Profile - Brendan McDaid

Brendan McDaid is based at the Carr Golf Centre, Spawell in Templeogue, Dublin with all the on site facilities for his tuition needs. As European Tour coach continues to help golfers get the most out of their game is currently working with Irish golfer, Peter Lawrie. 

Whether starting out for the first time or a seasoned campaigner, the McDaid Academy offers something uniquely different for golfers.

The Swing Reader, the most advanced video solution, analysis of your swing during the lesson, after which videos are made available to ensure continuous improvement.

At the Carr Golf Centre Brendan offers individual classes, one day golf group schools or junior golf lessons. All bookable on-line to more easily plan a lesson at a convenient time.

McDaid has coached many individuals and teams to success both at home and abroad, ranging from junior competitions to European PGA Professional tournaments. His Mother was a Inter provincial and also played for Ireland. His sister Eileen Rose Power played Curtis Cup in 1994 with his nephew Mark Power winning the Peter McEvoy Trophy this year

Under McDaid Peter Lawrie claimed his maiden victory at the Open de España in 2008, defeating home favourite Ignacio Garrido in a play-off. The following year he defended his title valiantly only to finish third in the end.

Having graduated from UCD on a scholarship Lawrie reached the European Tour through the Challenge Tour, after finishing fourth in the rankings at the end of 2002. All testament to his determination having spent one year on the Asian Tour and three seasons on the Challenge Tour. 

Brendan has also coached former European Tour player Gary Murphy, and Challenge Tour players Colm Moriarty and Michael McGeady. As well as Tara Delaney, a one time member of the Ladies European Tour. As head coach for the Team Ireland Golf Trust for a number of years, McDaid has always been at the cutting edge of all golf coaching in Ireland and Europe.

McDaid has held a Category 14 card and played on the European Tour

www.brendanmcdaidgolf.com

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Slow Start at Sea Island for Harrington

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Padraig Harrington carded an opening round of one over par 71 at the McGladrey Classic left him six shots off the early pace at Sea Island.

Harrington, who is relying on sponsors’ invitations at the moment, had birdies at the seventh and 15th, then dropping shots at the fourth, 12th and 14th.

Erik Compton is happy with where he is in golf, and he's not referring to his 5-under 65 on Thursday for an early share of the lead in The McGladrey Classic.

A return to Sea Island provides an occasion to take stock of how far he has come in the last 13 years, and what Compton refers to as the "hurdles" he didn't anticipate.

There's a medical term for these hurdles. It's called a second heart transplant.

"I'm almost 35 years old. I've had a good career in golf, really," he said. "Even though I've had some time off, I've been able to support myself and have a good life."

Compton remarkably earned a PGA TOUR card just four years after he drove himself to the hospital while suffering a heart attack, dodging death until he received a second transplant. He now is in his fourth straight season on golf's toughest circuit, and he has shown steady improvement.

The next step is to win, and Compton has been around long enough not to get overly excited about a good start.

He opened with a pair of birdies in the morning chill on the Seaside Course at Sea Island, dropped only one shot and joined Sea Island resident Brian Harman and Michael Thompson atop the leaderboard among the early starters.

"I expect I should win this year. That's a goal of mine," Compton said. "It's always been a goal, but I think every time I get on the course it becomes more of a realistic expectation."

Compton first played Sea Island when he competed in the SEC Championship while at Georgia in 2001. A few months later, Compton played in the Walker Cup at nearby Ocean Forest.

The first hurdle when he turned pro was realizing that "everybody out here is really, really, really, really good." The more serious hurdle was his heart.

Compton had his first transplant when he 12 because of cardiomyopathy, an enlarging of the heart that hinders its ability to pump blood. He had his second in 2008 and ended that year by making the cut in the final PGA TOUR event.

His story never gets old, and Compton is happy to tell it, especially if that means bringing attention to the "Donate Life America" campaign. He prefers to look ahead, at the next shot, the next tournament, trying to get the most he can out of his game, just like the guys he is trying to beat.

Compton played on that Walker Cup team with 2009 U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover along with Bryce Molder and D.J. Trahan, who both went on to win on the PGA TOUR. The Britain & Ireland team featured former world No. 1 Luke Donald and Graeme McDowell, the U.S. Open champion at Pebble Beach.

Compton's hopes were not much different from theirs -- turn pro, win tournaments.

"I think when I was younger, I had some unrealistic expectations," he said. "I knew I was a good player. I obviously had some hurdles that I had to deal with in front of me, which I didn't see coming. I didn't know I was going to have to deal with that."

What's real to him now is being a PGA TOUR regular. He's going to the Masters next year for the first time, courtesy of his runner-up finish in the U.S. Open. That remains his biggest highlight in golf.

What's next? He's curious to find out. Compton is learning not to swing so hard to take advantage of his putting stroke.

"I just want to get the ball in play and hit on the green and see where I can go," he said. "And that's difficult to do in four days, and it's proven difficult for a lot of guys who have never won on TOUR who have great careers. I happen to be one of those guys right now, and I feel like if I can do the things like I did today and get out of my own way, there's no reason I shouldn't continue to progress in this game."

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Q School Test Awaits Irish Players

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Peter Lawrie and Gareth Maybin failed in their bid to retain their autromctaic playing righst on the Europaan Tour for next season after failing to make the cut at the ISPS Handa Perth International on Friday.

Kevin Phelan retains a chance on paper but needs a weekend of high scoring to improve on share of 35th place and clode the seven stroke gap with the leader, Peter Whiteford. 

So the battle to keep a Tour card will go right to the wire over the weekend with Whiteford, Sihwan Kim and David Drysdale all in the frame for a last-ditch assault on the top 111 on The Race to Dubai.

Only the top 110 Full Members will retain their playing privileges for the 2015 season – Brendan de Jonge’s inclusion in the Race to Dubai as an Affiliate Member pushing the critical position back to 111th – and Whiteford, Kim and Drysdale are leading the charge of those players outside that mark looking for one last monumental effort this weekend to secure their place among the European Tour elite.

As things stand at the halfway stage of the ISPS HANDA Perth International at Lake Karrinyup Country Club, Whiteford, as 36 hole leader, could climb to 89th from 149th with victory on Sunday. He needs to finish first or second to secure his card. Drysdale in position to climb from 116th to 100th. Kim, lying third, is still on the wrong side of the bubble as that would only lift him to 116th from 138th as he needs a top two but it’s all to play for.

“It’s no holds barred,” said Whiteford. “Win or bust. 

“I am very nervous. There's no doubt about that. I’ve got to just keep attacking. I don't want to go back to school. Nobody does. But I get what I deserve in this game, and I've been awful all year. It's nice that the form is coming back later on in the year.”

For some, its season over as those who missed the cut can do no more. For Maximillian Kieffer in 106th place on the Race to Dubai, Steve Webster (107th), Anthony Wall (108th) and particularly Lee Slattery (110th), an anxious weekend awaits as they missed the cut and the outcome is now out of their hands. If they are passed by enough players they may yet be bumped out.

For others it is back to the Qualifying School, and among those whose last chance has gone after missing the cut are former Tour champions Ricardo Santos, the 2012 Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year, Alastair Forsyth, and José Manuel Lara.

Peter Lawrie avoided a return a year ago with a top twenty finish. A feat that proved beyond David Higgins last year in Perth, and he lost his card, reliant on a number of exemptions for this season.

Kevin Phelan produced a fine last round at PGA Catalunya in last years tour school to grab his first season as a professional. He may have less fears returning to claim his rights for 2015.

Maybin faces his first trip in seven years  after first qualifying in 2007 - within two years of trying pro.

Lawrie was last in Q School in 2001, and has a fifty percent record in four appearances since first earning his card in 1998.

 

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Club History - Woodbrook

Established in 1921, by Sir Stanley Cochrane as his private club, Woodbrook was first affiliated to the Golfing Union of Ireland in 1926. Sir Stanley had previously indulged his enthusiasm for cricket at Woodbrook, a fact that is still reflected in the pavilion-style clubhouse and the cricket bell, which tolled the start and finish of play and now hangs in the bar.

However, it is as a venue for top class international golf, that Woodbrook is justly famous. Woodbrook hosted the first major professional tournament in Ireland. The Hennessy Tournament in 1958. This once-off event, proved so popular amongst the Irish sporting public, that the following year it became the Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes Tournament with the then biggest prize fund 5,000 guineas. All the leading players arrived to play Woodbrook and International Tournament Golf in Ireland was born. In 1963 the tournament that really established Woodbrook as a major golf venue began – The Carrolls International. Carrolls brought the cream of British European and, indeed, American golfers to play the fairways of Woodbrook in the ensuing years up to 1975. 

Many of today’s legends of Golf played the course. Some, as winners, like Christy O’Connor, Senior and Junior, Bernard Gallagher, Neil Coles, Brian Huggett and Bernard Hunt. Others, as rookies on the day, like Jack Newton, Eamon D’Arcy, John O’Leary and Sam Torrance. Superstars, like Open Championship Winners, Max Faulkner, five times winner Peter Thompson, Gary Player, Tony Jacklin, Tom Watson and Ken Nagle all delighted the larger Irish galleries. 

Anybody who was anybody, in the history of British and European golf from 1963 to 1975, appeared at the Carrolls in Woodbrook.

The Irish Open

The Irish Open had been discontinued in 1953, having run almost continuously since 1927. Carrolls revived this great Irish Title in 1975 at Woodbrook and the modern Irish Open was born. This is now an integral part of the European PGA Tour. An all-star field, including the British Open Winner Tom Watson, played for the first Prize of £5,000 and the inaugural winner was Ireland’s Christy O’Connor Junior, nephew of the great Christy O’Connor Senior, himself a four times winner of the Carrolls International.

The Train -Trains have always played a major part in Woodbrook’s history. 

In olden days the Dublin-Bray train stopped at the club and in the early days of tournament golf, spectators alighted on the course. Up to 1956, when members wanted to go home, they pulled a switch in the club house bar and the next train, to pass along the way, stopped for two minutes to pick up those who were travelling to Bray or Dublin. Alas! Today, such hospitality is unavailable, but on six holes, the spectre of the DART and the railway line looms large for the wayward driver.

The Course - Where the wind has sculpted the trees.

Although a flat course, “Woodbrook”, as Christy O’Connor, Senior put it “may look easy, but it is a very difficult course, with the constant threat of out of bounds and other hazards that can wreck your card”. In this regard the wind plays a most significant role. When it blows from the North, nine holes are affected, including three out of the last four.

When it’s from the South, the index one tenth plus the par three eleventh, and the par five – 12th, 14th and 16th, all become very difficult long holes. A crosswind from the East affects almost every hole on the course and calls for shot making of the highest calibre. With its configuration of five par threes and five par fives, Woodbrook’s layout is unusual but, in the opinion of those who have played there, it is a championship course in every meaning of the word.

Recently redesigned, with three new holes and 18 sand based greens, built to USPGA standards, Woodbrook is once more a challenge for the best.

The club has hosted 18 major international championship events, a record unlikely to be surpassed, and numerous Irish Professional and Amateur Championships through the years. The staging of the AIB Sponsored Irish Seniors Open in the club in 1998 completes a remarkable journey for many of those stars of yesterday, bringing them back to the fairways they once graced so well.

Woodbrook is unique in Irish Golf, with its heritage and tradition, ambience and atmosphere and the quality and layout of its course. For members and visitors alike it represents a challenge to be met weekly or just occasionally, but always enjoyably.

www.woodbrook.ie

Rule of the Week - 19-5/1.7

19-5/1.7 Ball Dropped on Putting Green by Opponent or Fellow-Competitor Falls on Player's Moving Ball

Q: A makes a stroke on the putting green. B, A's opponent or a fellow-competitor, accidentally drops his ball, which he had lifted, and it falls on A's ball, which is still in motion. What is the ruling?

A:In match play, since A's ball was deflected by B's equipment (see Note 1 under Definition of "Equipment"), Rule 19-3 applies. A has the option of playing his ball as it lies or canceling and replaying the stroke. Neither A nor B incurs a penalty.

In stroke play, A's ball was deflected by a moving outside agency. Therefore, A must cancel and replay his stroke, without penalty, under Rule 19-1b. B incurs no penalty.

In either form of play, B must replace his ball on the spot from which it was lifted -- Rule 20-3a.

Rule 19-5b does not apply because B's ball was not in motion after a stroke. (Revised)

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