Living legend Mary McKenna is having a new lease of life on the fairways, 31 years after making her Curtis Cup debut.

The 52 year old recently added the British and Irish Senior Open titles to her many titles after a six-year lay-off and admitted: I missed it so badly.

McKenna will always be remembered for her eight Irish Ladies Close titles and nine consecutive appearances in the Curtis Cup.

But despite the passing of the years, the Donabate star has never lost the will to win. And to prove it she'll be back in a green sweater at Woodbrook next Saturday and Sunday (21-22 Oct.) when Ireland take on England in a senior international match.

Said McKenna: "I love being competitive again and to win a British Senior Open is a wonderful feeling. I'll play in the Irish championships again next season and stay as active as possible."

Last month McKenna knocked in a 10-foot putt on the 18th green at Aberdovey in Wales to win the Senior Women's British Open Amateur Championship at her first attempt. Her win came just a week after her victory in the Irish edition and proved that Irish golf has a fantastic asset in one of the most steely competitors the game has ever seen.

Recently retired from her job at the Bank of Ireland, where she worked organised internal bank sports for many years, McKenna is set to continue to work for the good of the women's game in Ireland.

"I think we have a wonderful crop of young players coming through and it's only a matter of time and self-belief before we win the Home Internationals again.

"We haven't got a very wide base here but young players like Alison Coffey, Elaine Dowdall and Claire Coughlan are really pushing us on and I think we can compete with the likes of England. But we've got to work hard and the problem is getting girls interested in taking up the game.

"We've got to get more of the younger kids, get them at a younger level and get them involved in the training schemes, such as the one the ILGU ran at Black Bush for school children earlier this year.

"Only this way an we hope to discover the talent and bring people on so that they continue to play the game."

McKenna got her first experience of international competition as far back as 1968, when the Curtis Cup was played at Royal County Down and she travelled north to support her Donabate clubmate, Vivienne Singleton.

"Despite having been runner-up in the Irish Championship earlier that year, I didn't really know many people in golf at that time. And I certainly knew nothing about the American players."

That all began to change, however, when McKenna won the Irish championship at Ballybunion in 1969.

"I made the Vagliano Trophy team in 1970 when twelve were on the side and only eight were chosen for the Curtis Cup. So then I went to Sunningdale Old Course for the Curtis Cup trials. That was a huge thing for me at that stage of my career. There was a total of 15 of us there, playing three rounds of three-balls in round robin competition."

McKenna claimed her place with ease and played in the first of her nine Curtis Cup matches at Brae Burn later that year.

It wasn't until her last Curtis Cup appearance, at Prairie Dunes in 1986, that McKenna would finally taste victory and make history by winning the Curtis Cup for the first time on American soil ­ 13 matches to 5.

Although Great Britain and Ireland retained the trophy in 1994 when they claimed a 9-9 half at the Honors Course, that 1986 win still stands as one of the greatest achievements of European golf. For McKenna though, there is one moment that stands out above all others.

She once said: "I experienced the altitude of Denver, thunder and lightning storms in Apawamis, New York, and the morning fog in San Francisco. But the realisation of one of my greatest ambitions was to see the Republic of Ireland's first staging of the Curtis Cup at Killarney in 1996."

McKenna's presence helped spur the side to victory and with her will to win and fierce competitive spirit, this golfing legend is not ready to fade away just yet. She added with a grin: "I'll play in the Irish Close again next year. If the putts start to drop, who knows what might happen."

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Fans are already snapping up tickets to see Tiger Woods, David Duval Ernie Els and Co. at Mount Juliet next September.

The giants of world golf will gather at the Kilkenny course from 17-22 September for the $5 American Express Championship ­ part of the four-event World Golf Championships series.

Ireland will have three men in the field, with Mount Juliet touring pro Padraig Harrington flying the flag alongside Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke.

Said Harrington: ""It shows just how highly rated this country is within the world of golf that both the Ryder Cup and the World Golf Championships - American Express Championship will be held in Ireland within the next five years. Knowing just how sports mad we Irish are there is little doubt that the event will be a huge success."

Tickets can be booked through Ticketmaster at (01) 2469900 or from www.ticketmaster.ie and there is a hospitality sales hotline number, (01) 6762728.

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Ireland is set to invade South America this winter, without stars Michael Hoey or Stephen Browne.

South of Ireland champion Justin Kehoe and Ballyclare's Johnny Foster wear the green jersey in the Juan Carlos Tahilade Cup in Los Lagartos Country Club, near Buenos Aires from 13-16 December.

With British Amateur champion Hoey set to turn professional after the Masters and European Amateur champion Stephen Browne now a member of the paid ranks, Kehoe and Foster received the call.

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Irish Close champion Gavin McNeill and Walker Cup player Graeme McDowell represent Ireland in the Simon Bolivar Cup in Caracas, Venezuela, from 7-10 November.

Meanwhile, Fred Daly Trophy winners Holywood will compete in a four-nation final with England, Scotland and Wales at La Manga from 14 November to 1 December while Senior Cup winners Mallow will compete with defending champions Shandon Park in the European Club championship in Medici, Italy, next month.

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Irish Youths champion Mark Ryan (Grange) and runner-up Mark O'Sullivan (UCD and Galway), will compete in the European Under-21 Championship at Turnberry from 25-26 October.

Ginger­haired Ryan has been one of the up and coming stars of the amateur scene for a couple of years now while O'Sullivan recently led UCD to their first National pennant when the students took the Barton Shield at Newlands.

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© Brian Keogh 2001

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