Though it’s over half-a-century ago, Ivan Morris remembers it well. This should come as little surprise because when it comes to golf, Ivan remembers everything.
It was 1973, the first and only time that the Irish PGA Championship was staged at Limerick Golf Club, and the weather was horrendous.
That didn’t stop Jimmy Kinsella, a winner on the European Tour in 1972 when claiming the Madrid Open, arriving by motorcycle.
Kinsella was the defending champion having first claimed the title at Bundoran the year prior and was one of the pre-tournament favourites along with then eight-time winner Christy O’Connor Snr – he’d go on to win 10 – and used to arrive, leather-clad, on two wheels.
At the time, Morris was a 28-year-old elite amateur who’d first taken up golf in 1961 – just short of his 16th birthday – and was an accomplished rugby and soccer player, representing Ireland at U-16 in the latter before going on to earn multiple ‘caps’ with his golf clubs.
“The scoring was very high that year because there was so much wind and rain but it settled down on the back nine on the final day,” Morris recalled. “And Jimmy Kinsella went on a rampage over that closing stretch. He played that back nine in four-under and came from the middle of the pack, overtaking everybody including Paul Leonard, but at the time, the final five holes were the easiest on the course and Leonard needed two birdies on those five holes to win. And in those conditions, asking a top-class golfer to find two birdies seemed very feasible.
“To make a long story short, he only got one, and that came on the 18th where he had to hole an extremely difficult 12-footer that had about three feet of break to tie Jimmy at even-par.
“So, that left a playoff, and they went back up the first, which is now our third hole here.
“Kinsella, who’d been finished for over an hour, must’ve stiffened up a little because he sent his drive into the trees on the right. Nowadays, he’d be chipping sideways or backwards because those trees have grown so much, but back then he was able to manufacture a low, running slice and get the ball onto the green.
“Leonard sent his shot over the back and left an almost impossible up and down, and Kinsella two-putted for par, collected the £500 first prize, said ‘thanks very much’ and hopped back on his motorcycle and went back to Skerries.”
Morris’ best memory of that week, however, came from the days leading up to the tournament when Christy Snr came for a practice round and asked Morris to accompany him.
Christy Snr won his first Irish PGA Championship in 1958 at Royal Belfast, a year after finishing runner-up to Harry Bradshaw who won his 10th and final title at Ballybunnion. It was an effective passing of the torch, and ‘Himself’, as Christy was fondly known, was a 10-time Ryder Cup player as well as an eight-time Irish PGA Championship winner when Morris joined him for the round. He’d also finished tied for seventh at the Open Championship at Royal Troon just a few weeks before, beating the likes of Lee Trevino, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer in the process.
“I’d been playing in Championships for a long time at that stage,” Morris explained. “I’d won Senior Cups and Barton Shields with Limerick, so I was a very experienced and accomplished golfer, particularly on my home course.
“But my dad explained to me: ‘Christy is a pro; he’ll want to play for money. But don’t worry about it. Whatever it is, I’ll cover it because it will be educational and money well spent. Just go out and play your best.”
As expected, on the first tee O’Connor made the offer. Would they play a match, and how much would they play for?
Morris accepted, but O’Connor managed to coerce him into doubling his timid £5 offer, so the bet was set at a tenner and off they went.
“I played that front nine in three-under, and I was 2-up making the turn. Some of those out watching were saying Christy was coming down here and getting hustled, and I was delighted with myself.
“But there was a long walk to the 10th tee and Christy was in front of me and I saw him sort of shaking out his shoulders, he put his game face on and his whole body language changed.
“To make a long story short, he came home in 32 and I shot 36 and he beat me. On reflection, it didn’t matter what score I had, Christy was still going to beat it. He was just playing with me. I was like a fish – he let me out to swim around but he was always going to reel me in.”
The money exchanged hands, and both the experience and the lesson Morris learned were worth much more than the £10 Christy Snr pocketed.
“He played the game in such an honest way,” he reflected. “He never shouldered me off the ball, never made any sort of comment designed to throw you off your game, he just let me play my game and it was a wonderful experience and one that lasted a lifetime.
That memorable practice round left a lasting impression. For years afterwards, whenever Christy spotted Morris in his gallery at tournaments, the great man would offer a big wink, a thumbs-up, or stop for a quick chat: “Well young fella, how are you doing? How’s the game?”
It was classic Christy – generous, memorable, and larger than life. Morris laughs that had he somehow taken the tenner that day, it probably wouldn’t have stayed in his pocket for long.
“If I’d somehow been lucky enough to beat him that day, I wouldn’t have kept that tenner for long. He’d have been back for it.”
53 years later, Morris’ enthusiasm for the game hasn’t waned. He still plays as often as he can, though the rare heatwave we’re experiencing in late June has him uncharacteristically at home on the afternoon we talk.
“I played in Cork yesterday, and the heat wore me out. I was very tired at the end of the round, even though I was using a buggy, so I’m taking it easy today. But I’ll try again tomorrow,” he laughed. “You won’t keep me down. I’ll die kicking and screaming and giving out about something.”
Limerick Golf Club was first established in 1891, with Dr Alister MacKenzie, the famed designer of Augusta National, redesigning the course in 1927. Since then, it has played host to some of the best golfers in the world when it staged three successive J.P McManus Pro-Ams in 1990, 1995 and 2000 before the event outgrew the hosting capacity at Ballyclough and moved to The Golf Course at Adare Manor. That final staging at Limerick Golf Club was won by a certain Tiger Woods who had just won the U.S. Open by 15 shots at Pebble Beach and was about to win the Open Championship at St Andrews by eight.
This year, when the Irish PGA Championship returns to Limerick for the first time since Jimmy Kinsella rode away on two wheels, Morris is the club’s President and for a particularly meaningful reason. It marks the 50th anniversary of Limerick Golf Club’s historic 1976 double, when the team captured both the Senior Cup and Barton Shield at Tramore. Morris and Vincent Nevin are the only two surviving members of that victorious side.
“It’s a huge honour,” says Morris. “They wanted to mark the occasion properly, and with Vincent now in his 90s, the job fell to me.”
The role clearly means a great deal to a man who has given so much to the club over more than six decades. He recently attended a special dinner honouring all the surviving past captains and past presidents – a wonderful occasion captured in a group photograph that highlights the deep continuity and living history at Limerick Golf Club.
More than anything though, he can’t wait to see how the cream of modern PGA Professionals handle a golf course that may look easy on paper – it’s going to play to roughly 6,600 yards – but is extremely tight.
“Even-par was the winning score in 1973, but even though the weather was really poor, the greens have been changed and are much more undulating, and the course is an awful lot tighter now, it won’t stop these lads from scoring much lower than they did in 1973,” he predicted.
The course that will greet the professionals is markedly different to the one Jimmy Kinsella conquered in 1973. Five new greens were installed last year, creating more undulating and testing surfaces. Additional fairway bunkers have been added to challenge the longer hitters, while the fairways are heavily sanded during winter, keeping the ball from running too far.
At roughly 6,600 yards it may look short by modern standards, but on a compact piece of land with limited room for lengthening, it plays longer and much tighter than the yardage suggests.
“It’s a course that gives everyone a chance,” Morris believes. “You don’t need to be a 370-yard bomber. Bring your A-game for three days and you can win here.
“Technology has helped things, and even though most of these guys aren’t tour players, they are all really good golfers and winning the Irish PGA Championship means so much to them.
“But this style of golf is going to give everyone a chance and if you’re asking me if there could be a surprise winner, then I’d say yes, there very easily could.
“I’d predict a winning score of around 10-under. That’d be two 69s and a 68. People will look at the scorecard and say they’ll all be shooting 64s and 65s, and somebody might. Somebody probably will, but they’ll not do it three days in a row.
“It’s actually quite similar to Monkstown where the PGA Championship was last year and Simon Thornton won at nine-under, but there will be so many players that will fancy their chances of doing that and that makes for a great tournament.
“Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan used to set a winning score in their minds before a tournament and aim at getting to that score and if they did and somebody beat them, they’d doff their caps and say, ‘well played’. That’s an attitude that could serve players well here.”
The club will be well represented with Cian McNamara, currently the Head Pro at Monkstown, as one of Limerick’s exports, while Tim Rice, who continues to represent his home club on the circuit, is a former Irish PGA Championship winner having claimed the title at Moyvalley in 2017.
“If Timmy hits irons off the tee, he has a great chance. But he won’t hit irons off the tee. I know him too well,” Morris chuckled.
“But we’ve also got local people to thank in the tournament sponsors, Touchstore. They might be based in Dublin, but they’re Limerick people and they’re very tied up in the local community down here.
“They developed software that makes life easier and more profitable for those in the pharmaceutical industry, and without them there’d be no tournament here.”
The choice of sponsor feels particularly fitting. Touchstore has developed technology that simplifies processes and improves profitability for pharmacists – much as modern golf equipment and course management have made the game more accessible while raising standards.
As Morris notes, the game has changed dramatically in his lifetime, and he fully expects the 2026 Irish PGA Championship to both showcase that evolution but to retain an emphasis on precision and smart play as much as power.
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