Resolve leads McGrane to rainbow's end

Damien McGrane doesn't believe he is blessed with great talent, writes
Dermot Gilleece, but he always believed he was good enough

Even at the mature golfing age of 37, Damien McGrane is too young to
remember an Elvis Presley movie called Follow That Dream from 1962.
But in far-off Shanghai, its sentiments held a profound meaning for
the acknowledged journeyman's hero as he came to terms last week with
his new-found status as a winner on the European Tour.

The player who applied common sense to competitive survival made the
breakthrough in the Volvo China Open in Beijing last Sunday. He
thought he might go home to celebrate with friends and family around
Co Meath, but decided to stay on.

Part of the problem was feeling awkward in the company of
well-wishers, though by the time I reached him, he was glad he stayed.
"I'm getting the niceties out of the way," he said with typical
pragmatism. "Then, by the time I arrive in Adare Manor next month,
things will have settled down and I'll be left alone to punch in a
solid Irish Open." And you knew he meant it.

This is the player who, in a conversation we had less than 18 months
ago, insisted he was not especially talented. Taking Tiger Woods as a
10, he said: "I would be about two and a half or three, Paul McGinley
would be a six and I'd class Pádraig (Harrington) as a six and a half
or seven. They have the world of ability, which I don't have."

Interestingly, both compatriots have been serious fans of McGrane's
and were among the first to phone their congratulations last week.
"All the Irish lads gave me a call," he said. "And all my colleagues
on the European Tour have congratulated me, telling me it was well
overdue. Which I found fantastic, to be honest. To be telling this guy
from Kells, a club pro for eight years who came up the other way, that
my win was overdue, has meant a lot to me over the last few days."

There were other calls. And one could sense the emotion in McGrane's
voice as he talked of Wexford GC, where he became club professional in
1997. "I got hundreds of messages from Wexford and each one was
special because they were all from friends of mine," he said. "I know
these people as well as I'd know my next-door neighbours.

"Even though I'm gone from Wexford four or five years now, they were
texting me every day. And I found it difficult to deal with their
intensity, because it made me feel I had to win for them. So, getting
over the line and being presented with the trophy brought a mixture of
happiness and relief.

"My support has always been incredible because I came from the very
bottom. I started as an ordinary man in an ordinary place and I was
blessed to have people who backed me and trusted me for years and
years. They believed that one day I would get the job done. Now I can
say that I haven't let them down."

Then he talked of home. "Though I practise at Knightsbrook in Trim,
where I'm attached, Kells is my home town and my family are members of
the golf club there. Headfort's members know me from when I was a
child, starting out to play golf. They knew my ambitions as they
watched me develop as a player and now I hope they'll be able to take
some kind of pride in what I've achieved."

A favourite saying from a player noted for his home-spun philosophy
is: "Golf is sometimes like a bag of Bertie Bassetts. You don't know
which one is coming out next." Bertie would be proud of McGrane's
breakthrough, which surprised the player for its remarkable ease.

"Normally it takes blood and sweat to get the first one under your
belt, but the shots I hit coming down the stretch hardly seemed
important, because of the lead I had. So I actually didn't have to do
anything special to run away with it in the end. Which was a strange
way to win a golf tournament. Normally, every shot is critical,
because one shot is generally all it takes to separate a winner from a
loser. Mind you, with my short game razor-sharp, I was able to get up
and down from everywhere and clean up any mess I created."

In an event which culminated in extreme Irish conditions of heavy rain
on a sodden course, McGrane's short-game certainly delivered a
handsome dividend. Though he hit only 50pc of greens in regulation
over the four days, he putted superbly. A measure of how well he got
up and down is that he was the tournament's best putter with an
average of only 24 per round and was ranked second (1.66) in putts per
green hit in regulation.

Meanwhile, a success of this nature for a player who has come through
the amateur system, has a particular impact on those he has met along
the way. Like Harrington, who was tied fourth, three strokes behind,
when McGrane captured the Irish Boys' title at Birr GC in August 1988.
And two years later, there was Mark Gannon's experience in the Irish
Close at Baltray, where he beat McGrane at the 19th in the third
round, only to lose by 2 and 1 to Harrington in the semi-finals.

"Damien was only a kid back then and in honesty, there was nothing
very special about him," reflected Gannon, who is now a Royal and
Ancient selector. "His success should be a lesson to today's young
players that you don't have to do extraordinary things on the way to a
successful career. Instead of making radical changes to his game,
Damien kept faith with his own talent, while concentrating on his
strengths."

As a member of the Leinster youth squad in 1991, McGrane caddied for
McGinley in the Walker Cup at Portmarnock. And last Sunday's win would
have come as no surprise to the Dubliner, who said recently: "Damien
hits really controlled shots and has a lovely short game. I reckon
he's not that far away from winning."

In these days of selfishness and super-egos, talking to McGrane is
always a treat. Maybe it has to do with the struggle of repeated
visits to the qualifying school while earning his livelihood in the
professional's shop at Wexford GC. Perhaps it gave him a greater
appreciation of the good times, which have eventually arrived.

"I've never gone mad into the technical side of things," he said,
echoing Gannon's assessment. "I've just ground it out and stayed with
my own beliefs. My club pro training gave me a certain knowledge and I
always believed that what I had in my head was good enough, if I could
get it onto the golf course.

"My golf has been very, very good since Christmas, but that doesn't
bring any guarantees. For the last two and a half years, I was saying
publicly that a win was close; that I have what it takes. And at the
start of each season, I was thinking this should be the one. But an
awful lot of players should do a lot of things on the European Tour.
And, as we all know, the game doesn't owe anybody anything.

"Playing with Tiger over the weekend in Dubai obviously helped. Though
it was never really an issue for me, it still meant that having
survived alongside the best, I wouldn't feel intimidated by any
playing partner. It wasn't a big deal, but the more issues you can get
out of the way, the more it clears the path towards a breakthrough.

"At the end of the day in Beijing, I happened to score much better
than my rivals. I had a good lead with 12 holes to go and by six out,
it was getting bigger. And it was still getting bigger with three
holes to play until it became nine strokes by the end. That happens
very, very rarely and I consider myself very lucky that it happened to
me for my first tournament win."

So, where does he go from here? Ryder Cup? World top 50? Join the US
Tour? The answers to these questions were almost entirely predictable.
Though McGrane is anything but boring, he is determined to adhere to a
tried and trusted philosophy of setting only clear, attainable targets
for himself.

"Obviously if I win another tournament fairly soon, I'll be in line
for the Ryder Cup," he replied. "And I'd like to think that I'll now
develop into a serious contender for all of these things, sooner
rather than later. But while it's nice to be looking to the future as
a winner rather than a wannabe, I know that good things will happen
only if I continue to play well."

So, he will continue to follow his dream in a calm, measured way. In
McGrane's colourful words, if you get ahead of yourself in golf, the
game will slap your face, left, right and centre.

After this weekend, we won't see him again until the Irish Open (May
15-18) at Adare Manor. There, whether he likes it or not, he will be
hailed as a new Irish hero. Which will be an uncomfortable feeling for
this modest achiever.

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