More than half a century ago, five-year-old Bridget Gleeson-Healy was described as a “pint-sized golf prodigy” as BBC cameras captured her precocious skill on the fairways of Killarney golf club in Co Kerry.
The charming footage of Gleeson-Healy’s 1969 appearance on the teatime Nationwide programme, in which she was interviewed by the presenter Cliff Michelmore, was recently unearthed from the BBC archives. It was shared on social media during the Ryder Cup, delighting millions of viewers worldwide.
But while the endearing clip beguiled a new generation, Gleeson-Healy said she had been unaware of its existence until recently.
“The peculiar aspect is that I don’t believe I’ve ever viewed the footage previously,” she said. “During the late Sixties and early Seventies, I would surmise that the south of Ireland existed in a single-channel television landscape: RTE and nothing more.
“Given that this was the BBC, I rather suspect I never had the opportunity to see it.”
The clip was sent to Gleeson-Healy, now a 62-year-old pilates instructor, by a friend. She was about to take a class and at first did not realise the video’s significance.
“I could see this little girl and I went, ‘Oh God, she looks exactly like me.’ Then, as the reality dawned that it was me, one of my clients came in the door so I had to put it away. When I got back in the car, I turned it on and I was blown away by it,” Gleeson-Healy said.
She said Michelmore, who died in 2016, had been an “absolute gentleman” whose kind and gentle presence put her at ease.
“He was as lovely as you see him in the clip. You get a presenter like that who is really good with kids and good at coming to the level of a five-year-old, keeping it simple and encouraging,” she said.
Also featured in the footage is John, her late father, who was the greenkeeper for Killarney for 40 years.
Gleeson-Healy said seeing him was “very emotional”. A scratch golfer, John, 41 at the time, took pride in watching his daughter’s star rise.
“I have one sister and we were brought to tears by that. It’s something very special when you see somebody that you loved so much and they are gone, then you see them as a young person hale and hearty, and doing their thing,” Gleeson-Healy said.
Shortly after she learnt to stand and walk, her father gave her wooden spoons and sticks so that she could practise her swing. By the time she was two, it was clear that Gleeson-Healy had a gift.
An elite golf club, Killarney was a popular destination for tourists. It was not long before Gleeson-Healy, whose childhood home was behind the 15th green, began beating opponents much older than her.
“People would see me, this small little person. So I became a little bit famous. For starters, you would hardly ever see a girl playing golf,” she said.
Gleeson-Healy said the sport had come a long way, both in terms of professionalism and opportunities, since she teed off for the first time.
“Up in the north of Ireland where I did a lot of golf, the ladies would have their own little clubhouse and the men would have the big clubhouse. Really and truly it was a man’s sport. The women were all probably doctors’ wives and people who had a lot of time on their hands. There just wasn’t anyone else like me,” she said.
Nationwide was not Gleeson-Healy’s first appearance on national television. A year previously she had been on RTE’s The Late Late Show and gave Gay Byrne a golf lesson.
“They gave me a lovely little gift afterwards; it was some colouring set. Really that was the highlight of the whole thing as a kid,” she said.
With a growing reputation and television appearances behind her, Gleeson-Healy went on to represent Ireland as an amateur at senior international level.
She never turned professional because of a combination of lifestyle choices — she took a job at a bank before becoming a stay-at-home mother — and an injury.
In the Nationwide clip, Michelmore comments on Gleeson-Healy’s impressive swing, which she executed by turning up on her right toe at the top of the range of motion. “What a beautiful high finish you’ve got,” Michelmore enthuses.
Gleeson-Healy did not know it at the time but that distinctive swing and her years of practice to perfect it were to lead to injuries that caused her to end her career at the age of 39.
“1987 was my last senior cap. I was starting to run into trouble with my body. That is probably the downside of starting when you are two,” Gleeson-Healy said.
With no access to physios and not knowing about conditioning, rest and recovery, her physical difficulties worsened.
“My body was still developing and growing and I was out there banging balls for seven hours a day for 20 years. You can’t do that without something going wrong.
“I developed a hand injury and thumb injury that caused trouble. Then it was my back. As someone said when they saw my swing in the BBC clip, ‘I can understand how your back actually gave in.’ I would swing that quickly. I had to have a hip replacement in my early fifties. I had worn my hip out from that pivoting.”
The happy memories of her days on the fairways endure. “One that stands out was when I was 12. I was the last qualifier in our senior ladies championship in Ballybunion and Mary McKenna [who was in her mid-twenties], one of the all-time great lady golfers in Ireland, was the first qualifier, so we had to play in the first round matchplay. It was a David v Goliath situation. I should have been massacred but it was a great match and she just beat me on the final hole and the final putt.”
The two greats have remained friends since. Since hanging up their clubs, both have developed a passion for photography.