Looking at the breathtaking ball skills of Tiger Woods, especially in those amazing television advertisements, it's not difficult to imagine him as a top-class hurler. Though he has never actually played a stroke, Woods has handled a hurley while having the game explained to him by a fellow devotee of the Royal and Ancient pursuit. Padraig Harrington described the lure of the ash to him during the JP McManus International Pro-Am at Limerick GC last July. Indeed, the Dubliner demonstrated how it was done, by striking a golf ball with a hurley. The upshot of it all is that All-Ireland champions Kilkenny are set to benefit from the little exchange.
At the instigation of Kilkenny's finest, DJ Carey, two hurleys were autographed by Woods during last summer's visit, with photographs to prove it. One of the hurleys remains in Carey's possession, but the other is to be auctioned for the benefit of the Kilkenny Supporters' Club. Carey, of course, is a very useful golfer, playing off six. So is Eddie Keher, who happens to be vice-chairman of the supporters' club. Would Tiger be as adept at switching to another sport played with an implement? "I'm sure he would be a brilliant hurler, provided he could adapt to the physical contact," said Keher, who plays off 12.
"I admire all sportsmen who can perform at the highest level and I think Woods is a magnificent athlete - unique," added the winner of six All-Ireland medals and the author of Hurling Heroes, published recently by Blackwater Press. "In that television ad, when he smashes the ball on the fly up the fairway, you can see how wonderfully co-ordinated he is."
Listening to Keher reminded me of the time our paths first crossed, all of 37 years ago. He had scored a record 14 points in the 1963 All-Ireland final and I had to write a feature about him for the Irish Press. Nobody I have seen possessed a hurling swing of such elegance. And I started the piece by quoting an American visitor to Croke Park as claiming that the swing bore comparison with anything he had observed in tournament golf.
Keher, who enjoys his golf as a member of New Ross, made the fascinating observation: "I think I'd be much more comfortable if I had retained the hurling grip and played left-handed." Then he echoed the view of Australian left-hander Nick O'Hare, who claimed recently that the power-hand should be at the top of the grip.
Either way, it seems delightfully appropriate that the world's most skilful golfer should be supporting the world's most skilful hurlers. In today's sporting world, Woods and DJ Carey are two of a kind.
"It can now be said that any golfer emptying a sleeve of these balls deep into the woods is officially out of Control."
- US magazine Golfweek, commenting on the new Control golf ball from Taylor Made.