Because of the distractions of the holiday season, I've been slow in getting around to a charming letter from Kevin Mulcahy, general manager of Fota Island, which is staging this year's Murphy's Irish Open. It concerned Mike Turnesa, one of the famous Turnesa golfing brothers who died last November.
It seems that Kevin's father, Jack Mulcahy, who developed Waterville into a world-class links, was a great friend of Mike Turnesa, the professional at Knollwood CC, New York. In fact Jack Mulcahy was one of his playing partners when he shot a courserecord 64 at Knollwood in May 1956. And Turnesa later gave Kevin his first golf lesson.
He wrote: "It was from Mike that my dad became a student of the game. They and a couple of other Knollwood members would go to Tommy Parisee's restaurant for what they called "a golf clinic" which involved lengthy discussions on the golf swing. In those days my dad drank Jack Daniels, but Mike would always have two Scotch whiskies - never more, never less.
"When I heard of Mike's death, I telephoned his widow, Mary. I had last seen them at my own dad's funeral (in 1994). Mary was thrilled with my call. Among other things, she said that up until a week before he died, at 93, Mike had his two Scotches every night. I'm glad she told me that."
Mulcahy concluded with the sad news that Willie "The Wedge" Turnesa, runner-up to Ireland's Max McCreadie in the British Amateur at Portmarnock in 1949 and the last survivor of the six brothers, is now in hospital with Alzheimer's disease.
