Douglas prepare for historic weekend
Douglas and their supporters celebrate after last year's victory at the AIG Women's Senior Cup in Carlow. Pic: Thos Caffrey / Golffile.
No club has done the double in the AIG Senior Cups since 1979, Douglas has never won the Men’s Senior Cup and their women’s team are looking to go back-to-back for the first time since 1987. It could be an historic weekend on home soil on the southside of Cork city.
For people like JP Hughes, Karen Wilkins and Bernie Heffernan they have been pulling the strings behind the scenes for years now helping the current crop of talent to reach this stage. However, the project is all about continuity and ensuring Douglas retain golfers and continue to grow their family atmosphere.
The club, founded in 1909, is located in the heart of Douglas, with a course which was first designed by Harry Vardon and later added to by Alister MacKenzie. Just over 100 years later one of the best parklands in Munster will host the centrepiece of Irish Inter-Club competition.
This is another huge boost on the back of their hosting of the Irish Senior Men’s Amateur Open in 2022 and European Senior Men’s and Women’s Championships the following year. And Hughes, who joined the club in 1991, before going on to become an Irish boys’ international cannot wait for the weekend.
“I’m like a child at Christmas,” said Hughes.
“I have this beautiful view of double success for Douglas and the weather being gorgeous and hundreds of supporters being up there and it being the best day in the club ever and this is the child at Christmas sort of view of weekend.
“It's not just one of these once in a lifetime things. The club has been in place for 116 years and the men's club has never won the Senior Cup so to do a double is not a once in a lifetime, it's way longer a time period. It's wholly unique and that's not lost on anyone in the club.”
Douglas reached the AIG Women’s Senior Cup Finals in Carlow last year, where they defeated Tralee and Elm Park before a brilliant 3.5 to 1.5 win over holders Royal Portrush in the decider.
It was their first time winning the crown since 2011 but they have a rich history in the event, which stems back to their wonderful three-in-a-row effort from 1985 to 1987.
Heffernan is originally from Ferrybank in Waterford but she moved to Cork for work and has since become a fabric of the Douglas community.
The former Ireland hockey international, who captained the team in World Cup and Olympic qualifiers, hooked up with Ashton Hockey Club. She began her golfing journey with Youghal but really focused on the game when she switched to Douglas.
Heffernan comes from a high-performance background but it’s the grassroots level of the game where she sees the biggest gains. She is on the Management Committee in the club and is determined to build a lasting legacy for golfers of all ages with Kickstart Your Golf.
“We've identified gaps, and gaps would be membership, women being members but not playing,” said Heffernan.
“What we noticed was post-Covid we had a lot of members, but they actually weren't playing so we started to look at why. We met them, some of them had been juvenile members, so they were members but weren't playing.
“They weren't playing on Ladies Day on Tuesdays and it seemed like we were short of members but weren't, so it was about 20 ladies, we formed a group and got them starting to play golf.
“It’s about putting structures in place and getting things together, that’s all I’m doing. That’s the first thing we identified and the next thing was our junior members. The most important thing for young people is to feel part of something, golf can be quite difficult, it’s an individual sport.
“We’re starting to think outside the box a bit, it’s about participation and playing. It doesn't matter who you are, the rest happens. If somebody’s really, really into it and they have the support, you get your elite golfer but for every elite golfer, the clubs have 40 other players, of all categories.
“In the Kickstart there are ladies in their 40s, 50s or 60s, some of them were juvenile members. The group that I have, some of them are brand new to golf, they have been members, but haven’t really hit the ball other than going out and doing mixed golf socially, scrambles or whatever.
“Our junior group are the same, some of have never come from our juvenile section they've come through a different programme, invited up and if they're interested in golf, playing with their friends and they’re working girls and playing, they can see success now.
“Some of them are from camogie backgrounds, some from football backgrounds so an All-Ireland is an All-Ireland, no matter what code, we all love being in them. Everybody, going and playing hockey, you want to be in an All-Ireland, the world stage is the world stage, but that’s your stepping stone.
“Seeing the girls win last year. Success breeds success as well. When Sara Byrne was a youngster, Karen O'Neill would have been a top golfer, a young girl coming through and playing Senior Cup and representing Ireland.
“She was brought into the club to chat as a club member to Sara and all of that group, it really is just about success. Sometimes it’s hard to measure success, but success in the club, it’s not always having elite golfers.
“Success is having people who are playing the game at grassroots.”
Wilkins is from Douglas and is another member involved in development at grassroots and the pathways that filter the talent through the ranks.
Last weekend she was part of Douglas’ success in the Harbour Shield, another key ingredient in making players believe they are capable at the top level.
“Jim Collins has been doing the Boys Harbour Shield so he came to me and said, what do you think about this? I thought it was great,” said Wilkins. “Jim came up with the Harbour Shield. He approached other clubs and we put in two teams, Muskerry put in two, Lee Valley put in two and Monkstown and Blarney with one.
“It was run over the summer and the final was on Sunday. There was a great buzz in Muskerry, and they had the plate final there, and then on 21 September in Monkstown, there's going to be a presentation day.
“Any subs that were used can be there. They'll do a nine-hole competition and the boys will be included as well and that's the first time that we're mixing the boys and girls in a competition like this.
“It’s about making it fun. The girls with handicaps go and they play in the competitions and that’s a joint competition. The better girls are playing in all the competitions around Ireland and they've got to the point where they're so focused, they know what to do without any help.
“For the other girls, it’s having fun, making friends. We try to find out sometimes if they're going to secondary school, what schools are they going to? Then on the Thursday morning, you pair those two together.
“They may not have met before and then come in after for the hot chocolate and they're chatting, the mobile phones are put away, it’s funny. The first day the mobile phones might be out and they’re all looking at them and waiting for the parents to collect them.
“But as the weeks go by, you can see they’re chatting when they come in and it’s great.”
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