Is hosting a Pro Am worth it; definitely yes!

The golfing season has many standout fixtures where the sense of togetherness and pride amongst all those associated with the club is almost palpable. The respective Captain’s Prize days along with the President’s Prize days are obvious ones familiar to us all but I would suggest there are a number of other opportunities that, with a bit of planning, clubs should seriously look at. The Irish PGA returned to Mount Juliet last week when under the stewardship of Matt Sandercock – PGA Director of Golf at the Estate, the 2023 Mount Juliet Pro-Am attracted over 30 teams. Coincidently the event took place almost 12 months to the day that the curtain raiser to the Irish Open had also taken place. Many of the teams were member based either through business-related connections or three friends looking to be joined by a PGA professional on their course. A proud day for them as several of them mentioned to me.

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Scanning down the list of runners and riders on the timesheet I was delighted to see that two old friends would be coming under starters orders. Brian McElhinney was first out with Colm and Rory Lehane and John Hogan. He was first to arrive in the clubhouse and we chatted for a while about 2005 – what else. Brian won the British Amateur two weeks prior to defending his Irish Amateur Close crown at Westport. I contacted him during his homecoming celebrations at North West Golf Club in Donegal and asked him would he bring the Amateur trophy with him to Carrowholly. No question the trophy would be there, absolutely no issue. Colm Moriarty is based in the midlands and has been a top Irish professional on the home scene for many years. Like Brian who played in the Masters, Colm also has a Major appearance on his curriculum vitea. He tied 37th?at the Open Championship in 2010. Both golfers added to the pre-tournament atmosphere where the PGA professionals couldn’t do enough for the teams they had been allocated to on the day.

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The weather gods looked favourably on us last Tuesday and in my role as one of the event management team I was delighted with how the day went. The feedback from the Irish PGA and the members was all very positive but the sense of club spirit was overwhelming. I spoke with a few of the members today after their monthly medal. Our Captain felt that the whole day was brilliant, a sentiment echoed by one of the members of the placed prize-winning teams; fantastic day and the win was the cream on the cake. There is little room for manoeuvre when setting up the competition structure but the decision to invite all gent golfers to play off the same tees as the professionals was a master stroke. A local charity was gifted a cheque at the presentation but the commitment by MCM Engineering to sponsor the 2024 event got the biggest round of applause on the night. See you next year!