I want to tell you about the little podcast that could, and now has. This is my love letter to Golf Weekly. On busy weeks it breaks my heart and busts my balls. But the last month has been a bit special.
I’ve been involved in Golf Weekly for the past three years. It does what it says on the tin pretty much. It’s a weekly podcast about golf. Myself, Fionn Davenport, Conor Deegan and Nathan Murphy have worked steadily on it in recent times. It’s a labour of love really; we are bereft of budget or sponsorship. Quite often we’re scraping around for a recording slot which suits our various schedules. Getting on good guests can prove tricky but we manage, most of the time. Excellent journalists like Karl McGinty, Brian Keogh, Rex Huggard, Jason Sobel, Nick Dye and Eamon Lynch all lend their expertise. Andrew Coltart and Dave Stockton are irregular regulars. We’ve spoken to David Leadbetter and Butch Harmon more recently Jordan Spieth’s coach.
And all told we’ve found a weirdly broad and wonderful audience. They are official "friends of the pod", one of the lame traditions which has grown over time. Correspondence trickles in from all corners of the US, England, mainland Europe, Dubai and Australia.
So, here's why we’ve had a special few weeks. For months, listeners have asked us to put on a Classic, a day for ‘friends of the pod’ to come together and play golf.
We scoffed. Where would we play it? How would we fund it? Step in John Burke and the beautiful Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links. John got in touch out of the blue and offered us the course for an afternoon. Suddenly it got serious. We couldn’t pass up on such a brilliant course. We felt obliged.
So we threw it out on the podcast one week. Who’s in? Tweet us? We decided not to tweet or post about it. Let’s just see what actual listeners come back to us. We hoped we might get a nice number, maybe 30-40 people tops. Within a few hours we had the guts of 150 people wanting to come. It mushroomed over that weekend.
Fast forward a few weeks, lots of e-mails and calls and we’re good to go. Some beautiful things have happened. I kid you not; one listener is flying in from Dubai to play golf for the first time in Ireland. From f***ing Dubai!! We told him he was mad, but he insisted. Another listener from New York came very close to making it.
Elsewhere a Waterford Crystal employee convinced his boss to give us some glass which has been engraved with the Golf Weekly logo. All free. It’ll go to the longest drive and closest to the pin winners. We didn’t even have a logo until that offer came in by the way. My digital colleague Luke Benson gave up his time to design it. You can see his efforts below. Fantastic. And a nod to Hogan, which we love.
Another listener who works in the hotel industry is bringing up vouchers which we will give out as prizes. Alan Vard from GOAL got in touch. Could we raise some money for charity? Absolutely. Alan has organised brilliant raffle prizes for the night. Golf will be followed by a BBQ and we’ll record a podcast in front of the audience. Aidan Lonergan here at Newstalk has organised speakers and the technical side of things. God bless him. Srixon will put on a ball fitting clinic ahead of tee-time. The wonderful Karl McGinty will join us to preview the US Open at Chambers Bay and tell some tales.
There has been nothing but love from the friends of the pod. We asked them to pay for the BBQ. Every single one of them took the time to call Portmarnock and pay up. Myself and John were shocked. The general public never ALL pay up. Even listeners not involved are hitting us up on twitter with comments like this:
@GolfWeeklyNT As an avid listener golf day is super idea. Didn't apply as ive Fractured ankle. All the best for the day hope it's a blast
— Martin Scarry (@mscar2000) June 16, 2015
@GolfWeeklyNT I hope you have an amazing day. @MolloyJoe
— Apu (@apuandmao) June 15, 2015
None of it would have been possible without Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links. Moira Cassidy their director of golf told us, “It is certainly a very exciting time to be a part of the Portmarnock Hotel & Golf Links team, new owners Kennedy Wilson have invested in the course and future development is planned throughout the resort. So we are really looking forward to welcoming Newstalk and the inaugural Golf Weekly Classic to our highly ranked Bernhard Langer designed links and that every competitor will enjoy the fun and challenge that it represents. Here’s to a wonderful day on Thursday and hopefully the sun will shine.”
Thankfully the weather is set to shine. Portmarnock Links in the sunshine is a perfect place to hang out with some ‘friends of the pod’.
So that’s our little story. We’ll keep plugging away each week. You’ll find us on iTunes or the website each week. It’s done for all the right reasons. Keep an ear out for our Classic Special.
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