Sunday’s win by Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans came just three days after a historic gathering of former West of Ireland champions at County Sligo and put into context the massive contribution of that championship to Irish golf over the past 100 years.
The West of Ireland Championship is just over four weeks away and golfers looking to hone their games for the opening amateur “major” will have a chance to prepare by teeing it up on links terrain in the 36-hole Laytown and Bettystown Senior Scratch Cup on Sunday, March 27.
In a stellar golf career spanning over six decades, Clandeboye's David Jackson, Jacko, Davy or Stonewall as some journalists liked to label him, has demonstrated over the years that the overriding importance of having a secure short game is more important than length.
They will jocosely lord it over their friends and near neighbours at Laytown and Bettystown that Tom Gilroy, a Scottish banker who lived at Coney Hall in Mornington, abandoned the 11 rudimentary holes he had laid out on his lands there because of the nuisance of rabbits and other difficulties and headed across the river Boyne to explore the promised land at Baltray.
