Events and community · Troon, Turnberry and Glasgow · April 2019

A day with Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys: Royal Troon, Turnberry and a Glasgow show

Golf at Royal Troon, eighteen more at Turnberry, and an access-all-areas pass for one of the loudest nights Glasgow has seen.

Guest

Ken Casey, Dropkick Murphys

Where

Royal Troon, Trump Turnberry and Glasgow

Scope

Two rounds of golf, the drive to the venue and the show

Date

April 2019

Every so often a job comes along that you would happily do for nothing. Looking after the frontman of one of the world’s best-loved bands for a day in Scotland was very much one of those.

Ken Casey, founder and frontman of Boston’s Dropkick Murphys, was over for a show in Glasgow. Off the back of a chat about his two great loves outside music, golf and the Boston Bruins, the plan more or less wrote itself: get the man onto the best courses Scotland has, then get him to the stage on time. No small thing on a bank holiday weekend.

The full Ayrshire welcome

Give a visiting Bostonian the full Ayrshire welcome. Ken is a serious golfer, so the bar was high, and when you live a short drive from some of the finest links on earth, you use them.

A day on Scotland’s greatest courses

We started with a round at Royal Troon, host of The Open and arguably the finest links in the world, right on our doorstep. Then, because one round is never enough for a true golfer, a follow-up eighteen at Trump Turnberry down the coast. A proper feed in between, and good company throughout.

Turnberry to Glasgow, against the clock

Turnberry to Glasgow, on a bank holiday, in time for the curtain going up. That is a logistics problem dressed up as a scenic drive. So I chauffeured Ken and his colleagues myself and got them to the venue with time to spare. His tour manager actually lifted me off the ground with a hug for getting them there on time.

Access all areas

Somehow the guys ferried me in with an access-all-areas pass, and I had an absolute blast on stage and backstage with the band: Al Barr, Tim Brennan, James Lynch, Mike McColgan and the legendary piper Scruffy Wallace among them. My camera nearly melted with the number of photos I took. The Glasgow crowd, as ever, was one of the best audiences in the world, and they will tell you so themselves.

A world-famous frontman, a day on two of Scotland’s greatest courses, and a night of music in Glasgow. I would do it again tomorrow.

Ken’s loves? Music, golf and the Boston Bruins, and we’re still not telling you what order.

Mark Laird

Two cities, brought together

There is a lovely symmetry to this one. Ken Casey is Boston through and through: the Dropkick Murphys, the Bruins, the lot. And in 2026 Scotland and Boston found themselves linked again, as the Tartan Army descended on the city for the World Cup. Music, golf and football have a habit of bringing the two places together. We were just glad to do our bit, a few years early.

The day and the night

Ken Casey and the group on the green in front of the Royal Troon clubhouse

Ken Casey and Mark Laird on the links at Royal Troon

Ken Casey teeing off on a Scottish links course

On stage with the Dropkick Murphys, looking out over the Glasgow crowd

Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys performing live in Glasgow

The Glasgow crowd during the Dropkick Murphys show

Ken Casey and Mark Laird on the golf course

The Dropkick Murphys on stage in Glasgow, photographed from the wings

Why this is here

Not every page on this site is an installation. Some of the best days have been about looking after people: a round at Royal Troon, a drive up the coast and the right pass at the stage door. It is the same instinct that runs through the design work, from private home cinema rooms to golf simulators that bring Royal Troon indoors.