 Hello, my name is Sean Quinn. Welcome to the second edition of the exciting new podcast hitting the fairways in association with creative landscaping works in letter Kenny and joined today by two stalwarts of golf in Alastair Henderson from Balibar Faye and Sonora Golf Club and Connell Keeney of Nairn and Port New Golf Club. Gentlemen, you're both very welcome and thank you for taking the time to join me today to talk all things golf. Happy to be here. Great to see you. We're back at last. What a great feeling to be back on the fairways. Courses are in fantastic condition, greens are amazing and even the weather has behaved itself sometimes in the last few weeks. Connell, have you had a chance to play since the courses reopened? Yeah, Sean was delighted. We got out last Saturday in two balls. I enjoyed it. It was lovely to get out on the course. It was, I think, September or December since we played last, so we had a nice out on last Saturday. I might even get out this evening, maybe for another run, hopefully. It's great to be back and I know everyone's delighted to get a chance to be able to have the fairways again. I nearly wanted to ask you how did you play, but that was really pretty irrelevant, wasn't it? I parted the first nine nuts and nothing about the rest of the game. If only you'd parted the 18th, that would have brought you back. There's always that one shot that brings you back. Yeah, no comment on that one. We'll go into that in more detail later on. Tell me, Amastair, what about yourself? Are you back playing? Yeah, we got back last Monday week there and I got a few games. I was out with the weekend and I was actually out yesterday again. It was beautiful out there yesterday. The course is like every other course at the minute. It's in good condition. We done a bit of work over the close down there on our fourth green and we reconstructed it and it was open yesterday for the first time. It's different from what you just remembered it before. It's not just the easy par 4 that it used to be anyway. The greens go very tricky on it. It never was an easy par 4 now. We'll go into that in a bit more detail later on. What's great also to see back was Rory McElroy over the weekend who won his first competition. It was over 500 days, I think it was. It's amazing the turnaround that you had within a couple of weeks where things weren't great and he got a new coach and his confidence had gone. His talent is always just at the end of the finger and he proved that again. That said now, the coverage of golf over the lockdown, it's been left a lot to be desired. Conor, what's your feeling on it? Yeah, I fully agree with what you showed there. I've had various issues with Sky from watching the Masters right through to even last weekend at Quail Hollow. Sky seemed to tend to now just show the leaders. Most of us would have an interest in a certain golf person, how they're getting on. They may be just off the top 10 in the leaderboard. But Sky don't tend to show them. They don't tend to show the leaderboard. I find that very annoying that you can watch four hours of golf and you have to go Google to find out who's on the leaderboard. And they may have just be outside the top 10. And this is only recently and I don't know why they do it. And then when they do manage to flash up the leaderboard, it's a quick flash. You don't get time to study. He's on the eighth hole. He's got to, you know, he's a long way back. They don't seem to give you the chance and they seem to concentrate a lot more. It's like if they're taking it from the golf channel or something and they're not putting the resource into it anymore that they used to. I thought the Masters, the coverage of the Masters was poor this year. I agree, you know, and even at the weekend watching, like I'm an avid watcher over the weekend and especially on the Sunday in the back nine. And it was bizarre because they were actually going to people on the 17th and 18th who were 7 over and weren't even in convention. And all you wanted to see was the guys that were hitting bodies or having difficulty under pressure and we didn't get that. Alistair, would you be of the same opinion? Yeah, it would be similar. All right. Yeah. I think the biggest problem is that Sky probably aren't sending their people over. And as Connell said earlier, they're taking it from the American channels. And I think maybe they just get what the Americans wants to show. Basically, you know, they wouldn't be shown. Well, especially in the Masters there, you know, you'd like to see Larry and people like that. We didn't see much of them. And now it's good to see McElroy back again. You know, his approach play was a hell of a lot better at the last week there than it was previously. It was a bit like myself actually previously. I think the stats showed he was 203rd in approach to the Greens from 140 yards. And I think he was third last week. So I think that's the big difference in it, you know. Yeah, I think he's won there a few times before. Yeah. You were lying. Is it 210th on the order of Merit and Balabuffet at the moment? Is that right? Slightly outside that. We've only got about 400 members. And I think I'm well down the pack and order at the minute. When you're down there, you can only go one way. That is for sure. And the guys don't need to look out for it. I'll tell you, I haven't much money left to be handed out to them. Sure. You don't need to blame for a few pounds either. He gets very competitive when you put a few pounds on it. Oh, that's the same with everybody. I'm in that school as well now. It's very hard to get five euros out of me. Talking of competition today, thanks to our sponsors. Our sponsors who are creative landscaping works. They'll be very kind of giving us a potty mat, which you can use in your garden. You can use them work and you can use out in the patio. Great for stopping those three pots. Simply all I want you to do today is to answer a question. Who is the reigning US Open Champion? And email your answer to hittingthefairwaysathighlandradio.com. So who is the reigning US Open Champion? And it's hitting the fairways at highlandradio.com. So as we get ready, guys, for competition golf, we said about Balabafe had done a bit of work. Tell us more about that, Alistair. What work has been going on in Balabafe? Well, there's been a lot of voluntary work going on during lockdown. There's PJ Fitzgerald there. He's our green convener and there's a gang of guys out. They've been trimming trees. They've been doing everything around the course. And there's a lot of changes made. They've taken away a lot of trees there at the back of the 18th tee box. It wasn't getting much light and now it was getting soft in places. But it's shown changes there now. I was out yesterday and vast improvement on it. But as I mentioned earlier on, they redeveloped the fourth green. And they turned it into a kidney shaped green. And there's heights and hollows and there's an elephant buried in the middle of it and one thing and another. And it's just not straightforward anymore. It wasn't an easy power for anyway. But I'll tell you, I think they'll have to revisit the stroke index just for that whole in particular anyway in the coming weeks, I would imagine. Yeah, that's actually a difficult hole because you've got to hit the ball in the fairway and then your second shot, depending on how far down the fair you are, you could be one legged, couldn't you? Because it's all downhill. I don't have many powers on my scorecards. They are now over the years. You've been a good company there, Sean. To be quite honest with you, you could be half ways down the hill and then you're on a slope and then you skin one through the back and you're in real trouble then. No, it's all good. It's all good progress, you know. Going back, you know, we're open now about 62 years and our forefathers that created the course, I think they would think it's all progress, you know. Very good. And what's the power of the course? Power 68 with just the one power five, there are seventh round the lake and we have five power threes, you know. Our power threes, I would reckon any day, if you power four or five of those, you're going to have a score in the power threes. They're not that easy. They're difficult enough, especially the one round the back of the clubhouse there. You're talking almost 200 yards and it's difficult enough anyway. They're all pretty difficult. I know all about that one. About 200 yards right beside the clubhouse and I can honestly say I've hit the wall, I've hit the trees, I've hit the bonkers and I've never hit the green to this day. I don't know if I'm hitting the wrong club but it's very challenging. I did have a chip in which got me a bogey one day and I was absolutely delighted because it was looking like a six or seven so it's a card record as a part of a party. That is for sure, yeah. I've been in all those places and I've hit them a few times, but not lately now, but yeah, you have the drain there running to the right-hand side of it and as you say, there's a wall on the left, trees short, right trees to your left and it can be a bit of a card record, especially if you're playing stroke. It can add up a bit alright. Big time, big time. What's the features, if you were to say what's the best thing to do in the Maldefaite snow? Is it the fairways bunkers or is it the magnificent greens? What is it? I think the course in general, it's fairly user-friendly. It's not over long. We're about just under 6,000 yards and it's a good test of golf. You've got to play a lot of good shots there. It takes most clubs in the bag to get you round and it's user-friendly. Over the years, we have taken away a lot of the rough that was in on the trees. Most fairways are tree-lined there and I'd say 15 years ago, if you went in there, you could have been looking for your ball for ages, a slow play down and now we've done away with all that and it's got more user-friendly and it's more enjoyable for the golfers. Of course, the golden rule now is five minutes is all you're allowed and you have to walk on and accept the penalty. It's not five minutes anymore, Sean. You're allowed longer, are you? No, it's only three. Sorry, three minutes. I stand corrected. Obviously, we're about to open for competitions. Do you run open competitions and if so, when are they on? Yeah, we have an open competition every Tuesday up until four o'clock. After four then it's for members only and I think we usually have an open competition maybe the last Sunday in each month. Basically, that would be what we have for open. We have competitions Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday for the members and then we would have other competitions then during the year, you scratch cups and stuff like that. It's a funny year this year because I haven't seen a fixture left out and what's the way the pandemic has been going. But we're getting there, you know? Yeah, it's looking like the 7th of June, I think, is when open competitions can start again. It's great to see that your club will be ready. I'm going to just test you quickly here. Do you know what the course record is? Good question. I think it's about 63 or 64. You're close? Yeah, your first guess is right. Obviously, you know what the course record is. Well, it's not because I hold it now. Do you know there's two people over the 63? Well, I'm going to say Andrew would be one of them. Yeah, and do you know the second one? Do you want to clearly know? Derek Neal. Oh, that must work. Derek has moved to Scotland about 10 years ago. Derek was a good golfer, yeah. Very good. So that's a challenge for any golfer out there this year. 63 is the course record in Valbury, Eastern Aller. We'd be delighted if somebody can beat that. Conor, moving on to an important new. Fair to say that there's been major redevelopment on the course over the last three years. A design by Gils Hans, who was involved with Pebble Beach. So tell me, what's the number? First of all, have the members been able to play during the reconstruction of the course? Yeah, I'm sure you're aware, Sean, in Yarn and Purdue came into private ownership a couple of years ago. And over the last 18 months, it's been under redesigned by Gil Hans and I think it's Jim Wagner. Gil Hans would be pretty well known in the States. I think he designed Pebble Beach. I think he designed the course in Rio where they played the Olympics. It's now gone from a par 73 to a par 70 with huge changes that, you know, those of you who wouldn't have played it, most of the holes have all been either repositioned or there's like the first hole now has been extended. The second hole, the green's been moved to the left. The third hole has disappeared. It's now a par five. And you know, there's some, to me, I always liked the course the way it was and post where as we get older, you get used to it. Some of the changes are very, very nice. Some of them, that's a matter of opinion on people's different opinion. The first hole is, to me, is a great improvement. 18th is now a spectacular par five, very, very difficult hole. We, again, as opposed to members are just getting used to it because last year we, while a lot of the redevelopment was going on with the pandemic, we were still allowed to play it and we still, a lot of the time it was nine, nine or 14 holes, you know, we had, we had to suffer a little bit and we didn't always get the 18th. But now it's back up and the fall 18 are there and all their glory. The presentation of the course now, to me, is second and on. It's absolutely spectacular. It's a good challenge and I'm sure a lot of the members in the county will be looking to come down and give their opinion on it. I don't know if Alastair Neon has had the chance to play it. Like, from our point of view, we miss travelling to other clubs very much. I always like playing volleyball. We usually play there four, five, six times a year. Different classics and different society items that we have ourselves. And I'm from Glentis and we have quite a big society. We tend to play ball of faith every year and we always, we always enjoy it. We're looking forward to what people think of the changes in Portnour. To me, somehow being favourite of some, I would have, the jury would be out on, you know. Yeah, I have to say they can't, it's a number of years since I played and definitely three or four times I've been down and I was never lucky to see the sunshine down there. Recall playing a par five, wind into the face and I definitely hit it seven times, six of which were good shots. I got to the green and I walked, I think I walked off with a good puck for a nine and at my stairs they only hit one bad shot during that. So I can't wait to, as you say, it'll be good to see what other people have to say. It's open, the cover has probably helped because from a development point of view, it's been set from once the growth has been good for us. Quickly, have you a favourite haul-out of the new layout? What would it be? Probably the 18th snow. I know we lost but I thought it was a good old, it was the old 17th, but the 18th snow is a dog leg par five and believe you me, you'll have three very good shots to get to the green. For me, my handicap of six is always a good score on it and any day I get a six you're happy enough to walk away. Is that school six or play-in-off six? No, I'm sorry some Natalister there. Once upon a time... If I score a six, I'm very, very happy. Tell me just on the club competitions, obviously they'll be coming back into play, if not this week over the next couple of weeks. When open competitions are we open? Is Portland open for business? Very similar to what Alistair just said there, Sean. We have an open day every Wednesday and again Saturdays and Sundays. Most competitions are open. The only closed competitions that we do have are obviously our captains and our presence. All competitions are open. Again with the pandemic and everything, the committee is only getting together now and things are only getting organised to get them back up. I'm actually not sure of the actual date but I believe it's a minute, the date when they start up again. I think the direction we're being given from Golf Ireland is around the 7th of June for open competitions. We're gaging up for that. Just a last question on the course. I believe there's a famous golfer who actually has the course record. The old course record as far as I'm aware, I could start to be corrected here, as far as I know it's Cristio Connor Sr. I think over the last round on the par 73, I think it's Simon Thornton that holds that course record or Damien Mooney, I'm not 100% sure, but it's one or other. I should have checked this out before, but I forgot. I know Christy held the old course record on the original course because he used to hold pro-hands back there back in the late 60s and 70s and he was a frequent visitor and I think David Ferdi was another one. I know that David Ferdi has written a book and he has a chapter on Yarn and Portnou because that's going back to the time and I'm sure some of the older members will remember when we used to have the electric fences around the greens and we used to play through the cattle and the sheep and he puts quite a comical comment in his book about catching one of the fences. You wouldn't get away with that today now calling it on fairness. I have to say just on course records I saw a card yesterday it was sent to me from a young guy, Darcy Hogg who I think he's playing off scratch and would you believe he was he played the front nine in his home course in nine under par which was just phenomenal and no hole in ones, it was birdies, it was eagles I think he had two eagles and he finished the round, I think he finished at 65 which was about six or seven over and he had bogies in the last two holes so phenomenal talent just absolutely incredible so on that front there Alistair tell us about Alistair the golfer and how often do you play and have you ever shot seven under? I did one night but I think I might have been dreaming that night unfortunately I would try to get out twice a week times I would get out three times times I would get out once but twice a week you need to get out at least twice to keep your game in reasonably good shape you know as far as I'd be concerned if you're not out your short game would go downhill very very quickly you know and what are you playing off at the moment then? I'm playing 18 at the moment this new handicap they developed a new handicap for us and it's 20 and then you're playing 19 but then when you're playing golf you're playing 18 it's sort of confusing this new handicap you seem to have a handicap index and then you have a playing handicap and then you have a course handicap you know it will work itself out but at the moment it's a wee bit confusing for us older guys I don't know how you get on with Connell but it really confuses me I'm not playing you for buddy anyway the only good thing about it is the way it will work is you'll go to now an important new one you'll probably be playing off 22 and if you come down to Dunfani you'll be off 10 you'll actually be off probably 16 or 17 what's the best part of your game then? what's the strongest part of your game Alistair? the strongest part of my game I think it's possibly the 19th I'd be very good at times at the 19th but out on the golf course as self handy enough out of the bunkers you know but the rest of the game is not in great shape it takes me too many getting into the bunkers at the minute but I can usually get out of them okay then you know but I would say my bunker play would bunker and puttin wouldn't be too bad I would love to actually bring that last but into my game the puttin that would be my Achilles heel and do you get to play more the courses do you travel? oh yeah I get a good bit of golf now during the summertime I've played Port Nou there last year the redeveloped course and yeah it's nice there are a few of the holes very long for us older guys and as Connell was saying no the jury probably would be out in a few of the holes but they've shortened the 14th and 15th used to be the two long par 5's going up and then they've put a par 3 in between that's in there isn't it Connell that's correct and as Connell was saying that 18th seems to be a long long way down there I would say it's the most of 600 yards I'm not exactly sure what length it is I remember I had a lot of shots trying to get him on it the last day it was down but Rory McElroy that will be a drive and probably an 8 iron yeah just the last one and I'm doing this for a reason hopefully your 4 balls will be tuning in to the podcast who's the most competitive player you play with? are you talking to me? yeah well this is a fella that I played I haven't played so much with him lately but he's a guy I used to play with a guy called Andy Parkinson and Andy would be ultra competitive you know a Euro would be a Euro Andy but see once you get him off of course a grandfellow again but see when he goes on the course the red must seems to come down and yeah he can be very ultra competitive you know a great guy at the same time great to have him what about yourself Connell have you a major competitor in your 4 ball? well yeah well I don't know about my 4 ball they're sort of hackers like me I don't want to be giving blowing any of them up but there is one guy in our club and actually I'm glad to get this opportunity to mention him actually from Balbuffet he's Harry Reid and Harry would be a very very very competitive the most competitive little guy I've ever come across unfortunately Harry has been going through some treatment over the past while doing very well and we're looking so forward to seeing Harry back on the like sitting yard in Portnay so if he's listening Harry we're looking and I'm sure you're the same Alastair we're all looking forward to seeing him back on the legs yeah it was Harry all the best Harry's brother was our captain quite a few years ago John and yeah Harry was always competitive he always looked after the senior guys down there hopefully we'll see him back on the fairway soon and a very good golfer as well oh yeah I lied to that as well it'd be great to get him back out there Connell what's the favourite club in the bag then what's the one that saves you um probably the wedge yeah how many wedges do you have? I actually have three okay I use three different lofts but look I used to be better than I am as you get older things get stiffer and we don't have it as far and we I'm a bit like Alastair I'm very very good at 19th as well you know we do very very well in there yeah we can't wait for that to open as well because that's an integral part of golf it's about the bragging rights when you get back in the clubhouse of the good shots you don't remember the bad shots but it's all about the good shots talk about those type of shots on a links course for the guys that are going to come to now an important new is there a shot a special shot that you need to use more on a links course as you would in a parkland? yeah well I would see that a lot I would play a lot of parkland we would use a lot of bump and run you know around the greens but you'll not do that on the parkland you know it's good and it catches it out every time we're there you need to throw the ball into the green and important if you know the lie of the land and you know that the bumps and hollows and where to throw it it's a big advantage to you know maybe not so much now then the fact that a lot of the holes are new and we're all getting used to them but in the old course when you play it regularly you can and you are not to go and where to yeah so I think that the bump and run is the one on the links yeah I'd agree with that and it doesn't work on parkland because I've seen some of our guys move into parkland and still try to play the 7 iron and it just they go into Alister's place which is the bunker what's your final question for you Connell what's your biggest achievement in golf I find that a hard one you know I've been playing for forty odd years I love the game we tend to go off far and where we used to before the pandemic as being Portugal gangs of us and play golf and have the banter you know I don't think there's any one achievement that could put my finger on it I just love the game love the camaraderie, love going to other clubs and meeting other people and I think in Donegal what I would miss most at the moment would be the interclub competitions you know even the seniors or the minor league or should it be the Pierce Parcell all those competitions it was great to get to meet guys you get to play with other people and that's the great thing about golf and you get the banter going and you get to know and that's how I've met Alastair and all those people down through the years through interclub competitions we've had some great battles afterwards maybe sit at the bar have a few bites discuss and have the crack we all miss that I think that's one of the biggest things we all miss the good news is actually it's coming back I was looking at the draws this week looking good for starting mid-June towards the end of June so I'm with you I love the interclub competition I love going away to different clubs you've got an unfair advantage being the home club because as you said Connell it's that links course where you don't know where to land a ball but that's the challenge as golfers we love that we just embrace that tell me this over the years you must have a funny story for me oh well I think the one that that reminds probably reminds us most would be one day we had the it was the Ulster Cup and it was in Grace Hall I think up in Northern Ireland and our captain, good friend of mine had a team went up on the Friday or Saturday to do a practice round and play the competition obviously it's a single match play during the course of the day something happened and one of the guys had to go home and he was a player down and he couldn't actually get another player to play he was ringing around guys of commitments made and that so he ended up having to settle on a 17 handicapper 17 handicapper had to drive up in the middle of the night was given a very nice team introduction in the fact that the confidence vote was very high he was told that he would be put out first because they've been putting out their best player first and he was going to lose anyway turns out the individual concern went out first I think he was three down after three but he actually won his match on the 18th and the ironic thing about it was everyone else could beat that's amazing now the man that listened to this will know who this is about and I'm not going to say anymore would that be your biggest achievement in golf by any chance? no comment that's a great another great story because as you well know it's playing against somebody who is 7, 8, 10 shots better than you it's tough, it's really tough although they all think it's the reverse because they're giving you shots but in fact the pressure really is on the higher handicapper so if it was you or whoever it was well done, fantastic story have you a funny one for me? yeah well going back to my greatest achievement in golf it would be a team thing that happened all the way back in 96 I was the team captain for Balbalfe in the Perster Shell and we had a good run we got all the way through to the modern finals and the finals were played actually in Port Stewart that year and we played a team from Kenturk in the semifinal and it wasn't looking good we were down in four matches with about three holes to play and the captain of Kenturk he was on this mobile phone I don't know where he got a mobile phone from but it was the size of a brick so it was and they were phoning away and eventually he said to them look to see if we're through here now we're three up with 40 playing there's no way we're going to lose this unfortunately for him our guys stormed back but an hour later we had a phone back and tell them you better cancel that bus we didn't make the finals unfortunately we got to the final and I could be corrected but I think it's the first male team in Donegal to get to an all-out final but unfortunately we played a team called St Anne's from Dublin and they were far too strong for us so they gave us a bit of a beating the next day what else you were asking me something else then oh a funny story yeah we normally go out to Farada there in November for a bit of golf there's a group of us goes out most years every year basically we didn't get out last year with the pandemic but one of the years about six or seven years ago we were travelling out and when we got to our villa unfortunately there was no key left for us the key was supposed to be in the security box outside and when we got there there were no keys so we decided we would put all our gear in around the back of the villa there's a cage in round there that you have fits and we were all taking our stuff in and all of a sudden one of our guys there was the first time there had a golf bag over his shoulder and there was a luggage bag with him next thing we didn't tell him there was a swimming pool inside the cage and Charlie ended up upside down in the swimming pool with his golf clubs bag and everything else it was a bit of a mess for Charlie but we got him fished out again anyway and eventually we would have a race to the airport it's our version of the race to Dubai you know and Charlie ended up winning the race to the airport he got a fist full of dollars and he was happy enough at the end of his phone came back to life I think about three weeks later and then last year the year before we weren't out last year Charlie got revenge on all of us for it a whole one I think it was on the 12th hole in a place called Highland Reserve so there was a lot of celebrating going on we relieved him a few of those dollars that day that's all about golf is about it's competitive but it has to be that humorous part too I have a great guy that I played with over in Scotland and I must share the story that he was a bit of a messer and we always played on a Sunday morning first thing so he told us on the Saturday we were playing or the week before he had a wedding on and we said there's no chance you'll be here I said I wouldn't let you down I'll make it so we go to the next Sunday and I think it was a quarter to eight we were taking off and no sign of chocolate all he's not there and we said we knew it I told you it was not going to happen he wouldn't show up next thing he runs up towards the teabox and shoes half on and you could see he's had a late night and he said guys told you I'd be here so he goes to stand up in the teabox he puts the teapag down and to this day I swear he didn't put a golf ball on the teabox and he hit the ball or he hit the teapag and he said that's perfect that's up the middle on the left hand side of the fairway and I looked at one of the boys and he says he didn't hit a ball there and the other guy says and I didn't see it we asked the third guy he says well it sounded alright he said I can't say that I saw a ball or not but he said it sounded okay so we were confused and we didn't say the job there's no way you hit a ball we didn't see a golf ball and he said lads I'm telling you up on the left hand side of the fairway it's about 70 yards off the green so he said right okay well let's go up and see and prove it to us lo and behold about 75 yards on the left hand side well sitting there exactly where he said he put it and we looked at each other and we said well he didn't hit a ball so we had to accept it and he chipped and he putted and I think he got a four and walked off and his game went downhill thereafter but it wasn't until about it could have been about three or four weeks we were out and we were in a taxi and the taxi driver who obviously knew us he said how's jock getting on jock's great I will play him golf with him tomorrow he's some boy he says I've never in my life seen somebody come home from a wedding and asked me to take him to the golf club at three or four o'clock in the morning and what he did he actually got dropped off at the golf club and he walked up the fairway and he placed the ball on the fairway or the left 75 yards on the left hand side and then walked home and the whole idea was to prove that number one he would make it but was to wind us up totally and we never knew and we actually accepted the par four on the day that's the type of him and it was just amazing and it wasn't and of course when we got the story we got our own back because what we did is we pretended when he hit a great track we didn't see that we couldn't find that but a great character he always had something up his sleeve to keep you on your toes so and I suppose in what golf was all about is yes we want to be winners but it's the camaraderie it's how we enjoy it and the mix and the 19th as you mentioned guys as well just want to test your knowledge of golf now so you got to listen carefully if I hit my first shot into the rough okay the ball is embedded I take a drop and I hit my next shot into the drain I'm having a bad day so far I take another drop and I hit a lovely shot which lands in the bunker a nice chip to 10 feet and two pot how many shots did I take seven eight seven eight oh I wish I had a third person here you're actually Alistair's correct he's actually seven I think Conor what you may have done is you may have the embedded ball you may have counted a penalty shot for that yes now that's gone that's gone no longer part of the rule so that is 100% correct we mentioned earlier about the world handicap system and the challenges that it will provide going forward and I suppose the timing has been difficult because of the lockdown on the courses Alistair do you think it's a fair system that has been brought in was that the handicap system you're talking about yeah the new so the new world handicap system I think it will take a while to get everybody up to speed on it but it can only be a good thing for golf for you know every place you go now every course like if we go down to Port Nour Port Sound or Duncanahe our golf or slope rating is 105 or whatever and every course you go to will have a different slope rating and your handicap will be adjusted accordingly and I think it can only be a good thing there if you go to the lake we go out to America there and they could have maybe five different tee boxes you know and you just pick your one and it will be a good job have tees and problems of course but I think once we get going it will be a good job yeah I tend to agree it's going to take a bit of time to embed in Connell would that be the same opinion down in Port Nour as well absolutely yeah I'd agree with that I like some of the changes now that they made things like you can ground your club and a hazard and stuff like that some of the rules were a little bit you know I don't know what the word is for it but now golf should be enjoyable I don't think anybody goes out there to flout the rules some of the rules that they had were a little bit ridiculous and now that they're making these changes I think it's a good thing the club system yeah I agree I think it will take some time to embed in and for people to get used to it I'm still not used to it myself the old way was for me it was easier but you know then again maybe the slope rating thing I think is a good idea yeah I think it will encourage people to play other courses as well because they'll want to go and see with the extra shots doesn't make them a better player Alistair I just want to come to you on something that you're heavily involved with it's a charity event with the friends of letter Kenny hospital tell me a little bit about that yeah my daughter got me involved with that about 8 or 9 years ago I think maybe 2013 was her first year and it has grown every year since that first few years we weren't too sure what we were doing we were only testing the water and stuff like that and over the last number of years there now we've been raising in the region of 15 or 16,000 each year we're hoping to get a breakthrough the 100,000 barrier this year the friends of letter Kenny they have a great committee and all her gang look I'm not going to mention them all but they all know who they are and they do sterling work in there getting this off the ground what I do I try to fill up the time sheet and I'll do it from our side here and they go out and they get the sponsorship and stuff like that I was talking to Cynthia there just last week and our main sponsors is Crumlish appliance and they're on board this year again we're hoping to run the event well all things as long as things stays the way they are we have it penciled in for the 26th Friday the 26th of June and you know Connie and all those guys they usually give me good support and all the coins down there and all those guys and there'll be plenty of times in the time sheet we'll be going from 8 o'clock in the morning to 6 o'clock in the evening everybody wishes to get their name down I'll have the time sheet in operation possibly the beginning of June so you know our number good stuff look forward to it yeah they can just get in touch with Alistair at the golf club can they yeah yeah 9131093 and on my personal phone and I'll give it out because everybody will be phoning me I'll be charging me but I've said why don't you give me about any time I'll give you just on the time sheet that's a great cause and I actually look forward to playing it myself gentlemen we've run out of time it's been great Alistair Henderson and Connell Kinney thank you very much for taking the time today to come on and talk all things golf it's been great hearing about your stories about your clubs about the opportunities going forward and everything that is to do with golf I want to also thank today's sponsors Creative Landscaping Works who helped create golf courses on your own back garden check them out on creativelandscapingworks.com today just to remind people that there is a competition who is the reigning US Open champion and you can email into hittingthefairways at highlandradio.com it's a great prize we'll give you a button mass which is as I said earlier you can go to the office in the garage and it will help you to stop those three putts to all the listeners good luck in the coming weeks as we hit the competitions on the golf course and remember from me Sean Quinn keep the ball on the fairway