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Gulf News headed to Lahinch Golf Club, Ireland home of the Chicks With Sticks founder
Gulf News
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2/17/2025
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00:00
Big thank you to Harry and Golf News for coming to La Hinch Golf Club today.
00:04
We're thrilled to have you. Clear my heart, my home, up the banner!
00:17
It's great! A very warm welcome to La Hinch Golf Club. We're here on the west coast of Ireland,
00:23
it's windy, we're all looking a little windswept today, but yeah, it's great to be back.
00:28
Temperatures were hitting over 40 degrees in Dubai, a little too hot for golf, so yeah,
00:34
it may not be sunny here today, but it's great temperatures for golf, so thrilled to be here.
00:39
I've been a member here since I was like 10 years old, I've been spending summer here since I was
00:44
like 5, so I often joke that it's my happy place, my favourite place in the world, so yeah,
00:50
thrilled to be here for another summer of fun and development.
00:55
The famous cliffs of Moher are like just up the road, it's a real famous tourist spot, it's called
01:01
the Wild Atlantic Way, this region in Ireland, and it's really well known for its surfing as well,
01:07
so you know, as a junior girl golfer growing up here, I kind of would have gone straight from
01:12
the golf course straight to the surfing, so my mom had me doing both, so it's great,
01:18
I was always kept busy and yeah, lots to do in La Hinch.
01:22
The La Hinch Golf Club has hosted loads of prestigious events most recently,
01:26
we had the Irish Open in 2019, John Ram was the winner, it was a week to remember,
01:32
we're all still talking about it, so inshallah we'll get the Irish Open back again someday,
01:37
that would be great, and yeah, we're also hosting the Palmer Cup next year, so yeah, we're really lucky.
01:45
There's such a strong ladies club here at La Hinch, it's so well organised,
01:50
there's so many amazing ladies, amazing players, so you know, I was so lucky to be, you know,
01:55
in that from a young age, the junior golf program was really strong here, so I played junior golf
02:01
here every summer growing up, started playing on the senior cup team here when I was a teenager,
02:07
and yeah, we've loads of amazing female role models here at the club,
02:10
and loads of great, great players, so yeah, it's great.
02:14
I've played golf all over the world, and this is just, it's just so special, I mean,
02:20
compared to courses in Dubai, it would be very different obviously, and you can see that straight
02:23
away when you look at it, but La Hinch, I think we're known for, we've a lot of blind shots,
02:28
so the famous Dale is obviously a really famous par tree, and it's a blind par tree,
02:32
so you could probably hit a perfect shot, and you could end up walking out of there at like a four
02:36
or five, because you just never really know, and then there's another few famous holes,
02:41
six and seven, where you're right by the coastline, and it's just,
02:45
just really, really beautiful. I believe Graham Martell, who's obviously an Irish
02:50
touring professional, he said that one of his favorite views in golf is the view by the sixth
02:54
hole. Even when we hosted the Irish Open in 2019, all the pros were saying how cool it is that the
03:01
golf course literally, it goes into the village, so like within five minutes, like not even,
03:05
you're literally in the village, which is really special, just the, like the atmosphere and
03:10
everything is amazing here, and everyone plays golf.
03:19
When I went to Dubai, I definitely, you know, felt there was a huge gap for me, and it was great to
03:26
go out and play with the lads and have a bit of fun, but I really, really miss that competitive,
03:32
you know, club element that I have here in La Hinch, and you know, I'm never short of,
03:36
you know, a few friends to play with every weekend and have some, like a competitive or fun
03:40
golf, and yeah, I really miss that when I moved to Dubai, and you know, I've spoken about seeing
03:47
this huge gap in the market for introducing women to golf, you know, I was so lucky that
03:53
that happened organically and naturally for me here at La Hinch, and so yeah, it was my honor
03:57
to do the same in Dubai. Jenny's a go-getter, and Jenny headed off to Dubai to work as a teacher,
04:04
sort of, you know, get a few bob, get a few bob together. Jenny ended up with chicks with sticks,
04:09
and that's very good, it's very impressive, they're slowly but surely getting into it,
04:13
but we need to see more girls out there and enjoying the sport. It is the talk of the club,
04:19
yeah, everyone's really interested, like it's something different that she's set up, and
04:24
obviously it's really successful, and it's great, and it's great to see the golf in Dubai, and
04:30
the UAE is really coming on, especially women's golf. I'm a primary school teacher, so a lot of
04:36
my friends go to Dubai, and like, often my friends would text me being like, oh, I met your friend
04:40
Jenny at chicks with sticks, which is really cool, because they're not golfers, but they are now,
04:46
but they got the opportunity to go and play.
04:50
Jenny, setting up chicks with sticks in Dubai is just another big thing, and
04:54
you know, I have even friends in America who kind of ask me, like, I haven't told them about
04:59
chicks with sticks, and they've heard of it, you know, and what she has done to just promote it
05:04
even more has been really, really good for the game. It's something that, as she mentioned,
05:10
and she's always said this, like it kind of just happened, you know what I mean, she didn't mean
05:14
to do it, it's just that she loves golf, she loves playing golf, and she loves the social side of it,
05:19
the competition, she likes every aspect of it, and just like how we do, just because the men always
05:24
play it, and they get all the big prize funds, and all the TV coverage, doesn't mean like that
05:28
there's not women playing, and I think that, you know, you see it now definitely on the pro side, that
05:33
you know, the purses are getting bigger, there's more coverage on TV, and people are
05:38
showing up to watch it, so yeah, it's definitely growing, and I think it's great for the game.
05:49
There is the World Amateur Team Championships on there next October, it's in Abu Dhabi, and I'd be
05:55
hoping to get picked on that, that's a big goal of mine for the year, so hopefully by October I'll
06:00
have been there, so that's a goal of mine, so hopefully maybe I'll get to see all you guys out there again.
06:10
I've heard great stuff about it, everybody knows the Golfing Dubai is good, you know, it gets a lot
06:13
of coverage on TV, and you see all the pros out there, I mean McIlroy, everybody out there,
06:19
especially the Europeans, and you see now even more the past few years, the Americans traveling over,
06:24
which I think is great, and you know, Dubai every year seems to just keep getting better and better,
06:29
and the Middle East in general, I mean, more coverage in social media and in the media in general.
06:35
I mean, I've just seen pictures and stuff, and they look really nice, obviously the weather,
06:39
I'd say I'd have to adjust to the hot weather, being from the west coast of Ireland, we don't
06:43
get that kind of temperatures, but you see the courses look unbelievable, so I'd love to get
06:48
the chance to go play.
06:52
Oh, I've known Colm McLaughlin for like, I'd say 40 years, Colm lived in Ennis, County Clare, where I live,
06:59
and he lived actually across the road from us, and he worked in the Shannon Duty Free, and went off
07:05
and set up the Duty Free in Dubai, and has never looked back, and we're very proud of Colm, he's
07:10
also very much instrumental in, you know, the racing for Dubai, and the Irish golf, so we're
07:18
very proud of, and he's done a lot for Ireland actually, and I'm sure Colm has done a lot for Dubai as well.
07:28
The Hinch is a very busy club, between the members and the Greenpeace, so I'm not too sure would
07:34
there be space for too many chicks and sticks around here, but for sure I'm looking at doing
07:39
some pop-up events in the autumn, you know, I do think the market is there, all my friends want me
07:45
to bring it here, and the merch is rocking at the minute, so yeah, I definitely think
07:51
there's scope for development here for sure. You know, everyone always wants to see and hear about
07:56
my updates, and yeah, they're all really keen to get some sort of chicks with sticks model going
08:01
over here, so yeah, let's see what happens.
08:09
you
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