Golf mourns golfing "gent" T.B.C. Hoey
Brian Hoey in action in the East of Ireland Championship at Baltray in 1970
Irish amateur golf is in mourning following the death on Saturday last of former Shandon Park and Irish international stalwart Brian Hoey.
Remembered as a true gentleman of the amateur game, he was capped 42 times and won four championships, including the 1984 Irish Amateur Close at the age of 50
Thomas Brian Caldwell (T.B.C.) Hoey was runner-up to Kenny Stevenson in the Irish Amateur Close in 1972 before going on to win the West of Ireland at the age of 42 in 1977 and the "North" in 1979 and 1983. He also reached the final of the German Amateur in 1970, losing 4&3 to Jan Mueller in the 36-hole final at Kresfeld.
Father of European Tour professional Michael, he had retired from international golf before claiming that elusive Irish Close title at the age of 50 in 1984, beating Woodbrook's Liam MacNamara on the 20th at Malone to earn an international recall and become the oldest winner since Cecil Ewing in 1958.
A bank official, he is fondly remembered by his former teammates as a beautiful swinger of a golf club. "We were playing in the European Team Championships in The Hague [in 1977], and we missed the top flight by a shot," recalled Declan Branigan, who played foursomes with Brian that week. "I remember we were playing Belgium the next day, and I was partnered with Brian. But of course, I had gone out on the tear with Johnny Dixon the night before and I was on the first tee and I was dying. My head was busting.
"I was taking practice swings and I was missing the ground by about a foot. So Brian was looking at me with a perplexed look on his face. It was a tough opening drive on a hard first hole and I said, 'Brian, you'd better drive here'. As usual, he split the fairway and left me a three-iron to the green. I took a few more practice swings and it wasn't looking good. I had Tiede Herrema's son —the famous Dr Herema from the kidnapping — caddying for me that week.
"Anyway, I eventually I hit this thing about five feet in the air and about 80 yards left of the green. And I look up and Brian is looking after this shot in consternation. He's never seen a shot like this. And I looked up and said, 'You have no idea how good a shot that was.' He just started smiling and we went on to win the match 2&1. Of course, I was fully sober when we went out to play Spain the next day and lost on the 18th!
"We were totally different characters, of course, but he was a wonderful striker of the golf ball. I remember our first meeting in the quarter-finals of the west in 1975, which I won. After four holes I said to my caddie Richie McDonnell that we should not be on the same course as him the way he played. Luckily for all of us, he could not putt but what a player he was."
Hoey might not always have excelled in the short game and putting department, but his talent was such that he won seven Irish Senior Cup medals with Shandon Park and captained the side to another win in 1994.
"Sorry to hear of T.B.C. (Brian) Hoey's passing. I played many amateur matches against him as an amateur back in the '70s," said Peter O'Hagan, the former K Club professional. "A true gentleman and was blessed with a wonderful pure golf swing. Condolences to his son Michael who inherited his father's grace and poise."
"He was an absolute gent," said Roddy Carr, who played on the same 1970 Home Internationals team, when the Coleraine banker made his Ireland debut at Royal Porthcawl just a few months after reaching the semi-finals of the Amateur Championship at Royal County Down.
He was 35 at the time but lost by two holes in the semi-finals to the 54-year old Californian Bill Hyndman, who was runner-up to Harvie Ward in the 1955 U.S. Amateur and beaten by Dean Beman in the 1959 Amateur Championship final at Royal St George's.
"I met my match," Hoey said of Hyndman, who could not prevent Michael Bonallack winning his third consecutive Amateur the following day. "Hyndman is the best player I have come across. If I had hit my mid-irons better, I would have had a really good chance."
In 1977, he ended his 23-year wait for a championship victory when he beat MacNamara by one hole in the West of Ireland Final at Rosses Point, holing from around 12 yards for a winning birdie on the 18th.
Reporting for The Irish Press, John Redmond wrote:
Apart from his all-round skill—suspect only in his pitching and putting—this victory is a tribute to his remarkable fitness as at is a great achievement for him to come through eight competitive rounds in five days. A non-smoker and non-drinker, Hoey keeps in trim with regular training on the sand dunes at Portrush where he lives. After his dramatic last-hole win, former Irish International Hoey said: 'I have considered myself to be in semi-retirement from golf and, quite honestly, after 23 years trying, I had given up the ghost as regards my chances of winning titles. But, since I have been coming to Sligo for 16 years, it makes victory all the sweeter. Now I will have to start playing seriously again.' Last capped in 1973, Hoey looks a certainty to be picked for Ireland to play in the European Cup in Holland in June.
The only amateur in Ireland given a plus-one handicap in 1970 and 1971, he was not afraid to voice his opinion, as Limerick's Tim Rice recalled last year.
Looking back at the 2001 European Amateur Team Championships at Ljunghusens in Sweden, where Ireland lost to Scotland in the final with a side comprising Rice, Noel Fox, Michael Hoey, Graeme McDowell and Michael McDermott, he recalled: “Brian Hoey [who was a selector] described the six-man team as three ball-strikers and three hammer throwers. And he was dead right. I was certainly one of the hammer throwers."
The death has occurred of Thomas Brian Caldwell Hoey.
Died 14th December 2019, peacefully. Dearly loved husband of Pearl, loving father of Edward and Michael and brother of Michael and Dermot. Service of Thanksgiving in St Columba’s Church of Ireland, Kings Road, Knock, Belfast at 10.30 am on Monday 23rd December 2019.
