BALLYLIFFIN, IRELAND | Between New York City, on the east coast of the United States, and County Donegal, on the west coast of Ireland, there is not a lot of land.
There is a lot of sea, though, and in pure golfing terms the two locations are not just an ocean but worlds apart.
Last week, however, those distant spots – the streets of Manhattan Island and the dunes of the Inishowen Peninsula – were drawn together by Luke Sample, a 21-year-old New Yorker who defied conventional links golf wisdom to reach the semifinal stage of the 2024 Amateur Championship at Ballyliffin Golf Club. He was the first American to achieve that feat since Jim Liu in 2013 at Royal Cinque Ports.
Old-timers will insist, of course, that seaside golf requires years of refinement, that it is a slippery riddle with no cheat code.
No one told Sample.
No matter that he spent his formative years playing the game indoors or that he’d honed his swing thumping balls into nets overlooking the Hudson River rather than scuttling them through sand hills next to the Atlantic.
No matter that he’d been in Ireland less than a week and had only three rounds on the linksland under his belt at the start of the tournament week.
No matter that summer is a theoretical concept this year and that Ballyliffin was battered by gusts of wind so strong they were more likely to carry the scent of street-cart hot dogs and fried onions from Brooklyn than the comforting whiff of Nancy’s “world award winning chowder” in Ballyliffin village, two miles up the road.
“This being potentially my last summer of amateur golf, I wanted to learn as much as I can. I’ve enjoyed playing the elite amateur championships in the States, but this was something very different, and we planned it all out.”
Luke Sample
Sample carded rounds of 69-76 in fierce conditions to progress from the stroke-play section in a share of 28th. He squeezed past Spain’s Sergio Jimenez, 1-up, in the first round of match play and then hit his straps, defeating a trio of Englishmen – Walker Cup veteran Conor Gough, 3 and 2; Harry Crockett, 4 and 3; and Matthew Dodd-Berry, 1 up – before eventual champion Jacob Skov Olesen of Denmark proved to be a step too far in the final four.
After his 3-and-1 defeat, Sample was wet and cold, but unbowed.
“It’s tough to lose but I’m not going to turn this into an unsuccessful week in my mind because I didn’t come out on top in the championship,” he said. “I’ve always taken pride in my ability to be adaptable to situations, and I think I have proven that to myself again this week. So, yeah, I’m pretty proud right now.”
That versatility had proved to be invaluable all week, further fuelled by a sense of adventure that had drawn him to Europe in the first place.
“I made a conscious decision to make this trip during the winter,” he told GGP in the refuge of the warm Ballyliffin clubhouse. “This being potentially my last summer of amateur golf, I wanted to learn as much as I can. I’ve enjoyed playing the elite amateur championships in the States, but this was something very different, and we planned it all out.”
Sample, who recently completed his junior year at Duke University, was not the only one plotting summer visits to the Emerald Isle. The narrow roads of Donegal are thronged with his countrymen and -women, all overlooking a straightforward “Hello” in greeting and instead crying in something akin to ecstasy: “Do you see that house/village/barn in the distance? That’s where my ancestors were born!”
“I am actually about 25 percent Irish,” Sample said. “My grandmother on my father’s side came from Donegal. We don’t know where, but as the plane landed, I gave it some thought that, Wow, this is where I’m from.”
First stop was Rosapenna Golf Resort, an hour’s drive south of Ballyliffin.
“That was mostly to learn about links golf, but it was an experience in itself that I am very grateful for,” Sample said. “To travel over here with my father, James, and to play two rounds together was a life experience for both of us and something we’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
Halfway through the second round at Rosapenna, James turned to his caddie, Patrick MacGowan, and asked if he wanted to carry his son’s bag at Ballyliffin. Once he’d secured a week off work, he replied with an emphatic: “Yes!”
“Patrick has become a great friend this week,” Sample said. “He’s just really kept me in it and present all week. Golf over here is very different, but you embrace it. I’ve encountered bad rain before, but some of the wind this week was unlike anything I have ever seen before. It demanded club selections that I was not at all accustomed to. It was a grind, but it was a fun grind.
“The courses are unlike any I’ve ever played, and Ireland is just a very special place.”
The European vacation is far from over. This week, he will play the European Amateur Championship at The Scandinavian Golf Club near Copenhagen, Denmark. Then, regional and he hopes final qualifying for the Open will follow at a venue yet to be determined in England or Scotland.
Then he will return across the Atlantic for the U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota. He’ll warm up for the national championship in the Metropolitan Amateur at Somerset Hills Country Club in Bernardsville, New Jersey – the world traveller will be returning to the city that moulded him.
“You don’t really see too many of us golfers in Manhattan,” he said. “I first hit balls on Long Island and New Jersey ranges, and then I met my first swing coach at Chelsea Piers.
“My journey to the top levels of amateur golf has definitely been different. But I’m a proud New Yorker, and I wouldn’t want to have grown up anywhere else, even as a golfer.”
E-MAIL MATT
Top: Luke Sample didn't have much experience with links golf before reaching the semifinals of the British Amateur.
Oisin Keniry, R&A via Getty Images