Weeshie's Week

MacIndoe reflects on a very successful event for Killarney and Kerry

August 10th, 2010
by Weeshie Fogarty

David MacIndoe married to Sharon is the course superintendent at the Killarney Golf and Fishing Club. Glasgow born he came to Killarney twenty six years ago, fell in love with the place and has remained here every since.  And as he says himself "I love the place even more now". One of his son's Alex is in the same profession as his dad in England and came home to help at the recent 3 Irish Open. A lovely footballer in his youth Alex won a Kerry under twelve county championship medal with The Legion and was also a very promising soccer player. He played semi professional and had trials with various cross channel clubs. So what exactly was it like for David and his staff as they hosted the recent 3 Irish Open. He took time off from a very obvious hectic schedule to talk to me and remember that over eighty thousand people walked the course during those three memorable days.

So what went on behind the scenes during the tournament? "Well it was an exceptional tough time for all of us, the staff had to be in for five am every morning and most of us would not see home until 9-30 pm that night. And that was the way for the week before the tournament and of course during the tournament. Yes it was a trying time but everything went very well and we were very happy with it but now we must try and get the place back into normal condition which is going to be nearly twice as hard as getting it ready for the event". So did everything go according to plan? Were there any problems behind the scenes?  "We were very well prepared and as you said there were a few clichés and the first day we had terrible problems with the deer. They were corralled in by the crowd, that was the Sika deer, but thankfully the Red Deer stayed well away from the action and did not cause any problems. So the Sika deer were trapped within the crowds and on the first day we had damage to a number of greens and this was causing the European tour people a bit of concern and we were out fixing them until one o clock in the day.
I was interested to discover if it was he who made the decisions in relation to the conditions of the fairways and the height of grass in the rough and other aspects surrounding the course. He explained.  "What the tour does is, they give you the criteria of what they are looking for such as the height of the grass and the speed of the greens in particular, they are very particular about the speed of the greens and we have to cut them to exactly what they look for. For each day of the tournament we had them exactly cut to the height they demanded and they loved that. So they tell me what they want and we then have to match their expectations".  At the end of the day of course the tournament is decided by what happens when the players land on the greens and the pin positions and placing of the holes is one of the most important decisions of all. I asked Dave if he and his staff decided where the holes are cut on the greens. His answer was straight to the point. "The tournament people place all the pins and all the tee markers; we don't have anything what so ever to do with that. I would have a very small input on suggesting pin positions for them and they had their own man responsible for the pin positions all week and I must say he was very amenable to put the pin in positions to where even our club members would expect them. On the last day the pin was right over the bunker on seventeen, I never thought they would place it there and he did a great job all week".

Dave has a staff of nineteen full time workers, and he also pointed out four extra came aboard to help when the pressure was on and some summer students were also taken on and still it was flat out all the way and he could have done with more help. There was talk coming up to the event that the professionals would break all scoring records and destroy the course, so what was his expectations in relation to this. "I was very happy Weeshie with the scoring and I did predict exactly the way the scoring went. Now we never had a lot of rough on our course and our members and visitors expect this and when a ball goes astray they will expect to find it so I was not going to let the rough grow for just one week. It certainly stood up to my expectations and showed a lot of people that Killeen is a class golf course. The best golfers in the world didn't rip it apart". It was evident when I visited the course some days following the tournament that a lot of work was needed to get everything back in ship shape following the invasion of over eighty thousand people. And the course superintendent was under no illusions in relation to what lay ahead for him and his staff. "There is a huge task facing us now and indeed it could be September before both course are back to the standard they should be.
The omens for a repeat of the tournament are excellent and Dave was told by the tour operators that both they and the players were delighted with the event and want to come back to Killarney Golf and Fishing club. He also emphasized that not alone selling the club facilities around the world was important but selling Killarney and its surroundings and Kerry in general was also an integral part of the event and all the members were very appreciative of the great help they got from the town and indeed it worked both ways.

He was lavish in praise of his staff and added, "They were brilliant. In every morning at five o clock, out on the course and each one knew from the evening before just what was required of him. Then we all had to be off the course before eight o clock, all noise had to cease of course as the professionals began their rounds. Then it was back in again as soon as the last pair was finished and the staff were superb. Every blade of grass inside the ropes had to be cut again and again including the fairways and greens while all the holes were changed. And those holes had to be painted so they would show up on the cameras as the tournament was beamed live around the world. And of course if anything was to go wrong the buck stopped with me. It was a real team effort Weeshie and we had a great win".

Fogra: In March 1994 Down beat Kerry in a National League play off. What was the Kerry team and who was the top scorer for Kerry in the league that year having played just four games?  To answer this and discover all other league teams back to 1994 and much much more just click on my web site http://www.terracetalk.com.



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