Irish golf claims 18 places in strong Amateur Championship field
Conor Purcell (Portmarnock) driving from the 5th tee in the final round of the 2019 Flogas Irish Amateur Open Championship at County Sligo. (19/05/2019). Picture by Pat Cashman
One of the strongest fields assembled in recent years will contest next month's Amateur Championship at The Island and Portmarnock with 18 Irish players making the 288 strong line up for 36-hole qualifying.
The cut off fell at 886th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking with three of the world's top 10 in action, headed by seventh-ranked David Micheluzzi of Australia , American world number eight Akshay Bhatia (17), who last week signed with Lagardère Sports, and Chinese Taipei’s Chun An Yu, the world number nine.
World No 1 Viktor Hovland, the US Amateur champion, is expected to turn professional this summer while Justin Suh, Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff, Takumi Kanaya and Cole Hammer also have other plans.
World No 21 Conor Purcell is the leading Irish entrant and one of three Portmarnock players in the field alongside Geoff Lenehan and James Fox.
West and South of Ireland champion Caolan Rafferty, Hermitage’s Rowan Lester, Kinsale’s St Andrews Links Trophy holder John Murphy, Galway’s Ronan Mullarney, former Irish Amateur Open winner Peter O'Keeffe from Douglas and junior sensation Tom McKibbin from Holywood will all play.
They are joined by Mallow’s James Sugrue, Massereene’s Tiarnan McLarnon, Oughterard’s Devin Morley, Naas’ Robert Brazill, reigning Irish Close champion Robert Cannon and runner-up Eoin Leonard, Dun Laoghaire’s Alan Fahy, Portmarnock men Lenehan and Fox, Portmarnock Links’ Eugene Smith and Warrenpoint’s Colm Campbell, who clinched the final spot despite missing last season through injury.
There are 25 Irish players among the 123 players on the reserve list with Waterford's Eanna Griffin the first reserve ahead of Hilton Templepatrick’s Reece Black (9th), Co Sligo’s TJ Ford (10th) and Castleknock’s Paul Coughlan (33rd).
The lowest 64 players after two strokeplay qualifying rounds at The Island and Portmarnock (Monday, June 17 and Tuesday June 18) will contest the matchplay stages at Portmarnock with the leading qualifiers seeded.
The preliminary (1st), second, third and fourth rounds will be played on Wednesday and Thursday with the quarter-finals and semi-finals on Friday, June 21 and the 36-hole final on Saturday, June 22.
Entries for the Amateur Championship, The Island and Portmarnock, June 17-22
Irish entrants in the field
Entrant, Name, Club, WAGR
7 Conor Purcell Portmarnock 21
12 Caolan Rafferty Dundalk 33
35 Rowan Lester Hermitage 89
77 John Murphy Kinsale 187
86 Ronan Mullarney Galway 208
90 Peter O'Keeffe Douglas 218
120 Tom McKibbin Holywood 303
121 James Sugrue Mallow 309
127 Tiarnan McLarnon Massereene 320
185 Devin Morley Oughterard 505
245 Robert Brazill Naas 727
269 Robert Cannon Balbriggan 826
275 Eoin Leonard Wentworth 856
283 Alan Fahy Dun Laoghaire 883
284 Geoff Lenehan Portmarnock 988
286 Eugene Smith The Links Portmarnock 1051
287 James Fox Portmarnock 1338
288 Colm Campbell Warrenpoint 2408
