Brud Slattery was the larger-than-life manager at Lahinch for decades having been one of that club's greatest players. He played for Ireland as he forged a fine career in the amateur championships. He lost by one hole to John Burke in the South of Ireland final of 1943 but came back two years later to beat his arch rival by 6&5 in the final. He reached the final again in 1949 and 1955.

It was in 1954 that he quit his profession as a school teacher to become manager at Lahinch and he became an intrinsic part of the place in his 30-year reign. He was like Solomon in all matters and it was he who 'invented' the famous goats of Lahinch.

That came about when he became frustrated with the continued malfunctioning of the club barometer and he stuck a note on the offending machine which read: 'See Goats'.

So it came to pass that when people saw the goats sheltering in the clubhouse porch they would know that those sunny skies would soon turn to rain. On the other hand, if the goats were out on their favourite patch, the day was sure to be good for a game.

The Slattery family provide an interesting bridge from Lahinch to Portmarnock as Brud's son, Padraig, was to become captain of the Dublin club in due course and thus highlight the cordial relations which have always existed between the "old school" of fine Irish clubs whose members mingled regularly when the golf community was quite small and intimate.

County Sligo is another of those old clubs which provides a fine example of a great manager. Rex Buck who was in charge at Rosses Point for years before being persuaded to go to Portmarnock in 1965 when Lt Col JD Holmes became one of the last militarymen to hold high office in Irish golf clubs.

Buck was an astoundingly kind man with an ability to apply the lashes tenderly but effectively when the need arose in the interest of law and order. His kindness is recalled by this writer from many occasions, but most of all from the afternoon when he and Willie Gill, the club's honourary secretary who was a childhood hero of mine, joined me on a knoll beside the 18th green and suggested that I might like to join Portmarnock.

Always the intellectual, I declined the invitation with thanks and went on to spend 40 years wondering if I was mad!

Across town at Elm Park, the undisputed queen of Irish golf administration reigned in the person of the late Mary O'Brien. For over two decades she guided this superb club with a firm hand which only the most surefooted would question. Like all the best managers of the time, she had a great rapport with the golfing press and Elm Park proved a wonderfully welcoming haven for the twin terrors of Dublin golf journalism of the 1960s, Arthur Legge and Bill Madden, who didn't always see eye-to-eye. Mary managed to golf and feed the two writers on alternate dates for years thus displaying diplomatic skills way beyond the ordinary.

Thus is the character of a great golf club manager:

gregarious, garrulous, tough, tender, welcoming, intimidating, communicative, pensive and, of course, ever patient.