As the Masters golf championship gets underway in Augusta, Georgia, let’s take a look back to some of the local competitions that attracted the biggest names in 1960s golf.

This film is of the 1964 Blaxnit Competition, held in Shandon Park golf course in Belfast. Blaxnit was a hosiery company and the competition it sponsored brought top names to Northern Ireland including Christy O’Connor Snr and Tony Jacklin. The winner this year was Wicklow man Jimmy Martin.

The golf courses of Northern Ireland are a far stretch from the manicured style of Augusta and it could be said, all the more challenging. Certainly the weather can be a major factor, as this clip shows. But golfers are made of tough stuff and a little rain wasn’t enough to put off people like Philomena Garvey, female professional golfer and winner of the British Ladies Amateur at Gleneagles. 

Local man Hugh Jackson talks to Bill Rutherford about his amazing hole-in-one at Knock Golf Club and celebrities such as Eric Sykes called into Malone Golf Club for a round or two.