Donie hits the headlines with hole-in-one at Doonbeg
Image 1 of 4
Donie Cassidy, fourth from left, with the picture of Doonbeg presented to him to mark his achievement in getting a hole-in-one at the eleventh hole in Doonbeg at the pro-am held before the weekend’s Irish Open.Image 2 of 4
Donie Cassidy received strong support from grandsons Max and Will Cassidy.Image 3 of 4
Anna Jones from Lynn, Mullingar, on right, also took part in the pro-am, and she is pictured here with her mother, Louise Jones and with Donie Cassidy at Doonbeg.Image 4 of 4
Supporting Donie Cassidy at Doonbeg were his grandsons, Max and Will Cassidy with Harry and Ollie McCormack, from Castlepollard.Eilís Ryan
The 81-year-old former TD and senator, Donie Cassidy hit the headlines this week, when he got a hole-in-one at the pro-am golf event held in US president Donald Trump's Trump International Golf Course at Doonbeg on Wednesday.
Not alone was it a personal triumph for the Castlepollard man, but it will go down as the first hole-in-one recorded at the current iteration of the course, redesigned earlier this year for the Irish Open, which was won on Sunday by Offaly player Shane Lowry.
“It's a dream come true,” said Donie this week, revealing that it is the second he has scored in his 55-year-long golf career, the first being at Beltray in County Louth in 2012.
“But I didn't see that one land in the hole because we were playing in fog,” he says, explaining that he only realised his success on that occasion after abandoning the search for his ball.
“Dermot Aherne [former politician] went to take the flag out and he says, 'your ball is in the hole'.”
By contrast, it was immediately clear when he scored his hole-in-one at the 11th green on Wednesday.
“It was a very windy day in Doonbeg on last Wednesday. And this hole was the hardest hole on three of the days, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, in the actual competition itself in the Irish Open, even though it was only a par three.
continued on page 3
“So the three players that I was playing with before that, they were all short. Because it's an uphill shot into a strong wind. And I asked my caddie Ruth what the distance was and she said, take two clubs more because the wind was so strong and because it was uphill.
“I asked her what it was to the back of the green. She said it's 10 yards further on.
“So I have a trusty nine wood that drives about 165 yards. I took the shot and I could hear my two grandsons, Max and Will, who were up at the green with our local publican Olly McCormack and his son. And they're shouting, 'a hole in one Donie, a hole in one Donie'.”
There was serious excitement after Donie's success - and incidentally, it was the only hole-in-one scored over the entire weekend.
“It's unbelievable that in the five days golf, the pro-am on the Wednesday and the four days of the tournament, no one else had a hole-in-one,” says Donie.
For his achievement, he was presented with a beautiful portrait of the course and a bottle of champagne.
Donie won the prestigious Mullingar Scratch Cup in 1992; he won the president's prize in Delvin in 1996 and five years' later, the captain's prize in Delvin in 2001. This was on a par with the proudest of those moments, he said.
For the pro-am, Donie was playing with Bob McIntyre, the Scottish international and Ryder Cup player.
“And he just could not believe that someone he was playing with in a pro-am got a hole-in-one.”
Donie's success came just six days before his 81st birthday, which falls today (Tuesday).
“I started playing golf at 25,” he recalls, thanking the late Seamus Daly with introducing him to the sport through pitch and putt at the pitch and putt course in Ballymore, where he played also with his brother-in-law Eddie Geraghty and with Johnny Cleary.
“And then Micky Duffy became captain of Mullingar in 1971. And he invited Seamus Daly and myself to join that year and we joined in 1971. And I've had continuous membership of Mullingar Golf Club for the past 55 years. I'm one of the longest-serving members of Mullingar Golf Club at the moment.”
He plays off a handicap of 20.8.
“It's just unbelievable that it happened to me at this stage of my life,” he says.
The pro-am took place two days before President Trump arrived, and so Donie did not meet the man himself.
“The whole set up for the Irish Open was just incredible. And in fairness to the Trump organisation, they really know how to present their premises and the golf course was of world standard. Everyone could see it on television.
“It was one of the greatest days on television in my lifetime, yesterday (Sunday) seeing Shane Lowry, the exhibition of golf that he gave. It has done more for Irish tourism, I would say. President Trump's visit and Shane Lowry winning the Irish Open has done more for Irish tourism than Bord Failte, Tourism Ireland and Sports Ireland could ever hope to ever dream of.”
Coming so close to the Katie Taylor fight at Croke Park, he said that what sport has achieved in the last two weels for Ireland as a destination was “immeasurable”.