IRISH GOLF UNION NEWS RELEASE

SUPREME COURT REJECTS TALBOT'S

APPEAL IN STANDARD SCRATCH CASE


Tom Talbot v Hermitage Golf Club, the Golfing Union of Ireland and Eddie Murphy
Supreme Court Appeal Record No: 492/2012
 
The GUI (Irish Golf Union) has today welcomed the rejection by the Supreme Court of an appeal brought by Mr. Tom Talbot in proceedings taken by him against the Golfing Union of Ireland, Hermitage Golf Club and its former Honorary Secretary.
In 2012 the High Court dismissed Mr. Talbot’s claim that the GUI wrongfully conspired with the other defendants to cause damage to him. In essence, Mr. Talbot claimed that the standard scratch rules administered by the GUI and which applied at the time, facilitated or ‘whitewashed’ the general play adjustments which were applied by the Golf Club to his handicap. 
The GUI welcomes the Supreme Court’s rejection of Mr. Talbot’s appeal in its entirety.
Today’s judgment brings finality to the proceedings which commenced in 2006. Since then the GUI has consistently maintained that there was absolutely no basis for Mr. Talbot’s claim. The organisation is now pleased to have had this position vindicated by the High Court and now by the Supreme Court. It is a matter of great regret to the GUI, a voluntary organisation, that it became embroiled in these proceedings in the first place, which were entirely without substance or merit.

Issued by Pat Finn, General Secretary, Golfing Union of Ireland.