A Farewell to the Fairways

A lifetime in sports journalism began for Dermot Gilleece as a 19-year-old in 1960. That was when he reported for the Evening Press on a Monday morning play-off for the Hospital Sweeps Tournament at Woodbrook, won by Christy O’Connor Snr.

A Farewell to the Fairways is essentially a reflection on 63 years of golf reporting for Ireland’s national newspapers. Gilleece’s appointment as golf correspondent for the Irish Times in March 1981 coincided with a dramatic expansion in coverage of sport overseas, especially golf. It meant a trip to Cypress Point in California in August 1981 and later coverage of the Masters, US Open and US PGA Championship, where he met and interviewed the game’s top players, including Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods.

Meanwhile there was the opportunity to write about leading Irish exponents of the game, like O’Connor Senior and Junior, Rory McIlroy, Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Graeme McDowell, Shane Lowry, Leona Maguire and Paul McGinley, along with our leading men and women amateurs during the latter part of the twentieth century. There were Dunhill Cup and Ryder Cup team triumphs and many individual achievements which transformed the shape of the Irish game.

It was also a time of profound change in basic club activities. From the mid-1980s, equality for women golfers developed into a national issue in which Gilleece became deeply involved, notably by promoting the so-called three-tier constitution. This became a key element of change which led ultimately to the formation of Golf Ireland in 2020.

A Farewell to the Fairways will appeal to everyone with an interest in sports writing and the development of golf in Ireland over the past 60 years.

Dermot Gilleece is a legend within the golfing world, working first as a copy boy and later as a golf correspondent for the Evening Press, Daily Mail, Irish Independent, Irish Times and Sunday Independent, over a 65-year career in journalism. He has written several books on golf, including Touching Greatness: Memorable Encounters with Golfing Legends in 2011.