Douglas golfer Peter O'Keeffe on the strong spirit in the Cork club as it hosts huge European event

THE almost 150 golfers travelling to Douglas Golf Club this week will have full use of Peter O’Keeffe’s Golf Strong facilities.

The European Senior Men’s and Ladies’ Championships tee off tomorrow morning. It is a huge week for the golf course that overlooks Cork city, with the world's elite taking part.

"John McHenry is a very modest individual but he needs to take a lot of credit for bringing new ideas to the golf club,” said O’Keeffe.

"In fairness, committees and people have gone with him on it but Douglas is the complete package. It’s very social, the restaurant and bar there is fantastic, the food is great. The practise facilities are brilliant.

"I see it in the classes there are new members coming in all the time. They are seeing, right can I join a class and I’ll have them try a class out. So they are getting that experience of everything really.

"It’s a really nice club to be part of. It’s progressive and other clubs are looking in. I’m lucky with my business side of things. Hermitage then have done the same and we have put a facility in there.

Other clubs are following suit. It’s very progressive, it’s very positive and it’s definitely heading in the right direction."

O’Keeffe is a former professional golfer who now operates on the Irish amateur circuit and he is also part of the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup squad set to take on USA at St Andrews later this year.

The 41-year-old is a Cork native and he joined Douglas Golf Club in 1997. He grew up next to Frankfield Driving Range and his love affair with the game began when he was just 10.

“I went up for a lesson with my dad. The first lesson was with Brendan McDaid years ago and then Dave Whyte took over as club pro. Michael Ryan was pro up there as well,” said O’Keeffe.

“I started getting to know the lads. I got a job on the driving range, worked in the pro shop. You would caddy for the lads on the Irish region and I loved it. I loved the club at the time and transferred over to Douglas in 1997 and progressed into the Golfing Union of Ireland, as it was at the time.

“I played on the boys’ panel, the teams and things like that. The Irish youths’ teams as they were back then, the U21s. And then I got a scholarship to the University of South Eastern Louisiana and did a degree there in Exercise Science.

“I didn’t really have a plan around that field I just went for the golf side of it. Came back in summer, narrowly missed out on the Irish team for home internationals.

“I said I would go to European Tour School just to see what it would be like. Got all the way to the final stages, got me a Challenge Tour card. I played Challenge Tour then for six seasons up to 2013." 

GOLF STRONG

O’Keeffe found it difficult to maintain his new profession and with business ideas floating around in his head he chose to go back playing as an amateur.

And having come from state-of-the-art facilities in USA and the professional ranks all around Europe, he was interested to put his studies to work – O’Keeffe Golf Performance was launched as a result.

“I grew that into Golf Strong. I started doing fitness classes in golf clubs in the Cork area; Monkstown, Muskerry, Cork Golf Club and Douglas, my own club, were great supporters.

“One class grew into two and three a night. 

I just saw that golfers loved coming to their golf club, of all ages. Just to improve their fitness and their movement for golf etc. And I suppose that’s kind of progressed it onto where it is now." 

Golf Strong is growing steadily, they launched a new app earlier this year and that has caught on with people all over the world downloading the latest version. The website is here.