From Tee to Green: The Story of Irish Golf (2014)

The story of Irish golf is as intriguing, contradictory and dramatic as the courses dotted along its coastline. The island is designed for golf. It has 3,500 miles of coastline, a landscape of granite and red sandstone mountains, unspoiled white-sand beaches, rugged cliffs that drop 400 feet to the sea and ancient dunes-all millions of years in the making. The lucky convergence of warm Gulf Stream currents, temperate weather, and lush vegetation help create one of the most spectacular golf settings on Earth. Over the course of three films, From Tee To Green explores the history, geography and cultural impact of golf on the island. The series is a journey from Irish golf 's mystical origins in Wicklow to the magical exploits of Harrington, McDowell, McIllroy and Clarke. Along the way there are great characters, tournaments won, tournaments lost, moments of great sporting drama and great financial crises - and it's all set against some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere on the planet. Lavishly shot and set in some of the world's great courses, this is a golfing grand tour laced with fascinating history and sporting folklore. What makes Ireland's golf history especially fascinating is that, uniquely, many of its oldest courses are still around today, giving these two films a timeless backdrop that requires no embellishment or reconstruction. Many of the images shot for this series could have been captured when the game first took hold in Ireland in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Yet while the views themselves are as they were for the pioneers of film, this series will present the beauty and splendour of Irish golf in a very 21st century way. Aerial photography and specially designed slow motion cameras will present the game and these extraordinary settings in a new way, even for a sport which has been something of a plaything for live sports innovators in recent times. Mobile mini-cranes with super slow motion cameras circling tee shots will create a cinematic element that hasn't been seen before in golf coverage. Set against such remarkable backdrops as The Old Head Of Kinsale, Portmarnock, Ballybunion and Royal Co. Down there's also the archive. Featuring a wealth of newsreel footage and unseen 'home movies' dating as far back as the 1910s and singularly the best preserved photographic catalogue in Irish sports, there's a richness and texture to the archive in this series that will add a vitality and intimacy to these films. The series is narrated by Aidan Quinn.