McClean targets successful defence at Seapoint
Malone’s Matt McClean wants to follow in the footsteps of Padraig Harrington on the 30th anniversary of his victory at the Flogas Irish Men’s Amateur Open Championship.
The 31-year-old optician won last year, when he got the better of Liam Nolan in the closing holes at County Sligo, and will look to bridge a 28-year gap in becoming the first player to go back-to-back since Keith Nolan in 1997.
But a couple of years before the Bray man had his victory in Fota Island, future three-time Major winner Harrington took home the prize, and he is an inspiration to McClean heading into this week.
“The names on this trophy in particular are very impressive over the years,” said McClean.
“It’s cool to be on a list associated with some of those guys on the trophy. Padraig obviously is of my generation, he was the guy in Ireland with (Darren) Clarke, and (Graeme) McDowell, who set that standard in terms of winning Majors and competing for the biggest tournaments in the world.
“I was lucky to play with him in 2023 for a couple practice rounds at the US Open and he's just so energetic about golf and enthusiastic about golf, it's pretty cool to listen to, which is nice.”
The win in 2024 was McClean’s first Irish Championship, coming from behind in a fascinating battle with his former Walker Cup teammate. Now, as he prepares to make the journey to Seapoint, he’s aiming to defend the prestigious title.
“It was a relatively long time trying to finally to get a winner in a championship in Ireland, so it was obviously a bit of a relief at the time just to at least get one”, said McClean.
“Obviously last year counts for nothing now and it’s a pretty similar attitude going into the week, just trying to take play each shot, and it will all add up at the end of the week and you'll finish wherever you're going to finish.”
The Flogas Irish Men’s Amateur Open Championship will once again draw some of the best talent from around the world, as competitors from England, Wales, Scotland, Switzerland, Italy, China, Finland and France join the over 100 Irishplayers in the field as four rounds of stroke play lie ahead over next four days, with the top 50 plus ties making it through to the final round on Sunday.
For McClean his preparation has been encouraging. A tied third finish at The Lytham Trophy, an event which takes place at what he describes as “possibly the hardest golf course we play all year,” has given him confidence that his game is trending in the right direction and while he admits there’s always room for improvement, he’s satisfied with how things are shaping up.
“The swing is pretty good, still the same as every golfer, no one's ever fully happy so there's those things to get better and work on”, said McClean.
“You have to play well around Lytham to finish well, so try to continue that sort of golf, that sort of swing thoughts into this week and then hopefully the rest of the season.”
The Flogas Irish Men’s Amateur Open Championship tees up from 8:00am tomorrow as East of Ireland Champion Caolan Rafferty (Dundalk), Richard Knightly (Royal Dublin) and Colm Campbell (Warrenpoint) get proceedings underway while McClean is set to tee up alongside Stuart Grehan (Co Louth) and Matt Roberts (Royal Porthcawl) from 9:06am.
Keep up to date on all the action here
