Rob’s Excellent Irish Open Adventure Part 3

Wednesday, May 18th, 2016 – it’s the day Greystones golfer Rob Lawless will never forget…

Playing at the recent Dubai Irish Open at the K Club is a dream for many, but only a handful have the, eh, drive necessary to tee off at the world-famous Kildare golf club.

As luck would have it, Rob Lawless is not only a damn fine golfer, but he’s also a damn good writer too – as his Straight Down The Middle blog proves.

In the third diary entry for his perfect day out, Rob gets down to business, alongside pro Michael Hoey and supercaddie, Kenny. If you haven’t already indulged in the earlier outings, you really should jump into Part 1 and Part 2 before reading on…

I woke up the other morning just before 5am to use the little boys room, when returning to bed I had a peak out the window to see what the day was going to bring. When I pulled the curtains I noticed someone heading off to work, later that day I was relaying the story to my mum and she replied with, “Sure, you use to get up at that time to play golf!”.

And she was right. Back in 1993, when I got bitten by the golf bug, it wasn’t as easy as it is now to play, so I used to get up before the sun so I could sneak out and play nine holes around Greystones Golf Club before the green keepers arrived. From there my love of the game grew, and when in school I would daydream about winning big tournaments, travelling the world playing golf and all the luxuries that came with being a professional golfer.

I even practised my autograph, just in case.

Fast-forward 20-odd years, and while walking from the driving range, all that practise started to pay off. At first I was like, “No, no, I’m not a pro!”, but towards the end of the K-Club course, I was just walking around with a Sharpie, signing anything that got in my way. Sure, when will I get the chance again, I suppose? I didn’t care that the only reason the kids were asking me was because BMW were making an outrageous fuss around me, and I was being followed by my own actual entourage. So, I lapped it up. As you would.
This happened to be the exact time my mom, sister, niece and better half arrived on site. I can only imagine their reactions when they seen me surrounded by cameras, signing autographs.
Not long until we got to meet our pro, Michael Hoey. Standing on the famous 1st tee where Darren Clarke got that incredible welcome during the Ryder Cup in 2006, surrounded by grandstands, that butterfly in my stomach started to flutter again. The fairway getting smaller and smaller…

Then our professional for today started walking towards us.

Straight away you could tell that he was a nice bloke. Strong handshake, eye contact and a genuine warmth. The butterfly started to relax.

We got the small talk out of the way and stood aside to watch Michael rip one down the left side of the fairway. Couldn’t have placed it in a better position. I had tried to use the new Facebook Live function to show mine and Michael’s tee shots, but, as you’ll see, the butterfly obviously wasn’t that relaxed, with all the shaking that went on (https://www.facebook.com/Roblawless1/videos/10153818566804495/ )

Now, my turn… Kenny handed me my three wood. “Keep it on your left side, Rob.”
As I reached for a tee out of my pocket, the butterfly in my stomach suddenly invited all his friends over. I was rattling, I could barely get the tee into the ground. And it’s funny, but just as I got the ball onto the tee, a thought came over me – wouldn’t my dad have loved to see me hit this shot. I really had to compose myself. My eyes welled up, but a couple of deep breaths later, I kept it on my left side, and piped one down the middle.

Job done, and I reckon dad was watching anyway.

I think I actually fist-pumped with Kenny; definitely a first time doing that for a tee shot. Walking off the tee, the weight lifted off my shoulders, and a smile appeared on my face. I honestly don’t think it left until I fell asleep that night.

Strollimg side-by-side with Michael, the 13-year-old inside me whispered, “Enjoy this. It’s not exactly what we dreamt of, but it’s a very close second.”

Hearing Michael say “Nice swing there, Rob” made the walk to my ball all that bit nicer too. I swiftly picked it up and put it in my pocket. Why?, you ask. Well, it was a strange format we were playing that day – a Tour Scramble.

All four players drove.
The pro selected the best drive (he played his own ball).
Myself, Fiachra and Fergal would play out the hole individually from the ball he selected.
And the worst score we could have on the hole was a par.

I think it’s a format designed to help high handicap players and speed up play (even though it took us just shy of six hours).

Michael’s ball was best placed out of the four of us so we marked, and got ready to hit after him. Fergal and Fiachra, my playing partners, were both handy golfers, each off six handicap. So when Michael turned to us and said, “Guys, this is probably the lowest handicap group I’ve played with in a Pro-Am”, I thought we would 100% be making speeches at the presentation. Before I could get carried away though, he also said, with a cheeky grin, “Just so you know, you haven’t a hope of winning this.”

The format totally suited the high handicap. We would go on to make a lot of birdies, Michael even managing an eagle, but because your score couldn’t go backwards, we were always chasing our tails. After Michael hit, the lads said, “Fire away, Rob”. So I placed the ball, went through my routine, and was just about to pull the trigger when Kenny said, “Keep it on your left side, Rob” – as he would do for nearly every shot for the rest of the day. I think I was lobsided by the time I got home.

But thankfully he did. I hit a career-best iron shot to about five feet, which drew a big cheer from the gallery. The gallery made up, as mentioned of family, but also a good contingent of Glen of the Downs members. I can’t even remember where the lads hit their shots, as I floated up the fairway. Marked my ball, threw it to Kenny, cause that’s what the pros do. It wasn’t even dirty.

Funny this, but I replaced the ball, took some practise strokes, and yes, you guessed it, missed it on the left side…

Read Rob’s final Irish Open fling right here.