‘I’VE never had a lesson in my life,’ John Carroll laughs, ‘may I should have!’

BY JOHNNY CAROLAN

In fairness, the Bishopstown native hasn’t fared too badly as a self-taught golfer, even allowing for a late start in the sport.

Carroll was initially known as a soccer player, acquiring the nickname ‘Blondie’, and was part of the Cork Celtic side that won the League of Ireland in 1973-74.

Golf was something to dabble in during the summer but an August 1978 trip to watch the Munster finals of the Barton Shield in Thurles was to prove to be a pivotal moment.

Accompanying his great friend Billy George, who was reporting for The Cork Examiner, the pair dined with the Bandon team that had beaten Tramore to claim provincial glory for the first time.

‘James A. Riordan, who would have been heavily involved in Bandon, invited Billy to come in after,’ John says.

‘He said he couldn’t as he had me with him, but they said for me to come along too. I had been half-considering joining a club and when Billy said that to them, they said to send in a cheque for £45 and that was that.’

He was given an initial handicap of 14 and within a year was down to 8.

‘I wasn’t really winning anything,’ he says, ‘but just playing well and getting cut.

‘I never really practised, it was always a case of preferring to go out for a game with the boys.’

John Carroll pictured at Bandon Golf Club following his selection for Ireland in 2008. (Photo: Denis Boyle)

By 1991, his handicap was oscillating between 2 and 1 when he won three senior scratch cups in quick succession – Monkstown and two in a row at Macroom.

Captain of Bandon in 1989 and president in 2000, in 2002 he partnered with Hilda Hegarty and Eileen O’Leary as the club won the Irish Mixed Foursomes.

In 2008, international recognition arrived – giving him the distinction of having represented his country in both golf and soccer, having won under-age caps in the latter – and he helped Ireland to victory in the European Team Championship and the Home Internationals.

Then, in 2010, Bandon won the Irish Senior Cup, with John part of the successful squad with Brian O’Donovan, Dwane Twomey, Conor Mehigan, David McCarthy, Kieran Hurley, Donie O’Donovan and Barry Nash.

‘That was a huge event, for what people might term a “small country club”,’ he says.

‘To come out on top against the likes of Portmarnock, Co. Sligo, Cork Golf Club, was incredible, especially as we were in the Barton Shield too that weekend and only lost the semi-final by one hole.’

At the end of 2017, he was appointed captain of the Ireland senior team following the first open recruitment process for the role and by that stage he had managed to claim a local ‘major’ in Bandon, too, winner of John Collins’ Captain’s Prize in 2016.

In a gracious runners-up speech, Des Riordan said that he took no shame in finishing second to the best golfer the club had ever produced.

Ever humble, John graciously accepted the prize, a popular winner for a popular captain, but stated that there were at least two better golfers produced by the club in Donie O’Donovan and Jerry Mehigan. Both of those, along with Noel Mills, Finbarr Hayes and the late Mick Stafford, were part of that victorious Barton Shield Team back in 1978, where it all began for him,

Much has changed since – not least the fact that his international recognition saw him bestowed with honorary life membership of Bandon – and he has been proud to see how the club has developed.

‘The course has come on hugely over the last 25 years,’ he says, ‘especially since the addition of the three castle holes.

‘They switched direction on four or five holes and flattened the fairways and then the bunkers have been improved in the last few years.

‘It’s a great course, in fairness to [superintendent] James Burns and his team. When you consider the winter and spring we’ve had, it’s in incredible condition.’