At Tony Muldoon’s suggestion, I reached out to Ivan Morris for a Feature Interview and boy, did that turn out to be a great idea! Based out of Limerick, Ireland, Ivan has done just about all there is in golf from both a playing and writing perspective. Read his bio at the start of the Feature Interview as proof and what still bristles through the most in his Feature Interview is a man passionately in love with the game. In turn, the game has treated him very kindly but there is an overriding sense of how fortunate Ivan feels to have led the life that he has for 66 years. Best yet, the candle burns as bright as ever. Have a read of question 12 about Inch Island and you get the picture of a young boy scampering around, up and down over dunes, thrilled with each new view/discovery. Indeed, in question 1, he cites evidence from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden that golf does indeed add 5-7 years to your life (this is an especially good thing for us who follow the GolfClubAtlas.com Discussion Group because it definitely subtracts 5-7 years from your life
).
Like every big minded person I know, he is quick to praise other people and spread credit where credit is due. Listen to how he describes Eddie Hackett.
“Eddie Hackett was a selfless and saintly man. He wanted to be a priest but failed the medical. While working with Fred Hawtree in Belgium, he developed an interest in golf architecture. When illness forced him to retire as golf professional at Portmarnock GC, the Golfing Union of Ireland appointed him as their first national coach and roving ambassador. He accepted that challenge in the spirit of a missionary, traveling the length and breadth of the country in a large van full of equipment for sale and as a golfing proselytizer and helping to expand interest in the game everywhere he went. He was a vital part of the Irish golf explosion in the 1960s.” Graciousness
is a virtue that has gone sadly lacking in recent times (if you ask me!) but not with Ivan.
Ivan’s new book
Life as a Way of Golf as well as this Feature Interview contain sage advice that reflect wisdom from years of learning. Take this one, for instance: ‘If only I realized sooner that golf is a privilege and supposed to be fun. It’s not a crusade or an obligation. My life would have been more serene if I had realized that.’ The fortunate ones among us come to that realization in our own time and way but one thing is for sure: The sooner, the better!
One thing Ivan kindly did for us is to update his famous Ballybunion vs Lahnich comparison that was found in his first book
Only Golf Spoken Here. His new match play has Lahinch stretching its winning margin to 2 up while his initial version from over 10 years ago had Lahinch eking out a 1 up victory. For sustained drama, there are no more better sand dunes in golf than at those two courses and thankfully great architects got to work in them.
Below is a photo of a father and son reading Ivan’s new book. It was sent to him out of the blue from a gentleman he has never had the pleasure of meeting. Yet it certainly speaks well about Ivan’s role in passing down the healthy, walking game of golf from generation to generation.
Ivan is a recent convert to the pleasures of hickory golf and it is no surprise that words like ‘fun’ and ‘enjoyable’ are laced throughout his
Feature Interview. In part, they serve as a timely reminder for the exhilaration of links golf. We are hopefully going to be treated to a bunch of film and stories on Ballesteros this weekend and Ivan’s exuberance for the sport is the perfect lead in. Indeed, starting this year, we will make a point of having a Feature Interview up with a person from the UK or Ireland during the Open Championship. In the meanwhile, hope you enjoy this one!
Cheers,