Meet Patrice Delaney

Kinnitty"s Pat Delaney might have past sporting glories like being part of the Offaly hurling team that won All-Ireland medals in 1981 and 1985 to boast, as well as being an All Star in 1985, but his daughter Patrice still beats him on the golf course. Sixteen-year-old Patrice Delaney is a rising star in the golf world, and with a practice session with the Irish girls team at Baltray Golf Club pencilled in for tomorrow and her first cap for Ireland coming up in early August, it seems it might be that she will be the new Delaney family sports star. With his former glory days behind him, farmer Pat Delaney was busy making silage when I went to meet his daughter to talk about her growing golf talent. However, as Patrice explains, he has nobody but himself to blame for introducing her to golf. 'I used to go out playing golf with my Dad on Saturday evenings,' Patrice says, explaining that she 'just started hitting balls' from about the age of twelve. Just four years later, Patrice is now winning competitions regularly and has been picked as part of the Irish team for the Girls" Home International competition at Panmure Golf Club in Carnoustie, Scotland on August 5 and 6. 'We"re very proud of her - we have to be,' mum Denise says. 'We"re proud of all our girls (Pat and Denise have a 20-year-old daughter Grace and a 13-year-old daughter Éimear also). Everything they do they seem to give it 100 percent.' By now blasé about talent on the sports field, Denise is used to it being married to Offaly hurler Pat Delaney. A Birr native, she met Kinnitty man Pat when she was working in Dublin. No doubt keeping everyone grounded, Denise remembers Pat"s 1981 hurling win with ease, but flounders while thinking what year the next All-Ireland win came in. 'I"m useless at dates. You forget about it so easily,' she says. Now a golf widow instead of a hurling one, Denise has to cope with golfers in the form of husband Pat, as well as her three daughters. Patrice, who now plays golf every day, says she started to play in girls" golf competitions about three years ago, and since then her handicap has kept coming down. A member of Birr Golf Club, she is also a country member of Tullamore Golf Club. Now playing off 5, Patrice laughingly lets me know that her dad at this stage plays off 15, meaning she"s sure to leave him in the dust every time. A family hobby at this stage, younger sister Éimear is also a golf enthusiast, and Denise says she has even taken up playing golf now. 'I do a little,' she says. 'I took it up about two years ago. Actually, this"ll be my third year, but I"m still off 36!' 'I"m just, what would you call it, laid back,' Denise jokes. 'It"s great fun, once you go out with someone who enjoys it. Some people take it very very seriously, but I don"t now at all. If you go reasonably early in the morning or late in the evening - I find that"s a lovely time.' Clearly a way for the whole familiy to relax, no matter what level of skill they possess, golf is becoming less relaxing and more competitive for Patrice, but she says she loves every minute of it still. 'It"s different,' she says. 'I can"t explain it, but it"s different than other sports. It must be the hardest sport. It has to be the hardest sport. I just like it - it"s challenging.' A camogie player in the past, Patrice now devotes all of her time to golf after a back injury at Feile in Cork two years ago put paid to her future on the camogie field. Starting out taking part in Offaly Golf Classics with her father, golf now takes Patrice - and often the rest of the family as well - much further. 'There"s an awful lot of travelling involved,' Denise agrees. 'She was in Beaverstown, the other side of Dublin airport, the week before last. We all went, but it"s not funny really. You"re up at 6.30am, 5.30am one morning, to be out for Patrice to take a few shots before playing. She had to be on the tee box by 8am, or 8.10am. That was three mornings on the trot - you"d be exhausted.' However it"s clear nothing as trivial as sleep would stop Denise supporting Patrice, and indeed the rest of her family. 'We encourage them all to the last,' she says. 'If they want to do it we"ll go with them and help them out all the way. 'She lives for it,' Denise says about her daughter"s passion for golf. 'I really mean it, she just lives for it. But then, she"s a sports fanatic. You"d never see her now watching a film or anything on tv. It"d be all sports.' Going into fifth year in St Brendan"s Community School in Birr, Patrice says she has promised to get stuck into her schooling for the next while. 'I"ll concentrate on my studies - I have to get that in there,' she says, while mum Denise laughs in the background. 'I"ll have to do a bit more than I did this year.' Looking ahead past school, Patrice says she"ll keep playing golf and perhaps work as a PE teacher. Getting back to the golf, Patrice will head to Scotland next month on the back of a win, after coming up cream of the crop in the Munster Girls" Golf Tournament. 'She"s the only Leinster girl that"s after being picked for the Home International,' Denise says, proud of her daughter"s place on a team that also includes Victoria Bradshaw from Bangor, Sarah Cunningham from Ennis, twins Leona and Lisa Maguire from Slieve Russell, Stephanie Meadow from Royal Portrush, Emma O"Driscoll from Ballybunion and Sarah Louise Winters from Carnalea. Patrice has played on the course before, but that was only a practice run when she was taken over last year in a group of eight. This year, she"s looking forward to the real deal, and not least getting her first cap for Ireland. 'I"m going to carry the bags for her - that"s our agreement,' Denise laughs, dreaming ahead to when Patrice makes it big as a golfer. 'I said I"ll buy her a new car,' Patrice laughs, joining in the dream, which, who knows, might end up a reality.