Donal Hughes

Biography

Born in 1974, Hughes grew up in Ballinrobe, County Mayo in the West of Ireland. He completed a degree in Applied Chemistry in Dublin City University winning the AGB gold medal for highest final year exam results. He went on to be awarded a Ph.D. in 1999. Hughes returned to Mayo, was married to Deirdre and is now a father of four.

Sporting career

Hughes early life was defined by sporting achievement; he represented Mayo in Gaelic football at all underage levels and achieved regional honours in squash, badminton and rugby. He received a DCU “Sportstar Of The Year” award in 1993 from the then Irish Minister for Sport, Liam Aylward. Following a career ending leg injury Hughes was told his sporting career would be reduced solely to golf, which he played to three handicap. Following a meeting with a physiotherapist who demonstrated a strapping technique to secure his tibial nail, Hughes made a surprise return to endurance sport in 2010 and now competes in Ironman events. Hughes made headlines in the triathlon world at the Hurricane Matthew shortened 2016 Ironman North Carolina by running through the finish line and cycling an extra 62 miles along with one other competitor to ensure they completed the full Ironman distance on that day.

Charity work

In 2007 Hughes devised and undertook a record breaking challenge for charity entitled The Round Ireland Golf Challenge. Along with fellow golfer Michael Nolan, Hughes completed 32 rounds of golf, in each of Ireland’s 32 counties, over 32 consecutive days finishing on 6 September 2007 at The Heritage Golf Club. During the challenge, the pair walked every course and covered a driving distance of over 5,000 km. The achievement raised €100,000 for children's and cancer charities in Ireland including Playing For Life, The Friends of St. Lukes, Barretstown Castle, and The Jack and Jill Foundation. Hughes retains his charity involvement as a West Of Ireland envoy for an anonymous donor to rural and social development projects.

Golf writing career

In preparation for his Round Ireland Golf Challenge, Donal Hughes came to the attention of the Irish golfing community and was commissioned by the Irish Examiner newspaper to write a log of his adventures. Following the project, Hughes was retained by the Irish Examiner’s sports editor Tony Leen to write a weekly golfing column in the paper. His humorous approach to golf writing lead to him becoming a reader favourite and in 2008 Hughes was promoted to a full page each Tuesday in the sports section of the paper with an average readership of 238,000. Known as the “SpinDoctor”, Hughes’s page featured until 2012. Hughes now owns and runs GolfCentralDaily.com and is the in-house golf equipment reviewer and interviewer for UK based golf retailer Golfbidder. He also curates social media for several golf related companies.

Food safety career

On completion of his Ph.D. Hughes worked as a food industry technical manager before forming his own company, AbSolutions Food Safety in 2001. AbSolutions Food Safety services ranged from consultancy to training, HACCP system development, cleaning chemicals, calibration to premises design. Hughes created food safety systems for hundreds of Irish companies including Jacob Fruitfield and has worked as an independently contracted trainer for the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. He retired from food safety in 2009.