Irish Open at Ballyliffin

Another achievement that I’m proud of

Ballyliffin golf club were holding an Irish Open for the Professional golfers. It is a big event on the European tour. Some of the leading European players played in this event including Rory McIlroy. This event was getting showing on Sky Sports to highlight the event. It is a Rolex event so the players were playing for big money that week. The tournament was held in one of our Summer months. In the first week of July nicely in the middle of an Irish Summer. Ballyliffin is located outside of Donegal nearly the northtist point of Ireland. Fighting Blindness are an organisation that help encourage visually impaired people with their services. Their CEO Kevin Whelan and Gary Keating were invited to do an interview on the 7th hole in Ballyliffin golf club. FightIng Blindness wanted to do something around blind golf. they got in touch with Irish Blind Golf inviting some of our golfers to go up and do a piece around blind golf. it would be on the day of a Pro Am which would be on one day before participants started tournament play. The piece will be recorded and showing on BBC Northern Ireland that evening. I wasn’t originally supposed to go put some of the people weren’t available to go. I was given the opportunity to go. I accepted the decision and delighted about going up. We went up on the day before and played a round at a golf course. The course was not far from where we stayed. We stayed overnight and travelled to Ballyliffin the next morning. We got a tour around some of the corporate facilities. It was a blindfold challenge. With me and some of the celebrities which included former Snooker player Dennis Taylor & former Irish goalkeeper Shay Given. This challenge was that they had a blindfold on and they would be going up against me. So would give the celebrities how someone with sightloss plays golf. There was a target about 120 yards away from a range mat. Whoever hit the target would win. It was great craic with the blindfolds on the celebrities. We done an interview which was shown on BBC Northern Ireland. The interview was about highlighting how blind golf works. We also got to promote Irish Blind Golf letting more people know how to find us on social media. I got the opportunity to watch some professionals hit some balls. I got some tips in how they go about their practice routine. It was also a great opportunity to get some pictures with some of the professionals that were playing in the Irish Open. We got the opportunity to watch some of the Irish Open. It was the first round of the Irish Open which was on next day after Pro Am. It was brillant to watch the professionals live. The few days were a great success for Irish Blind Golf. It put Irish Blind Golf on the map which was great.