Tributes have been pouring in for Christy.
Charlie Mulqueen in the Irish Examiner knew Christy his whole life. His brilliant piece contains a paragraph on Junior's love of music.
When it came to partying, there were few to touch Christy O’Connor Junior and his brothers. If anything, he mastered musical instruments more naturally than golf clubs.
That evening, teammates, opponents, friends and strangers watched and listened in awe as Christy and brothers, including fellow pro Eugene, belted out melody after melody on the spoons, accordion, piano and anything else that was handy. Denis Thatcher, husband of British prime minister Margaret, was one of those captivated by the spoons but Christy warned him “it’s very hard to get a pair in England in the right key”.
Paul McGinley spoke to Sky Sports News shorty after the news broke.
The Irish Independent posted a wonderful gallery of Christy Jnr's greatest moments in pictorial form.
Malachy Clerkin in the Irish Times tells the story of the course record booty that never was.
O’Connor broke the course record at Sandwich on the opening day of the 1985 British Open. His 64 bested by one the previous record held by one of the gods of the game, Henry Cotton, who met O’Connor when came off the 18th green with a handshake and a quip: “Not a bad score for 17 holes, young man.”
Sports Illustrated later recounted the story of how a faux-pas by a BBC reporter ever-so slightly took the gloss off O’Connor’s day. Clive Clark informed Christy that his course record had earned him a bonus of £25,000. Considering that first prize in 1985 was £65,000, this was no small chunk of change.
O’Connor was delighted – he hadn’t heard such booty was on offer. And with good reason - it wasn’t. Clark had been mistaken and had told him in error. “To say I’m disappointed is a hell of an understatement,” SI quoted O’Connor as saying when he found out.
Steve Pye in the Guardian recounts the time Christy was inexplicably left out of the European Ryder Cup side by Tony Jacklin in 1985. Jacklin gave Christy got his chance in 1989 and the rest is history.
To the general amazement of everyone, Jacklin chose José Rivero instead. “I am disgusted and totally shattered,” said a furious O’Connor, understandably so after he missed out on his second Ryder Cup by just £115.89. O’Connor’s ire would run and run; according to Jacklin, the only time O’Connor spoke to him in the next four years was to offer his condolences when Jacklin’s wife Vivien passed away.
O’Connor was probably happy to see the back of 1985. At the end of the year his father died after suffering a heart attack, and over the next few seasons O’Connor seemed unable to reproduce the form that had taken him so near to joining Europe’s party. Having hovered around the top 20 during the next three years, few expected his 1989 campaign to be any different. But a fine run of displays saw O’Connor finish fifth at the Volvo Open, fourth at the Volvo PGA, third at the Dunhill British Masters, and seventh at the English Open (played at The Belfry). To top it all, O’Connor won the Jersey Open, his first individual win on the Tour since his Ryder Cup debut.
The video of O'Connor Jnr final hole against Fred Couples which retained the Ryder Cup for Europe in 1989 was widely posted.
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