By DARAGH SMALL

He has two main roles this week, ball spotter in Killarney Golf & Fishing Club and masseuse at Croke Park.

Golf and Gaelic football have forever been intertwined throughout the course of Harry O’Neill’s life and this week will be a little more extraordinary.

In the first part of the week he relives his memory of 1975, a 50-year-wait to reminiscence on a simpler time when he caddied for the Italians at the European Amateur Team Championship.

Then he turns his attentions to GAA headquarters for a date with Tyrone on Saturday evening, as the Kingdom look to book their place in another All-Ireland Senior Football Final.

And ironically, when he is making his way up the steps of the Hogan Stand to take his seat alongside the rest of the Kerry team, the action will be coming to a head back in his beloved Killarney.

“That would be an absolute dream week (if Ireland and Kerry won), hopefully that will happen,” said O’Neill.

“Back in 1975, at 14 years of age, I would have been far more in tune with the top amateur golfers in Ireland than I would be now.

“But I think one of the big things coming out of it, Shane Lowry, Rory McIlroy all these guys from previous years, you want to be there to see these young guys playing, who in a couple of years’ time is going to be the guy that’s hitting the top of the professional ranks?

“It would be fantastic to look back and say, wow I remember him in Killarney.”

There are 16 countries involved this week with the Killeen Course playing host to some of the stars of the future.

Michael Coghlan was another caddy back in the summer of 1975, he was 20 at the time and can recall some of the finer details of his week caddying for the star-studded English team. Coghlan was on the bag of Jeffrey Marks.

It was a different course layout with the first eight holes part of the Killeen Course before the golfers switched over to the 13th, they remained on the Killeen Course until the 16th and then finished with the 13 to 18 on Mahony’s Point.

“It was a par 73, if my memory was right, and the 18th on Mahony's, he played it from across the road about 180 yards and he was unsure whether he would play a seven or a six,” said Coghlan.

“He played a seven iron and he three-putted it for a 70. If he'd got that one, England might have made the cut. But it wasn't really his score, it was the other guy’s scores that caused the problem.

“The rest of the team did not score well and England didn’t make the top eight, never mind making the cut, they expected to win it.

“Mark James had won the British Amateur that year, the guys had form.”

O’Neill was only a caddy for a couple of days that week but the 14-year-old got to experience some Italian flair en-route to their final appearance.

“He wasn't the best of the Italians and when they played the 15th hole on Killeen, there was a shortcut, a dog leg to the right, but the option was to go down the tenth hole on the Mahony’s. If you were down there you had to go over trees and I remember two days, him attempting to do that and making a hash of it.

“He got down but you had to get it over these high trees and let it drop down, and I’m kind of going in my head after the first day, surely you're not going to do that again the second day, but he did.”

Caddies received a £5 payment for their week and that was another huge bonus as the sun beamed down on Lough Leane.

Unfortunately, the pollen count was also high and that meant a course of injections for O’Neill to stave off the dreaded hay fever.

Being a few years older, Coghlan (20) was able to soak up a bit more of the atmosphere in the town that week, and he has some fond memories of an historic event.

And although he has since moved to Meath, he still has a house in Killarney and has been a member of the club for almost 40 years – he will return to volunteer on course this week.

O’Neill is also steeped in the history of the club, the retired army captain turned physical therapist, was Captain of the Club in 2020 and 2021 during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

And as the European Team Championship makes history returning to the Kingdom, it is crucial to have lifelong members and volunteers still involved and devoting their valuable time and efforts.

“The fact is I’m here 50 years later, I’ve survived. I think that’s the way you'd look at that,” said Coghlan.

“It will be interesting to see what crop comes out of this, you have the Spanish, I believe there’s a very good Swiss player too. Some of them have been over playing already.

“It’s only when it’s on your own course that you really get a chance to go and see these things.”