GERRY O’BRIEN, who brought a massive presence to amateur golf in Ireland, has died after a short illness. He was 82.

A one-time intercounty Gaelic footballer with Dublin, an achievement of which he was tremendously proud, O’Brien’s most significant contribution to sport in this country came as an administrator and official in his time with the Golfing Union of Ireland (GUI).

O’Brien – who served as captain and twice as president of Clontarf Golf Club – first got involved with the Leinster Branch in the 1970s and rose to the position of honorary treasurer in 1980, before assuming the position of branch chairman from 1982 to 1985. He then spent a transitional year as president-elect of the GUI.

He graduated to the top office in the oldest governing body in world golf in 1987, when he succeeded Connacht’s Michael Hennelly.

He was to be a lucky president, as Ireland that year won the European Team championship for just the third time when they were staged at Murhoff in Austria. Ireland would have to wait 20 years to savour success in the competition again.

When his tenure as president concluded, O’Brien chose to remain in administration. He served as joint honorary secretary of the GUI with Des Rea-O’Kelly in 1989, then took over as honorary secretary in 1990, a position he held, in a period of huge growth for the sport in Ireland, up to 2005, when he retired from office.

O’Brien was honoured with the distinguished services to golf award by the Irish Golf Writers’ Association in 2006.

The highlight of his own competitive career was in winning the Lord Mayor’s Cup on home turf in Clontarf in 1976.

May he rest in peace.