Good news with newly-crowned Irish-born Joe Lyons being reuninted with his Spanish Senior Open victory trophy.
In one of the more bizarre golf-related stories for some time Lyons and his wife, Vera arrived at Seville Airport to board a return flight to Cork
However, the Lyons’ had extra luggage in the form of the trophy the 51-year-old, and reigning Irish Seniors Open champ, was handed in also adding this Spanish title to his golfing CV and winning the event by four shots.
Irishman Joy Lyons (right) in a happy mood holding the Spanish Seniors Open trophy (Photograph – Irish Independent
hUnfortuantely, not all went well when then approached the RyanAir desk in Seville.
RyanAir, and not unlike all low-budget airlines, has a strick carry-on luggage rule and it seems the trophy would not fit in any of the carry-on bags the couple had with them.
Lyons admitted in the Irish Independent his lost his cool and showed his displeasure in leaving the trophy behind at the desk and arriving back to Cork in the early hours of today (Tuesday) trophy-less.
Yes, the Lyons’ were aware of the RyanAir’s carry-on luggage rules and why should the airline bend the rules for one passenger even he was carrying a trophy. Maybe, if it was Rory McIlroy – Yes!
Good friend and colleague Brian Keogh reports in the Irish Independent this story has a happy ending
A Ryanair representative called Lyons yesterday to apologise for the incident, promising the trophy would be put on a flight back to Ireland and couriered straight to his Galway home.
“I got a very apologetic phone call from somebody in Ryanair’s marketing department, and she said it shouldn’t have happened and that it was a mistake by one of their handling agents,” Lyons said last night.
“They said they would have it on a flight tonight and would courier it to me and that I should have it tomorrow.
“I had gone up to the desk and the staff said we couldn’t board with the trophy unless we could put it in our hand luggage. Vera thne tried to put it into her hand luggage and she actually got it in a good bit of the way, but the zip on her luggage wouldn’t close.
“And they said, ‘No, you have to be able to close all the zips’. So I said, ‘You know what, folks, just leave it there. If that’s the way you want to be about it, you can keep it’.
“I kind of threw the toys out of the pram a bit. And the woman behind the desk said, ‘Well, we can’t keep it’. So I said, ‘Well do what you want with it’.
“She said, ‘Well, we’ll be throwing it in the bin’, so I said, ‘Well, throw it in the bin then, I’m going home’ and I headed down the gangway.”
Several members of the Irish seniors team that had competed in the event in Seville stayed on until yesterday, but failed in their efforts to locate the trophy in the Ryanair office at Seville Airport before their flight back to Dublin.
However, Lyons was delighted to receive a phone call of apology from Ryanair and a promise that he’d be reunited with the precious piece of silverware today.
“It’s a good-news story in the end,” Lyons said. “They obviously didn’t bin it. They were able to find it today.
“I’m just glad it’s resolved. Ryanair apologised, and that’s the end of the matter as far as I’m concerned.
“We all make mistakes, and they acknowledged this.”
- Thanks to Brian and the Irish Independent.
