{"id":957888,"date":"2026-11-09T06:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T06:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/957888\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T06:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T06:24:13","slug":"augusta-tales-and-a-4-cheque-from-jack-nicklaus-dermot-gilleece-revisits-the-golfing-log-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/957888\/","title":{"rendered":"Augusta tales and a $4 cheque from Jack Nicklaus: Dermot Gilleece revisits the Golfing Log \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The throwback in time is easy for Dermot Gilleece to recall, partly because he had been recuperating in Blackrock Clinic<\/a> following heart bypass surgery when he opened a letter from an Irish Times reader wondering how he could acquire two tickets, as a gift for his brother\u2019s 40th birthday, to the Masters<\/a> tournament at Augusta National Golf Club.<\/p>\n

It was the autumn of 1996, five months after Nick Faldo had won a third green jacket, in a tournament Gilleece had covered. Gilleece\u2019s first instinct \u2013 having received many such requests over the years \u2013 was to form a negative response along the narrative that a pocketful of cash, upwards of \u20ac10,000, would be needed to make a trip to Augusta\u2019s hallowed grounds in any way feasible, and to wish the reader the very best of luck in his endeavours because he would need whatever luck could come his way.<\/p>\n

Case closed? Not quite, not on this particular occasion.<\/p>\n

Gilleece overrode his own instincts.<\/p>\n

\u201cLying back in a recovery bed, I considered my position. With nothing better to do, perhaps I could make it happen. Perhaps Charlie Yates could provide the key. Yates was the long-time member of Augusta National who became known in this country as the gifted American who beat Cecil Ewing in the final of the 1938 British Amateur Championship at Royal Troon. More recently, Charlie had been in charge of media communications for the Masters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author of the letter, one Liam O\u2019Doherty, received a reply from Gilleece, then golf<\/a> correspondent of The Irish Times, with the outline of a plan \u2013 somewhat outrageous in concept \u2013 that might enable him to acquire those precious tickets. It was the long shot of all long shots … and yet, worth a go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suggested to Liam that he should write to Charlie as an Irish fan of the Masters, while pointing out Yates\u2019s link to this country through Cecil Ewing,\u201d said Gilleece.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Doherty, it proved, worked his own magic, and the story is recounted in Gilleece\u2019s new book, Stories from the Golfing Log: Tales of Triumph, Tragedy and the 19th Hole, which will be launched next week by Shay Smith, former sports editor of the Evening Press and past general secretary of the Golfing Union of Ireland (now Golf Ireland).<\/p>\n

\"AugustaAugusta member Charlie Yates at the 1997 Masters with his guest Liam O\u2019Doherty <\/p>\n

Not only did O\u2019Doherty manage to connect with Yates, he hit the jackpot. He and his brother Joe were invited by Yates, as his guests, to the 1997 Masters \u2013 won by Tiger Woods \u2013 with access to the Butler Cabin among the fringe benefits.<\/p>\n

This tale is among the many revisited by Gilleece in the book, the genesis of which came from his weekly column, Golfing Log, which appeared in these pages while he was golf correspondent from 1981 to 2001, and the paper\u2019s golf editor from 2001-2002.<\/p>\n

Gilleece hasn\u2019t simply reproduced the old logs, though. Rather, he has delved back into some of his favourite stories and expanded them, with that of the O\u2019Doherty brothers among many insightful tellings of interesting golfing tales covering both Irish and international angles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve picked elements out of the Golfing Log to develop stories. I started looking back over stuff I\u2019d written in The Irish Times, in the Log, and found that they contained interesting stories, in my view, and also the basis of interesting stories. I\u2019m hoping that there\u2019s a generation out there who were Irish Times readers in the \u201980s and \u201990s who remember.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DermotDermot Gilleece’s new book Stories from the Golfing Log: Tales of Triumph, Tragedy and the 19th Hole <\/p>\n

The truth is that his latest offering will also appeal to a younger generation of golfers, Gilleece\u2019s capacity to develop and update those original stories providing a human connection, among them the chapter titled Garth and The Bear, which revolves around the brilliant Irish amateur Garth McGimpsey and Jack Nicklaus aka The Golden Bear.<\/p>\n

McGimpsey got to play two Masters tournaments on the back of winning the Amateur Championship at Royal Dornoch in 1985 and could thank the foresight of his father, Hal, for arranging a practice round with Nicklaus in the year when The Bear won a sixth Masters title in 1986.<\/p>\n

When the letter of invitation to play the Masters arrived at McGimpsey\u2019s home in Bangor, Co Down, Hal \u2013 aware that Nicklaus was known to take a special interest in amateur players at Augusta National \u2013 wrote to the American and received back a letter promising to meet up with Garth on the putting green at Augusta National.<\/p>\n

Hal presented the letter from Nicklaus to his son on Christmas morning; some four months later, the two players met on the putting green as arranged and played a practice round.<\/p>\n

\"DermotDermot Gilleece receiving a special merit award from R&A chief executive Mark Darbon at the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush <\/p>\n

When Gilleece contacted McGimpsey for the book, the player told him of receiving a letter post-tournament from the six-time Masters champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout a week or 10 days after I arrived home, there was a wonderful bonus for me. Despite all the pressures and excitement of Jack\u2019s historic win, he still found the time to write to me. Attached to a very warm letter which told me how much he had enjoyed my company was an enclosed cheque for four dollars, with a note expressing the hope that it wouldn\u2019t affect my amateur status.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a huge fan of his growing up and, as if I needed this latest proof, here was further evidence of Jack showing himself to be really a class act. On the cheque was written \u2018for getting beat at Augusta National\u2019. Imagine, this was from the week of his sixth Masters win. Of course I still have the cheque \u2013 framed. I wonder what it would be worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are some lovely, human stories in this latest collection from Gilleece, who has written a number of books \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m more and more conscious of keeping the brain active,\u201d he explains \u2013 including Farewell to the Fairways and Chasing Ladybirds. Among the stories is the touching tale of twin brothers Joe and Matt Kelly, both priests, now in their 90s, who are members of Royal Dublin Golf Club.<\/p>\n

Fr Joe was a priest at Gilleece\u2019s local church. \u201cI got to know Joe because he was interested in golf, obviously, as a member of Royal Dublin. I remember every year, I would bring him back a Masters programme. And we became quite friendly. Anyway, earlier this year, in March, they celebrated 70 years in the priesthood. And I contacted Golf Ireland, who had silver medals specially struck for both of them and presented them to them in honour of their contribution to golf over many years.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristy O\u2019Connor Snr played with them. They met Bill Clinton in Royal Dublin. The chapter in the book about them is just different. It\u2019s not meant to be religious, it\u2019s just they are remarkable men, I think,\u201d said Gilleece.<\/p>\n

Stories from the Golfing Log: Tales of Triumph, Tragedy and the 19th Hole by Dermot Gilleece is published by Red Stripe, \u20ac19.99<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The throwback in time is easy for Dermot Gilleece to recall, partly because he had been recuperating in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":957889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,22345,755,24495,85,9244],"class_list":["post-957888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bill-clinton","tag-golf","tag-masters","tag-sports","tag-tiger-woods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/957889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}