Chile start to 2019 for Irish stars
GALWAY’S Ronan Mullarney and Douglas’ Peter O’Keeffe will be joined by Paula Grant and Annabel Wilson in the South American Amateur Championship in Chile today.
The pair are gunning for some glory at Club de
Golf Los Leones in Santiago, where Warrenpoint’s Paddy Gribben won the Eisenhower Trophy in a GB and Ireland side featuring Luke Donald, Gary Wolstenholme and Lorne Kelly in 1998.
The reigning Irish Student champion, Mullarney (23) enjoyed a prolific
2018 at home and abroad, winning his
Irish Students title at Tralee in addition to the R&A Foundation Scholars Tournament at St Andrews.
Making his Ireland debut at this year’s Home Internationals, the Galway man won five out of six points, though that was not enough to give Ireland the Raymond Trophy for the fifth year in a row.
He’s currently studying for an MSc in Strategy and Innovation at Maynooth University but O’Keeffe already has a wealth of life experience, having regained his amateur status after a sojourn in the professional ranks.
“I went to Q-School six times and came back to amateur status to enjoy my golf,” he said en route to a career-changing win in the Flogas Irish Amateur Open in 2017. “I never fell out of love with it.”
That win clinched a long-awaited Irish cap and while he didn’t add to his haul of major wins last year, he begins 2019 as the second highest ranked Irish player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking behind Caolan Rafferty at 54th.
The South American Amateur (Campeonato Sudamericano Amateur) is a 72-hole strokeplay event, supported by the R&A, that attracts a strong international field from Europe, Australia and North America.