Aces In The Hole

Miserable git

ohn McDonald has one of those laughs that suggests he’s definitely up to something.

And that something is very possibly illegal.

Harry Bradshaw

It’s a laugh that had the manager at the Blainroe Golf Club pull John aside regularly when he worked there, warning him that the guests in the neighbouring ladies bar were once again gathering by the gap in the door.

It’s a laugh that pops up on quite a few occasions today during our talk with bould McDonald about his heady days as a budding golf legend, and just why it is that the tiny village of Delgany has managed to produce 35 professional golfers – including the very legendary Harry Bradshaw and the pretty much legendary Eamonn Darcy.

“Growing up, I don’t think there was anyone along our row of council houses on Bellevue Hill who didn’t play golf,” says John, as we set up talking shop on the practice area of Delgany Golf Club, situated handily through a gap in the McDonald garden hedge. “And that made us all competitive. Very, very competitive…”

John was just 8 years old when he had his first trek around his neighbour’s grounds, caddying for his father, Tommy – and he soon learned that Delgany Golf Club gave over those grounds free to all its caddies every Monday morning. “Which was just amazing,” he says today. “To be able to play on such a course, every week, and just build up your skills…”

Irish Artisan champ 1982

To the point that, aged 13, John won the Caddies Cup. Which may explain his life thereafter. From 1975 to 1982, he was assistant professional to Harry Bradshaw at the Portmarnock Golf Club (where he won the Irish Assistant Golf Pro Championship), from 1989 to 1991, he was teaching professionally at Delgany Golf Club, and from 1983 to 2017, he was the club professional at the Blainroe Golf Club.

As John puts together a detailed history of how Delgany became something of a golfing goldmine, we find out how he moved heaven – and quite a bit of earth – to follow his childhood dream… 

You can check out more Delgany history with John McDonald here, follow up his own golf history here, and another angle on the club’s golfing dynasty here.