Golf fans in the West are in for a major treat next month when an Augusta Masters champion takes to the fairways of one of Galway’s top courses in a match against some of the best amateur golfers from Ireland.
Stewart Hagestad, who finished as the champion amateur golfer in this month’s Masters – and finished in a tie for 36th overall – is part of the Metropolitan Golf Association team that will be competing for the 14th edition of the Carey Cup at the Galway Bay Golf Resort in Rinville, Oranmore, on Wednesday, May 17, and Thursday, May 18.
The Carey Cup is a biennial tournament played between teams of six amateur golfers representing the Golfing Union of Ireland and the MGA, which is based in the New York area, and Hagestad (26) is the marquee name from this year’s team line-ups, which were confirmed at Galway Bay on Tuesday.
Speaking at the launch, the Chief Executive of the GUI, Pat Finn, explained that it was the love for the West of Ireland of an Irish-American man heavily involved with the tournament that will see it staged in Galway for the first time next month.
“The last time the event was played was in 2015 at Metedeconk National in the US, the 25th anniversary of the first staging of the event which was also at Metedeconk, and there was a man who was involved in 2015 who was involved in the first staging of the match.
“Chauncey Durkin is a New York-based Irish American lawyer, and he just loves the west of Ireland, he has an affinity for the west of Ireland. He supported the match in the US, along with his friends, and there was a request from that Irish American community that supported the match that the event be staged in the West of Ireland in 2017.
“We looked at a number of options and chose Galway Bay as the one we wanted to go for: its proximity to Galway City, the quality of the facility, it has staged top championships in the past, and also the fact the GUI has never held a national event here also came into our thinking,” Mr Finn explained.
A group of around 60 people will travel over from the US for the tournament, including Mr Durkin and representatives of the Irish-American community, who will play in a special AM/Am on Tuesday, May 16, before the action gets underway on the Monday.
Both the US team and Irish teams are playing in the Irish Amateur Open in Royal County Down the previous week, and the US team will also play Lahinch on Monday, as well as the AM/AM on the Tuesday, before the competition starts on the Wednesday.
“We’d encourage anyone with an interest in golf to come out and watch. It is the closest people will get to see this kind of quality golf, there are no spectator ropes, and there is no admission charge so anyone and everyone is welcome to come along,” said Ronan Killeen, the Managing Director of Galway Bay Golf Resort.
“We had a tournament here in 1999 on the European Tour, the West of Ireland Golf Classic, which Constantino Rocco won to seal his place on the Ryder Cup. The late Christy O’Connor Junior held a charity AM/AM here in July 2015, and that was the start of the profile returning to where we’d like to be.
“It will be huge for the region down the line, it will raise the profile not only of Galway Bay Golf Resort, but of Galway and the West of Ireland,” Mr Killeen said.
The MGA has named a strong team as it bids to win back the trophy, having been beaten 8-4 by the GUI team at the Metedeconk National in 2015. Hagestad is joined on the MGA team by Tyler Cline (23), the 2016 MGA Player of the Year; the 2015 and 2016 MGA Mid-Am champion, Trevor Randolph (44); and Darin Goldstein (35), the 2016 LIGA Amateur Champion. The team is completed by Ethan Ng (17) and Brian Komline (43), who will be making his seventh MGA International appearance.
However, it trails the GUI on the honours list, having captured the trophy four times, compared to the eight wins by the GUI since it was first played in 1990. There was one tie, in 2007.
The Irish team features 2016 Irish Amateur Open champion Colm Campbell (29) of Warrenpoint in Down; Irish Amateur Close champion 2016 Alex Gleeson (23) of Castle GC in Dublin; 2014 Junior Open Champion Kevin Le Blanc (19) from The Island GC in Dublin; and the Naas duo of Conor O’Rourke (26), who won the St Andrew’s Links Trophy in 2016, and Jonathan Yates (23), who won both the West of Ireland Championship and the Midlands Scratch Cup in 2015.
The sixth member of the team is Mark Power (16) from Kilkenny GC, who was the Irish U-18 Boys champion in 2016 and is tipped as one of the hottest prospects in Irish golf.
He will hope to follow in the footsteps of some other famous Irish golfers who have featured in previous Carey Cup encounters: both Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley played in the inaugural tournament in 1990, while Shane Lowry and Paul Dunne have also featured in the Irish side over the years.
The competition will see all six players play Foursomes on Wednesday morning (tee 8am-9am) and Fourballs in the afternoon (12.30pm-2pm); while on Thursday, the singles begins at 8am. There is plenty of parking on site, but people are advised to arrive early on both days.
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