Cink cameo puts Doonbeg on the map

A LITTLE over a week ago, Stewart Cink felt the urge to tell the world about his Doonbeg golf experience.

A few seconds later, via his twitter site (twitter.com/stewartcink), his 567,249 followers were left in little doubt about the magical links paradise Cink had discovered in west Clare.

Cink wrote: “Played Doonbeg yesterday with the kids. Their first links. Course blew away my expectations. Only eight years old and looks ancient.”

Yesterday the club professional Brian Shaw was wearing the satisfied look that comes when a British Open champion gives your home track such an endorsement. In these recessionary times such words are priceless.

But then Shaw wouldn’t have expected anything less from the American.

“Stewart Cink is an incredibly nice guy and a wonderful ambassador for the sport,” Shaw said yesterday.

“It was really a family holiday. He went out and did the tourist stuff like visiting the Cliffs of Moher, Loop Head and the like. He played with his kids, carried his own bag and was just really chilled out. He was just enjoying himself.”

Shaw paints a picture of a man, a world removed from the standard approach adopted by professional in the days leading up to The Open.

“In the past you often see guys coming over in groups of three or four, and no matter how much they might fight it, they will invariably slip into really competitive mode when they are playing.

“It was completely the opposite with Stewart Cink. He was teaching his kids links golf and I think that by breaking the game down to its component parts he was subconsciously learning things himself. He was having a big giggle with the kids, it was lovely to see and be part and parcel of it.

“You could see when he headed away that he was in a lovely frame of mind. And so it proved, nothing seemed to ruffle him in Turnberry.”

Cink played Doonbeg on Friday and Saturday, spent Sunday in Lahinch and then headed for Ballybunion on Monday.

While on Shaw’s patch the American experienced the four seasons in one day thrill of links play.

“He came in on Friday, the weather cleared that evening and he went out with his kids and played until 10pm.

“He just wanted to spend as much time as possible on links land in the wild conditions.

“He wasn’t interested in the break in the weather which we were predicting with the radar.

“He wanted to have the worst of it. It rained hard on the Saturday and he worked hard on his short game in the bad conditions that day. He was concentrating on the finesse shots, the simple things. He was very much at ease.”

Almost three decades ago, Tom Watson’s visit to Ballybunion put the famous Kerry course at the top of the list for American golfers visiting Ireland.

Now Shaw hopes that Cink’s kind words will do likewise for the Greg Norman-designed masterpiece along the same west coast.

“It is terrific that he mentioned us along with Ballybunion and Lahinch. I think he realised that there is so much character to the golf courses on the west of Ireland, that they stand out. There is something quite different about them and intriguing. I would not be surprised in the next couple of years if a lot more competitors will arrive on the shores of Ireland in the lead up to a British Open. Tom Watson came to Ballybunion all those years ago and put BallyB on the map practising before the Open.

“Hopefully now Stewart Cink’s achievement will give us a boost in the current market.”