Athlone man's leading role in Pitch and Putt Ireland
by David Flynn
Davey Reddin has been involved in Athlone Pitch and Putt for more than fifty years, first as a 10-year-old player, and later in roles on the local committee and in more recent years as National Executive Competition Secretary.
Six weeks ago, Davey was voted by his peers, National Vice President of Pitch and Putt Ireland– the first Athlone person to take the role.
The weekly player’s heart and soul after his family life is in pitch and putt!
He has a handicap of six. Davey is married to Shelly (nee McManus) and the Athlone couple have four grown up children, Nicola, David, Shauna and Jason.
In his teenage years in the late 1970s, Davey Reddin joined Athlone Pitch and Putt and was Juvenile Player of the Year in 1976, which led on to him winning several more local competitions.
In 1979, he was a member of the Athlone team that won the Intermediate Scratch Cup in Newbridge, and finished third place - individual.
At age seventeen, he won the Offaly/Westmeath Intermediate Strokeplay Championships, which was held on the Athlone course and this win put him into the senior grade in Pitch and Putt.
He was playing off a 2 handicap at the time.
When he was 18 years old, in 1980, he won the Carroll’s sponsored Athlone Sportstar of the Year for Pitch and Putt!
The Westmeath Independent reported at the time of Davey winning the Carroll’s award - "Davey has been very active with the Athlone committee for the past couple of years and in 1979 he was a member of the Juvenile committee and gave a lot of his spare time looking after the juveniles and he was elected Assistant Secretary of the Athlone Pitch and Putt club the same year. Truly a remarkable record for a voluntary sporting organisation, for a person of 18 years of age, and a deserving nomination for this great award."
Now 62, Davey Reddin looks back on a voluntary career in local pitch and putt, including his involvement in the founding in the 1990s of Custume Pitch and Putt in Garnafailagh.
Davey, who was a soldier in Custume Barracks for forty-three years up to 2022, lobbied the late Col Sean Quilty (who died in early March) for help during the beginnings of the local pitch and putt grounds.
“Col Quilty gave me a cheque for €60 and sent me to Byrnes Hardware on The Square to buy a rake, pick and shovel and myself and Leo Flanagan RIP designed the course along with John Kelly RIP,” said Davey.
“Gerry Daly and myself have kept it going since then.”
Custume Pitch and Pitch Club opened in 1994 and became independent of Athlone GAA, although interestingly it was at a time that Davey was Secretary of Athlone GAA club/Pitch and Putt.
“We started the club with twelve army lads and a big part of that was down to Sean Quilty,” said Davey.
“John Kelly came on the scene and I was once Vice-Chair to him and John secured the deal to set up Custume, but sadly he died in 1993, when he was Chair.”
Davey also cites former Minister, Mary O’Rourke with giving great help in the setting up of Custume Pitch and Putt.
“We were running short on money and Gerry Daly and I went to see Mary, and I always got on well with her, and I used to call her Auntie Mary,” he said laughing.
“She was brilliant and got us £5,000 for the project and then later we got another £3,000 to finish it off.”
Davey became Chairman of the Westmeath County Board/Pitch and Putt during 1995 to 1997.
He has had a great interest in army barracks members throughout the country, being involved in Pitch and Putt.
He was worried after hearing from Army Headquarters in 2000 that Pitch and Putt was on the way out of the army, but it survived, and two years later he was made Chairman of the All-Army Pitch and Putt – a role he held for ten years. In that time, he was involved in making sure that there was a soldier representative of pitch and putt in every army barracks in the country.
Davey won three All-Army medals for Pitch and Putt in 2012, 2015 and 2017.
He was elected PRO of the national executive for 2012/13 and was Leinster Competitions Secretary for eight years after that.
He was team manager of the Westmeath senior team for seven years and saw them come in 2nd twice at Leinster level, and 5th in the All-Ireland on one occasion.
“I’m the only founder member of Custume Pitch and Putt that is still actively playing,” he said.
He is looking forward to getting himself into the role of Vice-President, having gone for it on two occasions, and polling well each time.
“If you wait for something to come around, it’ll come back to you,” said Davey.
“Three of us were in the running for it and the lad from Tipperary was eliminated on first count and I reached the quota on the 2nd count by fourteen votes. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
Davey said that the Pitch and Putt is not a professional sport, although he stresses that the clubs are run in a professional manner.
“I was two years as National Competition Secretary and the season is March to November so my weekends were short at home because I’d be away running competitions the length and breadth of the country,” said Davey.
He doesn’t get to play his favourite sport as much as he’d like and feels himself lucky, if he gets to play once a week!
“If I’m not gone somewhere, someone’s ringing me, and I have an office in my house and I feel I’ll be using it a lot now, and I’m very happy about it all,” he said.
Davey said the Athlone club is running as the cheapest pitch and putt place in the country, by charging €90 for the year, and he said that the place is immaculate and very well run.
“I started this venture of my life many years ago, and I would hope that I may become President of Pitch and Putt Ireland someday, and if that happens I would go as far as I could to improve the game facilities for players,” ended Davey.