Written by Stephen Moloney (www.twitter.com/TheCheeky9)
Way back at the beginning of September I tweeted how, given it was still only September, what a great year it had been for Irish golf. And though I tried to cram as many of the accomplishments those golfers borne of this island had managed to achieve over the previous eight and a bit months into the 280 characters Twitter would afford me, I just couldn’t fit everything in.
And, in a way, that’s a testament to just how good a year it had been up to that point. I mean, within the first nineteen days of 2019 alone, Pádraig Harrington was announced as the man who would take the helm of the Ryder Cup Team when they rock up to Whistling Straits in 2020 and Shane Lowry notched up the first of what would eventually come to be two massive wins by claiming the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship – now if only I could remember what the other one was … is him winning a ‘Whiskey Carafe’ ringing a bell for anyone else, no?
Either way, whatever it was, where Pádraig and Shane set the ball rolling in January, over the course of the next few months, the good news just kept on coming. Whether it was Rory McIlroy winning three times enroute to claiming the FedEx Cup; Graeme McDowell returning to the winner’s circle after a four year absence down in the Dominican Republic; Shane Lowry capturing the Claret Jug (that’s the one) after that magical Saturday 63 set the stage at Royal Portrush; Leona Maguire going back-to-back in April and May with vital wins on the Symetra Tour; or even Mallow man, James Sugrue, clinching the British Amateur Championship in June before going on to play in the Walker Cup alongside fellow Irishmen, Conor Purcell and Caolan Rafferty; whoever it was, Irish golfers spent the spring and summer hauling in so much gold and silver you’d have been forgiven for thinking they were actually a band of marauding 18th century pirates terrorising merchant ships down in the Caribbean.
And yet despite all of that success on the course, the fact Irish golfers were finishing atop leaderboards and clocking up “W’s” was not the only cause for celebration over the first nine months of 2019.
The Dubai Duty Free Irish Open up in Lahinch was another massive success and firmly re-established why it’s, not only deserving of it’s billing as one of the eight Rolex Series events, but also why it’s one of the biggest events on the European Tour season, period. Star name after star name – including none other than the man who put mock turtlenecks on the map, Tiger Woods – signed up to play in JP’s Pro-Am next July and put in motion a future headache for the air traffic control tower in Shannon to try and find enough spaces to park all of their jets. And, in another small bit of news to do with Adare Manor, there was also the teeny-tiny announcement back in July that the RYDER BLOODY CUP will also be coming to Limerick in 2026 – meaning we’ve a full seven years to prepare ourselves for the inevitable disappointment of not getting a ticket for it.
However, if the period from January to September can be best characterized by glittering trophies, massive crowds of people and big-time announcements, then the last three months of the season, I think, can be done so with a single word: Grit.
Because whilst there was still trophies and wheelbarrows of cash won between September and the end of November – McIlroy at the WGC-HSBC Champions, Kinsale native, John Murphy, winning a first individual title with the University of Louisville and Lowry netting himself an oh-so-tasty $600,000 for finishing fourth in the Race to Dubai rankings – it was those victories which didn’t necessarily get rewarded with a trophy or enough money to buy a nice, four bedroom detached house in the suburbs of Cork City that really stood out for me.
Like Leona Maguire clinching a spot on the LPGA Tour next season after finishing seventh in the ‘Volvik Race for the Card’ rankings on the Symetra Tour. Like Stephanie Meadow draining a twenty foot-plus putt on the final green at the Volunteers of America Classic to keep her own LPGA Tour card. Like Cormac Sharvin, thanks to his eleventh place finish in the Challenge Tour’s ‘Race to Mallorca’ rankings, now being able to roll into Mount Juliet next May in order to try and better this year’s T-15 finish in Lahinch as a full member of the European Tour. And just a week ago today, Jonathan Caldwell emerging from the six-day mental and physical slog that is the Final Stage of Qualifying School with one of the twenty-five European Tour Cards that had been on offer clenched tightly in his fist and, like Cormac, now getting to tee it up this week down in South Africa at the Alfred Dunhill Championship as a result.
Photo Credit: Kinetica Sports
And it’s those victories, many of them hard-fought for and ground-out away from the glare of an army of television cameras and tens of thousands of people, which, for me, serve to put the icing on the cake that was 2019 for Irish golf. Because whilst having the likes of Rory and Shane winning in the very upper echelons of the game and big announcements that the world’s best players will be arriving on our doorstep never gets old, what those gritty wins at the end of the year have done is sow the seeds for even more great things to potentially happen in 2020.
And given how things seem to be shaping up already, when it comes time to write another one of these season reviews next year, I’ve a feeling I’ll be finding the 280 characters on Twitter just that little bit wanting once again – because, come on, Rory winning the Masters and Harrington winning the Ryder Cup with Rory and Shane Lowry in the team? That’s at least 280 characters worth of material right there.