition.
"A day off school was very attractive and I suppose I was fortunate to enjoy some early success.
"We won the Irish section the following year and repeated that feat 12 months later."
If Cassidy was a reluctant participant in her fledgling days, she embraced golf quickly, earning representative hours at junior and senior interprovincial level with Leinster and also junior international level with Ireland.
Her desire to become a journalist didn't seem to be compromised when she accepted a temporary position as assistant secretary in the Leinster Branch of the GUI in 1979. However, 16 years later, the original job specification might have been a bit misleading. She thoroughly enjoyed her experiences with the Leinster Branch but had no hesitation in applying for, and winning, her current role as director of golf at Portmarnock Links.
It was an idyllic setting for a young woman weaned on links golf at The Island and one in which she's excelled. It was acknowledged this year when she won the IGTOA Secretary/Manager of the Year award. Having been present from the opening day of the Bernhard Langer-designed links course she's overseen many changes and that statement is also applicable to the development of women's golf in Ireland.
She holds an honorary position on the ILGU National Training Panel. "The ILGU has made huge strides forward in the development of ladies golf in recent years. There has been significant advances in training and the establishment of a strategic plan to get more girls involved in the sport.
"On a personal level, I would hope to see more girls getting involved in the game. It can be hard to retain their interest and keep the numbers playing from the girls to ladies categories.
"I would also like to see more ladies play corporate golf. I am fortunate enough to receive many invitations but it always strikes me how few ladies attend these days.
"It would be nice to see more of a mix but it's up to the ladies to show an interest. Places like Leopardstown have been great for ladies golf. In the old days, as a junior, you joined a club for a nominal fee whereas now it can be financially prohibitive to get into clubs in the metropolitan area. Leopardstown has provided so many ladies with a starting point."
There have been several highlights during her tenure at Portmarnock Links but one special memory was when the course hosted the golf tournament at the Special Olympics.
"It was wonderful to have just a small part in something of which the country was justifiably proud. I suppose I enjoy meeting people anyway so my job is perfectly suited to that wish."
Playing off a one-handicap during her representative days, she's still a competitive seven, although her days on the fairways are curtailed, largely of her own volition.
"I was never great at practising but I have resolved to play a little more golf."
LYNN McCOOL
Head golf professional
The K Club.
"I started playing when I was about seven years of age, following in the footsteps of my brother Liam (professional at Slieve Russell). We lived beside the golf course in Strabane and the club had a really good junior programme."
McCool certainly took to the sport and at just 13 years of age was picked for the Ireland under-18 team, before she had even been selected for Ulster. Her accomplishments during a glittering amateur career include, Ireland U-16, U-18, U-21 championships, Scotland U-16, U-18, U-21 championships, five consecutive Ulster U-18 titles before becoming a senior Irish international.
She attended the University of Hawaii for four years, winning the BYU Championship and was runner-up in several tournaments. After four years, aged 22, she turned professional, a move facilitated by a local family who agreed to support her on the Women's European Tour for two seasons.
"I always wanted to be involved in golf, because it was the only sport I had been involved in and basically took up my time." From a glittering amateur career, McCool found the professional sibling was a great deal less romantic.
In 22 tournaments, she missed the cut on nine occasions by a single stroke and the following season saw the tour struggling to muster just 12 tournaments. She decided to sit her PGA exams and foster her love of teaching golf.
She was the teaching professional at the Hilton Templepatrick for five years and then the director of golf for the last three before moving to The K Club as head professional last July.
"The job was advertised through the PGA. I like the idea of teaching and being front of house and it was really appealing that the venue was The K Club.
"It's (the resort) all very complete, with two golf courses that are very different. I find that fantastic. Every day when I come here I don't know whether I'll be teaching on the Smurfit range or the Palmer range. They are totally different and you get a lovely feeling on both of them.
"From a teaching point of view, the practice facilities are second to none.
"We have a lot to offer. You can really conduct good golf schools. The space is there for group coaching and you wouldn't get that everywhere.
"There is a lot of teaching involved and lately, I have been doing a lot of playing lessons. That is pretty unusual, in my experience. In a normal golf club you might get a few a year whereas here it's a few a week. It's lovely for me to take guests out and make sure they enjoy the facilities.
"I do a lot of tuition on an individual basis as well and next month I am starting my golf schools, which will be an all day affair from breakfast to tuition to lunch to more tuition to the spa and then for dinner in the evening.
"I really enjoy coming into work and can't think of anything else I would rather do."
TERESA THOMPSON
Executive officer, Golfing Union of Ireland
"I was about nine years of age when I started chipping and putting in Delgany where my late father Jimmy (younger brother of the late Harry Bradshaw) was professional for 21 years." It's a decent enough pedigree and therefore no surprise that for Teresa Thompson golf has remained the focal point of her life.
At one point she was the only girl in the club but it didn't assuage her competitive instincts. "I was lucky enough to be allowed compete with the boys in their junior competitions which helped bring my handicap down.
"I went on then to win the Boys Matchplay in the club much to my late father's embarrassment as I insisted on including my full name on the cup - I'm not sure if there have been any other female names added since.
"I lived in Delgany Village and went to school locally at St David's in Greystones where the nuns used to ask me to give them golf lessons! As you can imagine I wasn't prepared to be seen out on the course with a few nuns so that never happened.
"My handicap shot down very quickly. I started off on 35 and in my first real ladies competition I went to 30, of course I was so young at the time (13) it didn't mean too much for me to shoot a 59 nett. I steadily improved and went on to represent Leinster and then Ireland at junior level."
Having amassed several business qualifications, the umbilical cord with golf was reattached. "It was just by chance that I fell upon a job with the GUI Leinster Branch in 1996, taking up the vacancy left by Moira Cassidy, when she left to take over at Portmarnock Links.
"I stayed with the branch for three and a half years and then when Pat Turvey decided to retire as secretary of the ILGU after many years, I applied and got the job, a post I retained for four years during which time I oversaw plenty of changes and, I have to say, fantastic improvement in the area of coaching and achievements by the Irish teams.
"In my last year as Secretary of the ILGU the Irish Ladies team captured the Home Internationals. I decided after four years that a change was in order and decided to return to the GUI Leinster Branch and took over as executive officer when Paul Smyth retired in January 2006."
Thompson champions the diversity in her role, from the selection of championship dates, to work on the ground with the hosting club. Her remit includes assisting clubs with regard to rules, general queries in relation to handicaps, and overseeing the Leinster coaching programme involving seven provincial coaches.
"The job is so diverse that it's hugely enjoyable and challenging and I suppose it's distilled into being responsible for the overall efficient running of the branch office along with two other members of staff, Liam Murphy and Nicola Dolan."
Like many who work in the industry, finding time to play golf can be difficult but, playing off eight, it's fair to assume she manages to hit the fairways on a reasonably consistent basis.
