John Dooley, Golf Pro, Doonbeg Golf Club, Co Clare
THE FIRST GOLFERS tee off at 7.20am, so I get in before them to open up the equipment shop. Most of our business is made up of tour groups from overseas and, depending on when someone's flight gets in, you could find golfers waiting in the car park from 5.30am.
There isn't much of a commute for me as I live 1,500m from the 18th green.
Doonbeg is situated between Kilkee and Miltown Malbay and I moved here from Cork six years ago. It's a lovely place to live.
Once I set up the shop much of my time is spent sorting visitors out so that they know where to go for the first tee or for breakfast. Some of them will want a quick-fix lesson before they go out, maybe to iron out a particular quirk, but most of the golfing tuition I give is to locals. Lessons last half an hour and I love watching people improve.
Golf is one of those games that if you don't practise enough you lose your skills. Equally, it's a game of habit, so if you start off doing something slightly wrong, very soon your shot is all over the place.
When that happens people have a disastrous time, so it's nice to see them get back their enjoyment of the game. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced golfer, there is always room for improvement.
If a client has no partner they can book me to go around with them, and I enjoy that. There's no better way to get to know a person than through golf because all the barriers are down, you're meeting the real person out there. No one can sustain a persona over 18 holes.
I've made loads of friends through the sport and go on golfing holidays with clients I've met at Doonbeg.
At some stage during the day I'll have to make time for a management meeting. The main issue in any golf course is "pace of play". Nothing drives people more nuts than being stuck behind a group happy to spend five hours on the golf course when they want to get around in 3½.
We monitor the time between tees, and if someone's slowing up we'll send a course ranger over to see if we can help.
Most of the people we get here are on their holidays, so the mood is great, but sometimes you get odd folk.
I remember one guy asking where he could find a "Luprecian". I said I wasn't familiar with the term and he said, "You know, the little guys with the ginger beards and the green hats". It turned out he was for real and had promised his wife a photograph of a leprechaun. And this was a really successful US businessman.
Another director of a big IT multinational insisted we keep his body on New York time throughout his stay, so he was getting breakfast delivered at lunch time and so on. There's always one, but we pride ourselves on service so you just do your best to help. Most people are lovely, including Hugh Grant and Bill Clinton, both of whom have played with us.
Most of the year I'm finished by 5pm but in the summer I'm usually here until six or seven selling gear or just talking to people. By and large, golfers are a nice bunch.