Victory a testament to success of coaching system
All of the current eleven Irish members of the European Tour are products of the GUI coaching regimen and not surprisingly national coach Neil Manchip was one of the proudest men in Co Louth last night after the dramatic outcome.
“Shane could have been playing in the Brabazon Trophy this week (won by yet another Irishman, Niall Kearney of Royal Dublin) but we knew he was going to turn professional soon anyway so we were happy for him to come up here and play his first professional event,” said Manchip. “His attitude was to play and enjoy himself and see what happened. We talked on the phone every night, going through his round and different shots.
“Now that he has won, I suppose it’s not a great surprise because it’s been going all week. But if you told me at the start that he was going to win it, yeah, that would have been a great surprise. But he was in there from day one so expectations were growing because obviously he is such a good player and the way he handles himself is fantastic.”
Obviously, this is a great achievement for Manchip: “It is very gratifying how the GUI look after them so well down to grassroots and junior golf, all the way up. We’ve had a great bunch of guys for the last three years or so who have drawn inspiration from watching Rory (McIlory) play and he was great to come out in the rain and support Shane through the play-off holes. It demonstrates the great spirit among the guys but then I think we always had that in Ireland.”
Led by fellow-Clara man Taoiseach Brian Cowen, the whole of Offaly seemed to be in Baltray yesterday. His parents, Offaly All-Ireland football medal winner Brendan and Bridget and siblings Sinead and Alan were present for the great occasion and the promise was that the celebrations would go on for days if not weeks.
“He was always very quiet and it was hard to get him to go out down the town until he was 16 or 17,” said Brendan Lowry.
“But he always wanted to play golf and he’d be down at the club from early morning until I picked him up again in the evening.
“You know what? I’m happier than I was that day in ‘82 when we beat Kerry to win the All-Ireland. Why wouldn’t I,” he added.
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