{"id":687633,"date":"2026-07-12T12:44:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/687633\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T12:44:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:44:19","slug":"i-ended-up-having-a-manic-episode-and-psychosis-corkman-david-howards-long-journey-to-the-open-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/687633\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I ended up having a manic episode and psychosis\u2019: Corkman David Howard\u2019s long journey to The Open \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cork\u2019s David Howard qualified for next week\u2019s Open Championship<\/a> as the 1,456th ranked amateur golfer in the world but the number doesn\u2019t remotely tell the story. <\/p>\n

For one, he didn\u2019t always expect to be alive to do this.<\/p>\n

Howard has cystic fibrosis<\/a> (CF), a genetic condition that causes mucus to build and clog in multiple organs. It leads to severe and dangerous lung infection and limits the function of the pancreas, meaning the body struggles to absorb nutrients from food. Ireland has the highest incidence rate of cystic fibrosis in the world. <\/p>\n

A few years after he was diagnosed, Howard Googled his life expectancy and read that he might die in his mid-20s. That he is now 27 and about to compete with the world\u2019s best golfers at Royal Birkdale next week adds a few bespoke sporting braids to an improbable yarn. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s mad to say I\u2019m going to the Open,\u201d he says. \u201cIt still doesn\u2019t feel right saying it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Howard takes between 25 and 30 tablets every day, which include the modulators that have changed his daily life. These modulators emerged about 2019, and help to thin the mucus in his lungs. Because his pancreas doesn\u2019t work, Howard takes digestive enzymes with every meal to allow him to break down food and absorb its nutrients. These tablets will be packed in his golf bag at Birkdale to allow him to snack during his round. <\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Howard playing in the East of Ireland Men’s Amateur Open. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo\/Inpho <\/p>\n

The cystic fibrosis team at Cork University Hospital also help him with his golf prep. A nutritionist helps to ensure Howard is taking in enough salt, as those with cystic fibrosis lose much more salt in their sweat than the average person. <\/p>\n

A physiotherapist, Eoin O\u2019Donovan \u2013 whom Howard now considers a member of the family \u2013 often travels with him to tournaments. He is on hand to perform chest physio if the mucus build-up in his lungs is particularly high. O\u2019Donovan also helps him to manage a long-standing back problem, which Howard thinks he suffered as a child while hunched over during the violent coughing fits caused by his condition. He can also rely on conventional support: his swing coach is Kevin Morris, director of golf at Fota Island, Howard\u2019s club. <\/p>\n

Cystic fibrosis is ordinarily identified at birth but Howard wasn\u2019t diagnosed until he was seven. His mother Eithne, having already raised two boys, knew something wasn\u2019t right with David, but a succession of doctors and specialists assured her he was a healthy boy, perhaps suffering from asthma. She eventually found the answer she was looking for, and Howard remembers lying on a hospital bed and crying having been dealt the news. There was also a slight and odd sense of relief at finally discovering the truth. <\/p>\n

He credits his parents for refusing to wrap him up in cotton wool and allowing him to have as normal a childhood as he could. Still, he missed vast tranches of school time, as whenever he got sick he would often face two-week hospital stays to be administered antibiotics intravenously. Constant, rolling hospital stays were his reality until the emergence of modulator therapies. <\/p>\n

Howard first got access to the internet before these therapies existed, and recalls searching when he was 12 or 13 for more information about his condition and for how much longer he could expect to live. The worst-case scenario suggested he may not survive past his mid-20s. <\/p>\n

\u201cI went down a dark path of alcohol and drinking,\u201d he says. The drinking started around second year in secondary school. \u201cA few people had started drinking, I\u2019d go out and I didn\u2019t have the mindset of \u2018I don\u2019t care any more\u2019, but I think I nearly used it as an excuse. If I got caught drinking I would run away or say \u2018Sure it doesn\u2019t matter, I won\u2019t be here much longer\u2019. It was tough for my parents to see that stuff.\u201d His parents persuaded him to begin counselling, which he says lit a path away from drink\u2019s dark road. <\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Howard on the 7th green at Louth Golf Club during the East of Ireland Men’s Amateur Open. Photograph: Bryan Keane\/Inpho <\/p>\n

He found his sporting outlet too. Some of the sports traditional to an Irish childhood were off-limits to him for insurance reasons, but he was able to spend his summers playing pitch and putt at his local club in Raffeen, near Ringaskiddy. His talent bloomed, captaining Cork at under-16 level before graduating to playing golf. The sport suits his condition, he explains, especially in Ireland, where playing links courses means breathing clean, sea air. <\/p>\n

Howard finished school and got on with the business of conventional living. He started an apprenticeship as a mechanic with Audi Cork in 2018, but continued to play golf off a plus-five handicap at weekends and occasionally during the week. Howard played casually but his talent kept confronting him. In 2019 he won the Muskerry Junior Scratch Cup, beating his father John in the matchplay final. \u201cSome people say he let me win,\u201d laughs Howard, \u201cbut I don\u2019t know about that\u201d. <\/p>\n

And then came Covid and the most difficult year of his life. Knowing his condition made him vulnerable to the virus, Howard locked himself in his bedroom. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was afraid to be close to even my family,\u201d says Howard. \u201cThey were trying to live their lives and were working, and I was worried they would bring something home. I was completely isolated, and I ended up having a manic episode and psychosis.\u201d <\/p>\n

Howard stopped eating and didn\u2019t sleep for 10 days. \u201cI lost touch with reality,\u201d he says, explaining he felt on a kind of manic, exuberant high and was interpreting the world as a series of signs from God. He remembers once visiting his aunt and wading through the stagnant water of a flooded field nearby, staring at the sun. He became convinced he would become the world\u2019s richest man, looking through online catalogues of superyachts. One day, Howard believed he knew that night\u2019s winning Lotto numbers, and so he bought a ticket and then stopped at the side of the road to give it to a passerby, insisting to him it was about to win. <\/p>\n

Howard\u2019s parents, his girlfriend Gabbi and the cystic fibrosis team at Cork University Hospital eventually convinced him to come into hospital. \u201cI thought I was going in for research to show everyone how amazing everything was,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He stayed in hospital for three weeks while his parents were told he may not recover to be himself again. <\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t have any visitors,\u201d says Howard. \u201cI was taken off medication so I got a bit sick, and I had to go on antipsychotic medication to bring me down from the high. That was the hardest bit: going from the highest high to the lowest low. I couldn\u2019t get out of bed for a few months. It was a tough few months, and that my parents were told I might never be the same again was hard to hear after I got back to myself.\u201d <\/p>\n

And yet he did get back to himself. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn a way, it was grand for me but it was really hard on my family and girlfriend,\u201d he says. \u201cThe year or so coming down from that and getting back on track was probably the hardest part of my life, to be honest. The support of friends and family helped me get through it, and the unit in the hospital was a massive help.\u201d His employers were supportive too, allowing him to ease back into work, initially one day a week. <\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Howard celebrates winning the East of Ireland Mens Amateur Open. Photograph: Bryan Keane\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Howard completed his apprenticeship and also went back to playing golf. He lowered his handicap to plus-two and pressed his nose against the glass of Ireland\u2019s amateur championships. He couldn\u2019t get a spot at the East of Ireland or the Irish Amateur Championship or even the Munster Strokeplay in 2023, but did make it through qualifying for the West of Ireland. He decided to hit pause with Audi Cork and play golf full-time. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018What would happen if I gave this more time?\u2019, and after the incident during Covid, I didn\u2019t want to regret anything. So I packed in the job at start of 2024 and gave it a go fully since then.\u201d <\/p>\n

His breakthrough moment came last year, with victory at the East of Ireland at a wind-buffeted Baltray. He followed that up by finishing second at this year\u2019s Irish Amateur Open. A tied-eighth finish at the Island earned Howard a spot as a reserve at the final qualifier event held at Dundonald at the end of June, where he opened with a round of 69 and hit the gas with five birdies on the back nine of his second and final round. He took a look at the leaderboard with five holes to go and saw that he was within the top five and therefore in the qualifying spots. He promptly missed birdie chances on 14 and 15 and then winged a drive right on his way to a double-bogey on 16. <\/p>\n

He steadied himself to sign for a 71, and it was on the final green that his father dropped the golf bag he had been carrying for the day and embraced him to tell him he had done enough to qualify for the Open Championship. A representative of the R&A quickly confirmed the news by scurrying up to him to present him with a flag. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll these memories we are making, it\u2019s great to do that and will be great to look back on it in a few years\u2019 time,\u201d says Howard. \u201cI only realised the magnitude of it afterwards. It\u2019s nuts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard has never been to an Open Championship before, and nor has he really been to Birkdale. He and his father passed the course a few weeks ago while competing at the British Amateur Championship at nearby Hoylake, and when they saw the towering grandstands, decided to pull their campervan into the carpark to catch another glance. Soon they\u2019ll pull up in a much more exclusive carpark and step straight inside the ropes, with John set to be on the bag next week. <\/p>\n

Howard still goes to hospital every couple of months to get his bloods taken, and his latest check-up showed his lung function is at 99 per cent. With more drugs in development and coming on stream, he says life is improving for those with cystic fibrosis in Ireland. He is an ambassador with CF Ireland, with whom he has been doing some happy work: anticipating and addressing some of the novel challenges of living longer that people with cystic fibrosis face. <\/p>\n

Asked if he still thinks about life expectancy, he says: \u201cI am not worrying at the moment. The mindset is to keep on trying to do what I am doing, and have no regrets down the line.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork\u2019s David Howard qualified for next week\u2019s Open Championship as the 1,456th ranked amateur golfer in the world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,1899,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-687633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-open-championship","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}