Galgorm to host NI Collegiate Invitational next year

A view of the Championship Castle Course at Galgorm (Photo: Kevin Markham)

Galgorm Castle will host some of the top US collegiate stars when it stages the inaugural NI Collegiate Invitational from September 5-9 next year.

The announcement comes in a week when rookie sensation Jackson Koivun (21) makes his debut for the USA in the Presidents Cup at Medinah as a PGA Tour winner, less than four months after leaving Auburn University.

The Galgorm event, the first Division I collegiate golf tournament held here, was developed through a strategic partnership between the Ballymena resort, Cara Group Travel and Boardwalk Sports.

The tournament is expected to feature up to 16 leading Division I men's golf programmes competing in both team and individual championships as part of their regular-season schedules. 

"Welcoming some of America's premier university golf programmes to compete here reflects both the quality of the venue and Northern Ireland's standing as a global golf destination,"  said Gary Henry, Group Golf Director, Galgorm Collection.

Irish golf is struggling to find its own Koivun and so far, just five players have made it through the First Stage of the DP World Tour Qualifying School.

Of the 20 players to tee it up in seven of the first eight qualifiers, only Thomas Higgins (23), John-Ross Galbraith (32), Niall Kearney (38), Ronan Mullarney (31) and Dermot McElroy (33) have made next month's Second Stage.

Co Louth amateur Dylan Keating (24) has a chance to join them after a third-round 69 left him sitting on a seven-under qualifying mark with a round to play at Golfclub Schloss Ebreichsdorf in Austria.

HotelPlanner Tour players will join the card battle at the Second or Final Stage, and Kilkenny's Mark Power still has a chance to make his mark on the second-tier tour after receiving an invitation for next week's Abu Dhabi Challenge.

The two-time Walker Cup star ranks 73rd in the Road to Mallorca Rankings and must reach the top 70 to qualify for back-to-back big-money events in China.

Only the top 45 in the Rankings qualify for the season-ending Grand Final, after which the top 15 in the final points list will earn DP World Tour cards.

It makes next week an important one for Liam Nolan (43rd in the standings), Gary Hurley (55th), Power (73rd), Max Kennedy (77th), Mullarney (136th), Conor Purcell (155th) and James Sugrue (215th).

Meanwhile, Tom McKibbin's comfortable 78th position in the Race to Dubai has allowed him to skip the FedEx Open de France at Le Golf National.

While he missed the cut in the BMW PGA, McKibbin's top five finish in the Amgen Irish Open leaves him well inside the top 100 who will keep their cards.

Race to Dubai leader Patrick Reed and his nearest rival, Rory McIlroy, are also skipping the trip to Paris, where European Ryder Cup stars Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg, and Adare Manor hopefuls Ryan Gerard and Kristoffer Reitan are the star attractions.

Manuel  Elvira, whose closing double-bogey cost him dear at Wentworth on Sunday, also tees it up.

On the LPGA Tour, Leona Maguire returns to action after her Solheim Cup heroics, joining Lauren Walsh and Stephanie Meadow in the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship from tomorrow.

It's also a Friday start for Olivia Mehaffey, Sara Byrne, Anna Foster, Aine Donegan and Annabel Wilson in the Buccellati Ladies Italian Open in Milan.