Tradition is everything in golf, but Golf Ireland and County Sligo Golf Club have moved with the times and introduced a new format for the 99th edition of the West of Ireland Amateur Open next week at the Rosses Point links.
The traditional curtain-raiser in Irish men's amateur golf has achieved a significant coup by attracting a new sponsor in Connolly's Audi for the April 15-19 classic.
But the big news is that the championship in which Rory McIlroy, at age 15 in 2005, became its youngest champion before retaining the title in 2006, will be played under a new format for the next two years. The top 16 players after three rounds of strokeplay will go through to the matchplay stages on Monday and Tuesday, April 18-19.
It will be the third new format since 2019, but there were good reasons for those changes.
Three years ago, Rosses Point was set to host the Irish Amateur Open stroke play just a few weeks after “the West,†so the date was brought forward to leave a sufficient gap between big events.
The traditional 36-hole qualifying format followed by knockout matchplay for the top 64 was replaced by a 72-hole strokeplay tournament, which was won by Dundalk's Caolan Rafferty, a Walker Cup player, in order to attract overseas players who might fancy playing the Irish Strokeplay.
“They want to retain the matchplay to finish off the competition but also to try and maximise the chances of having a really good last 16."
Mark Wehrly, Golf Ireland
COVID-19 put paid to the West in 2020, and when it was finally played in September 2021 following more pandemic restrictions, the 72-hole format was retained with the action happening over two days, when Royal Dublin's Hugh Foley won by five strokes.
“In the main, it’s something the committee wants to try,†said Sligo man Mark Wehrly, director of championships for Golf Ireland, of the 54/16 format.
“They want to retain the matchplay to finish off the competition but also to try and maximise the chances of having a really good last 16. The vagaries of the 64 mean a favourite can be knocked out pretty easily. So, it is really to try it out from that point of view.
“Some believe the 64 to qualify might be the way to go in the long run. Others say strokeplay might be the way to go. It was just felt that it was worth a try.â€
Rosses Point is one of Irish golf's magical places, and the venue has enchanted visitors for over a century, crowning West of Ireland champions from McIlroy, Pádraig Harrington and Shane Lowry to Joe Carr, Cecil Ewing and John Burke, as well as Irish Close winners such as Paul McGinley.
As the Manchester Guardian’s Pat Ward-Thomas wrote so lyrically: “It all lies on a peninsula between the bays of Drumcliff and Sligo; to the north, Ben Bulben rises like the prow of a great ship heading for eternal seas and away to the south is Knocknarea, where the cruel Queen Maeve lies buried high above her Connacht kingdom.â€
The arrival of a new sponsor in west of Ireland-based car dealership Connolly's Audi says it all about the grassroots of the event.
“When you live here locally, you see the community spirit involved from the members and all the volunteers,†said Neil Connolly, managing director of the Connolly Motor Group. “So it was an easy decision for us to say, ‘Yes, count on us.’ â€
The deal is for one year, but the sponsor is keen to carry on for the 100th staging in 2023 and potentially beyond.
“What sold us on the idea straight away is that the money is not going off into some corporate body or other,†Connolly said. “It's very much a grassroots-level sponsorship, and we're very proud to be involved.â€
Foley will be back to defend his title, but there will also be a strong local contingent headed by reigning South of Ireland champion and Irish international TJ Ford.
“The new format will be interesting to see,†said Ford, seventh behind Foley last September.
“There should be a great matchplay field because the quality should come through over 54 holes. If you make the 54-hole cut, you should have as good a chance of winning the West as you will ever have.â€
Ireland finished 10th of 18 nations in the men's event, with the women eighth from nine in the European Nations Championship at Real Club de Golf in Sotogrande.
In the men's event, Spain won the team title by an impressive 21 strokes from Germany on 13-over 877, with England third.
Jaime Montojo shot 75 and Luis Masaveu a 73 to leave them tied on level par 288 under challenging conditions, one ahead of Denmark's Hamish Brown.
Montojo went on to beat Masaveu in a playoff for the individual title and follow in the footsteps of McIlroy and Lowry. Of the “Home Nations,†England's Sam Bairstow was the leading finisher, in fifth on 294, with Wales' James Ashfield seventh and England's Olly Huggins tied 10th.
Castle's Robert Moran was the best of the Irish, in 13th on 15-over 303.
Germany's Helen Briem, Charlotte Back and Emily Krause won the women's event, by two strokes from the Czech Republic and by four from Spain, on 17-over 593.
Briem won the individual title by two strokes from Spain's Paula Martin Sampedro on 5-over 293 following rounds of 74, 73, 76 and 70, with Ireland's Beth Coulter third with the Czech Republic's Denisa Vodickova on 300.
RESULTS
Brian Keogh
