PROFESSIONAL golfer Des Smyth opted out of a vital event on the U.S. Seniors Tour last weekend to fly home and share family celebrations with his 24-year-old caddy son Greg, who scooped a whopping $13,872,226 in the Irish lotto.It was the eighth-highest jackpot won since the National Lottery was launched 20 years ago.Smyth senior opted out of the Boeing Championship at Sandestin, Florida to fly home with wife Vicky. He explained, "I want to get home and see Greg. It's a huge thing that has happened."The couple were in Oregon when Greg phoned them with his news on Thursday of last week. The golfer later that day shot a commendable one-under par 71 at the Jeld-Wen Tradition in the first round of one of the major championships on the U.S. Seniors Tour but then admitted, "I honestly can't remember a single shot I hit. I was thinking about Greg all day."Smyth junior's jackpot check was reckoned to be worth three times his father's earnings in his entire career. The winning ticket cost less than $6.The young horticulture student from Drogheda, Co. Louth, was still in shock when he went to collect his winnings."How do you tell somebody how you are after winning the lotto?" he asked. "Everybody kind of thinks you're joking at the start. I think they will all know now that I'm not lying."Before his father decided to return to Ireland, Greg, who has caddied for him during the summer, said, "My parents didn't believe me when I told them. My dad started laughing. I told him, 'Honestly, I'm not joking!' I'd say they were in shock."Greg, whose own golf standard is quite respectable -- he plays off a six handicap - said it took a long time for the win to sink in."I woke up this morning and got my breakfast. I decided to look at my lotto ticket to see how I got on. I put on teletext and looked at the numbers. I had to look at it about five times," he said."I even turned off the telly and put it back on five minutes later to see again, to make sure I wasn't dreaming."Although he's now a multi-millionaire, he said he intends continuing with his studies with an eye to becoming a golf course superintendent.