BRADY SHERWOOD, golf pro at Castlemartyr Resort
I’M FROM a place called North Avoca, an hour north of Sydney, Australia. I came to Ireland backpacking in 2000 and met my wife, who is from Cork. I started working at Castlemartyr in 2008, when the hotel opened.
I’m a PGA golf professional and held my first golf club when I was three years old. It’s not that my parents were into golf, but that I am the only boy among loads of sisters. We lived right next door to a golf club and it was the only place I could go to escape girls.
These days I live in Kinsale, a 45-minute drive away. In the summer I get to work for 6.30am. I have a team of three and we set up the shop in time for opening at 7am and start meeting and greeting.
We get about 175 people teeing off each day, so it’s busy. I also do about 12 golf lessons a week. We can record a lesson too, so the golfer can take a DVD home and work on their swing. A lot of people coach themselves and it can be hilarious to hear the things people have come up with off YouTube or a magazine or TV.
A lot of my work is about getting a swing that suits a person. If a person has had a bad habit for 20 years, it takes 14 months to change that habit, during which time they won’t enjoy their golf at all. That’s why I will tweak the habit in a way that suits them instead.
The joy of golf is that you are really playing against yourself. That said, when four guys go out together it’s a pure ego bash. They want to beat their mates, whether it’s the longest drive or the score at the end.
The women are much more relaxed, much more accepting of a bad shot and much more courteous to each other.
I was on the competitive tour for two years and, though I never lost my love of the game, I no longer liked competing, so I stopped. But I’m getting back to it now and plan to enter a few competitions this year.
Golf is totally a mental game. When you are at a high level everybody has the same shots – it’s how they play with a scorecard in their back pocket that differentiates them.
What I love here is the dedication. I can’t believe the weather Irish golfers go out in. Back home, if a golfer wakes and hears wind outside, he won’t go. Here players come so bundled up that sometimes I can only see their eyes.
At 7pm I’ll finish up and go home. My 19-month-old son Ruairi can hit a tennis ball 10 metres with his plastic club. I’m very proud of him.
In conversation with SANDRA O’CONNELL