Golf is great at bringing strangers – and often strange things – together. It is through the game that we might develop an appreciation for certain charities, companies, countries or customs by being introduced to new people and places and traditions.
It was through golf that I gained a fascination with sporting events that were otherwise entirely foreign to me. Covering the Open in 2015 piqued my interest in The Ashes biennial cricket series between England and Australia. Traveling to Australia to interview Adam Scott in 2013 drew my now annual attention to the Melbourne Cup, the thoroughbred horse “race that stops the nation.” Going to Argentina in 2009 to interview Angel Cabrera acquainted me with the Palermo polo final featuring, for the first time in history, two full 40-goal handicap teams.
A chance encounter while visiting Ireland for the first time in 2006 ahead of the Ryder Cup introduced me to the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship – the Super Bowl of Gaelic football – and, in particular, County Mayo’s heartbreaking quest to win it again.
That day started at dawn in Waterville (County Kerry) before driving and ferrying a few hours to Lahinch (County Clare) for 18 holes, visiting the Cliffs of Moher and then driving four more hours across the middle of Ireland to Dublin. It was nearly midnight when we reached our media hotel for the next week’s Ryder Cup and we were ready to crash out with another early wake-up call for golf already looming.
The passion for local heroes and a championship that goes back to 1887 makes SEC football fandom seem demure.
What we found in the lobby could only be described as raucous. Every inch of the hotel from the entrance to the front desk to the bar and restaurant was teeming with revelers singing and drinking and seemingly having the time of their lives celebrating something.
“What’s all this?” we asked when we finally got to the check-in counter.
“County Mayo,” we were told. “They lost another one today.”
They lost? Could have fooled us. County Mayo had lost the All-Ireland championship that day to County Kerry. This didn’t mean anything to three Americans who didn’t know the first thing about Gaelic football, but it was apparently akin to the pre-2016 Chicago Cubs losing a World Series to the New York Yankees – only much more meaningful.
We came to find out how meaningful the next day – the party was still going on when we set out at daylight – after a cold, wet and wind-bracing round at the European Club. Over the single greatest and most welcoming Irish stew ever offered, our host Pat Ruddy – then owner and architect of the European Club and a County Mayo man – explained what all the fuss was about.
Ruddy said that County Mayo was suffering from a curse since last winning the All-Ireland title in 1951. The legend goes that the celebrating squad reportedly drove through a local funeral procession in the County Mayo town of Foxford, where a priest, angered by the impertinent disruption, supposedly declared that Mayo would never win another All-Ireland final as long as any member of the 1951 team lived.
It seemed a harsh hex placed up a squad of strictly amateur players representing their home county. Gaelic football – which looks like a game guys conceived in a pub combining elements of soccer, rugby, football, basketball, handball and volleyball – is hard enough for Yanks to understand. The passion for local heroes and a championship that goes back to 1887 makes SEC football fandom seem demure.
Curse or not, it took Mayo 38 years just to get back to the final in 1989. That 2006 Mayo loss was the fifth in 11 championship appearances at Croke Park from 1989-2021.
Mick Loftus – the final surviving member of the 1951 team – died in 2023. County Mayo reached its first final last week since his passing. Of course, County Kerry and its record 39 Sam Maguire Cups was on the other side of the pitch at Croke Park.
After 75 years of suffering, however, Mayo triumphed again at last. On Reek Sunday no less, a day when thousands of faithful make the pilgrimage up the 2,500-foot Croagh Patrick in County Mayo to honor St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland who, according to legend, spent 40 days on the summit fasting and praying before driving snakes and demons out of Ireland into the lake at the north base of the mountain.
With County Mayo finally exorcising its sporting demon, the color commentary needs to be heard to fully comprehend the magnitude of the moment. Makes “do you believe in miracles?” or “The Giants win the pennant!” seem woefully understated.
“Delirium! Delirium! It’s over! … The famine is over! The curse be damned! Hit the nuclear button! Mayo have won the All-Ireland! Sam Maguire is coming home!”
Oh, to have been in that hotel with them again last week.
Scott Michaux
Top: Mayo supporters celebrate after the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship final match.
Ben McShane, Sportsfile via Getty Images