RTE Sport broadcaster Jacqui Hurley believes the best thing about golf is that anyone can play it and that it is a sport open for all levels and all types of people.
Hurley came to the game late after playing camogie for much of her life but is now a member in Dun Laoghaire Golf Club and helped to host Wednesday’s second annual Golf Ireland International Women’s Day event supported by KPMG.
“It’s amazing because it’s actually a sport that anyone can play and I never would have thought that. When I was younger, being honest, I thought it was a sport for posh people,” said Hurley.
“That would have been my ignorant sense of it. But actually the older I get the more I realise it’s a game for everyone. All abilities are playing here today. I am watching a group here, where there is a professional golfer, a professional golf coach, a county footballer and somebody who works in the media and somebody who works a clothing line. If all of them can play together and feel like they’re competitive. That’s the best part about this thing.”
69 golfers including Leona Maguire, from nine different sporting backgrounds along with representatives from NGBs, Sport Ireland and Sport NI came together at Druids Glen Hotel & Golf Resort in Wicklow.
Having joined a society in Leopardstown during the Covid-19 pandemic, Hurley used her platform and together with Golf Ireland they staged the first event last year and the second showing proved a roaring success.
“It’s unreal. To be honest, when I had the idea I didn’t think it would be like this. I just thought we would have a few of us knocking the ball around having a bit of craic. But to see it come to fruition like this and to see the sporting community and golfing community all as one is kind of amazing. I don’t want to sound too cliched and say it’s inspiring but to be
honest, that’s what it is. Watching them all playing together is bigger than what I ever thought it would be.
“100%, now that they have all got the bug for it. They are all just ready to see what it is again and just have the craic together. I think everybody is really up for it. That’s the great thing, that everybody rocks up. We didn’t get anybody who was here last year who didn’t want to come. Anybody who didn’t come this year they were raging they missed it. Which actually tells you everything you need to know about the event, so that’s great.”
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