21st March 2014 – Druids Glen
Welcome to the first outing of Year 2 of the UCD MBA Michael Smurfit Golf Society (we really must reconsider the length of this name; we are officially open to suggestions!!). On what looked like yet more glorious weather for our prestigious society members, our combatants met with all the anticipation and excitement of Trevor Whelan going into one of Damien McLoughlin’s Marketing lectures. With a full 400% increase in participants from our first ever event, the stage was set for an exciting day’s competition.
Now unfortunately, such were Trevor Whelan, Jim Gannon and Mick O Dwyer’s enthusiasm to get started, they managed to miss the opportunity of what would have been a Hugo Boss style photoshoot, you handsome devils, we’ll get you next time. Bear in mind, these guys know how to play. Mick “I swear I’m an 18 handicapper” O Dwyer showed some delicate touches around the green, while Jim “oh did I get ANOTHER par” Gannon was easing back into the swing of things (no pun intended) after achieving 3rd place last year in Player of the Year competition, leaving Trevor “I might just fit in a quick weights session between the 9th and 10th hole” Whelan looking forlorn after many a missed opportunity, in spite of his 6 handicap.
Next up was a relatively new fourball, with our resident entrepreneurial expert Joe Kenny (WAY smarter than Bruce Martin), sales guru extraordinaire James O Rourke (actually in love with Pepsi) and our youngest, and might I add loveliest, recruits James Sammon (absolute cowboy) and Jessica Brady (golf’s first lady) – we reckon incessant flirting actually helped their scores. Moments of genius, intermingled with moments of madness, ensued as the weather turned from glorious to disastrous. Rumour has it Joe only started to play properly once the heavens opened, a stark contrast from his factor 50 wearing self in the K Club last August! The two James’s continued to battle it out leaving the deviously quiet Jessica to secretly rack up points on almost every hole (finishing with a commendable 26 points – Emma Fagan and Caroline Mackell, are you watching).
Our third grouping also involved some new faces with our Communist (both Russian and most recently Chinese) expert Conal Campbell joining the fray alongside David (his first time on a golf course in 20 years). We opted to pair our life coach Pamela Fay with the ever energetic and oft troubled Andrew Bacon mainly because, let’s face it, the man needs help (see picture below).
With play sometimes a little slow, the natives were getting restless. Four visits from our greenskeeper and one from a buggy driving 85 year old had Bacon ready to adopt this pose and start swinging. Luckily, his charm and style won over the local agitators, eventually leaving us to continue with our respective low scoring rounds (points wise that is)!! Pamela, distracted by the thoughts of seeing men in short shorts (of course I’m talking about Leinster) later that evening was struggling to come to grips with the challenging conditions while David continued to get value for money with what was potentially a disputed score of 19 on one hole (there’s persistence for ya!).
The stand out player in this group was by far the always calm Conal Campbell who teased the greens, savouring the thoughts of taking money from Andrew Bacon (yes, betting is allowed in this Society). By all accounts, the thoughts of being dry at some stage kept this crazy rabble motivated.
The final foursome involved some heavy hitters and stalwarts from last year. Gareth McCluskey had an air of confidence approaching almost every hole, and yet consistently failed to deliver on any of them while Dave Joyce (we can only dock you so many points so please stop winning) continued to show us all how this beautiful game should be played. Andrew Bourke and Cormac Dunne, the organisers of this little shindig, continued to put up brave fights (with Cormac even managing to knock a ball over a wall SIDEWAYS).
As the rain poured, this amazing course continued to create difficult challenges, but hey let’s face it, we’ve had worse over the last 2 years (for example, avoiding eye contact with Christoph Dreschler when you’ve “forgotten” to do your Management Accounting homework). By all accounts, in spite of the weather, everyone seemed to love the day out so we are really looking forward to hosting you for the next event (Luttrelstown on Sunday, 13th April – now, you’ve no excuse).
And just to emphasise that the MBA Golf Society has some international sway, we received this photo from Midweek Year 2 sophisticate Steve Kelly during the round to see how we were all faring!! His text read “Bourkey ya bollix, when’s the next outing, I’m not missing another one”.
So with everyone eventually dry in the clubhouse, it was time to announce the winners. Our congratulations go to:
1st Place – Dave Joyce (AGAIN)
2nd Place – James Sammon (like I said, cowboy)
Best Female – Jessica Brady (heard remarking “I refuse to give up this top spot now I have it”)
Nearest the Pin – Jim Gannon (bear in mind he won by default because only one other person actually managed to hit the green) and
Longest Drive – Cormac Dunne (possibly down to his army style training in China – 300!!!)
Myself and Cormac would just like to thank you all for taking part in yet another fantastic outing. Without you, this club really would not be possible. Please do tell your friends as we are open to even more memberships, everyone is welcome. Also, there’s the added incentive, Player of the Year starts in the next outing.
See you all on the 13th April.
Andrew Bourke and Cormac Dunne