Big cash boost for nine budding stars
Professional golf is costly, but it will be easier this year for the nine golfers on the Golf Ireland Professional Scheme after Sport Ireland awarded them €350,000 towards their 2025 expenses.
Conor Purcell, Lauren Walsh, Max Kennedy, Mark Power, Alex Maguire, Annabel Wilson, Sara Byrne, Anna Foster and Liam Nolan will each receive €33,000 in support.
It's a massive boost for Ireland's budding stars, who face huge expenses as they battle to make their mark on the game's professional tours.
It's been a good week for Royal Dublin star Kennedy, who is plying his trade on Europe's second-tier HotelPlanner Tour this year.
The €33,000 Sport Ireland grant comes just days after his club raised an impressive €120,000 for him and clubmate Hugh Foley thanks to a special members and corporate golf day held at the Bull Island links last Friday.
"Joining the Golf Ireland Professional Scheme has given me a boost as I take on the HotelPlanner Tour," said Kennedy, whose clubmate Foley is playing on the third-tier Alps Tour.
"The support and resources available through the scheme make a real difference when you are competing at a high level internationally."
Apart from direct funding, the scheme also gives players coaching expertise, access to Golf Ireland's National Academy and Quinta do Lago training base, and access to the Sport Ireland Institute.
Several former recipients of Sport Ireland golf grants and former members of Golf Ireland's High Performance panel were in action this week on the third-tier Clutch Tour in Morocco.
Naas' Robert Brazill (28) was seven under after 10 holes in the final round of the 54-hole Al Houra Trophy but faded to card a three-under 69 to finish third, three shots behind England's Jack Yule.
It was an even more frustrating day for overnight leader John-Ross Galbraith (31), a former Irish Close winner, who followed a blistering second-round 61 with a 74 to finish joint sixth, five shots behind the winner.
Brazill won €3,528 while Galbraith earned just €1,882 from an event where the entry fee was between €411 and €529, depending on the player's class of tour membership.
The total purse was just €64,000, compared to the $9.9m on offer at the PGA Tour's CJ CUP Byron Nelson in Texas this week.
At the LPGA Tour Black Desert Championship in Utah, South Korea's Haeran Ryu opened with a nine-under 63 to lead by a shot in the clubhouse from Thailand's Ariya Jutanugarn and Korea’s Wei-Ling Hsu.
Meanwhile, Douglas’ Sara Byrne made six birdies but four bogeys and two double bogeys saw her open with a two-over 74 in the Epson Tour’s Reliance Matrix Championship in Las Vegas.
She was tied for 81st, nine shots off the lead as she bids to win one of ten LPGA cards at the end of the season.
Byrne is 81st in the Race for the Card standings ,with two cuts made from her first four starts.
