GETTING TO KNOW MY GAME
Alan Fahy on golfing maturity that saw him finish top of the Bridgestone Order of Merit
ALAN Fahy credited his growing maturity as a golfer as the key to his success after capping his most consistent season to date by winning the 2020 Bridgestone Order of Merit.
The Dun Laoghaire star entered the final tournament in this year’s series holding a healthy 60-point advantage but began the last day at the AIG Irish Close Championship outside the top-20 players who would be awarded points at Rosapenna’s Sandy Hills Links.
When it mattered most, however, Fahy delivered, closing with a three-under-par 69 to take the chequered flag.
“I’ve definitely matured as a golfer,” Fahy said after compiling a 298-point winning tally in the four-tournament series.
“I don’t really get too fazed anymore, and I’m pretty level headed so I just tried to enjoy it, knowing I’d done a lot of the hard work in the first three events.”
With Carton House’s Boucher, then fourth in the Bridgestone table, only two shots back of the leaders ahead of the final round, the gauntlet was thrown down to Fahy to produce his Sunday best to secure the Order of Merit crown.
But Fahy rose to the challenge, making six birdies to claim a share of eighth place for his fourth top-10 of an incredible campaign.
“I was so happy to see it out,” said Fahy, who can now count himself part of Golf Ireland’s first men’s High Performance Panel after the top-three in the Series – Fahy, Boucher and Irish Close champion Hugh Foley – earned automatic selections.
“It was my goal to make the panel at the start of the season. I’ve been eyeing it up for the last couple of years. I’ve been on the Leinster team the last two years but getting on that Irish team is the next level.
“What comes with it, from the trips away to the opportunity to practice at the Academy at Carton House, it’s a huge boost, especially with the floodlit practice greens at Carton for the winter. I’m just delighted to get it.”
An individual win may have proved elusive in the four counting events in this year’s Bridgestone, but Order of Merits reward consistency and nobody has matched Fahy’s heights this term. In fact, the recent Maynooth graduate completed a rare double with his Bridgestone win adding to another Order of Merit triumph in the inaugural R&A Student Tour Series.
“I did the double,” he laughed, before addressing the missing ‘W’ from his 2020 CV.
“Look, to win one of these tournaments you’re going to have to be firing on all cylinders and have stuff go your way. I’ve just been playing really consistently.
“The standard is so good. They’re full fields. The cut-offs are plus-one, and there weren’t many international events, so all the best lads were playing.
“Obviously it would’ve been really nice to win, but I think I’d rather be consistent at this level. If you’re competing here in Ireland, particularly given what the likes of James Sugrue and Mark Power are doing, you can do quite well for yourself. The amateur circuit is so strong here at the minute, so it’s great to not only be a part of it but to be able to compete.”
Fahy’s season began with a top-10 result at the Mullingar Scratch Trophy where Jason Rackard recorded a maiden ‘major’ win.
He was on form again at Cork Golf Club where he raced to a final round 67 before grabbing a distant share of second at the Munster Stroke Play championship behind Peter O’Keeffe, who ran out the winner by seven shots.
In the Connacht Stroke Play at Portumna, where Rowan Lester prevailed, Fahy was again an ever-present on the leaderboard before eventually sharing fourth place alongside Boucher.
“I’d say I practised more than I ever have in the month or two leading up to these events,” he reflected. “My game was in good shape. I’ve been playing pretty similar for the last four or five months.
“I’m starting to know my own game a bit more. I’ve been doing a lot of short game work – that’s kind of kept me going. If I hit a bad shot, I’m able to recover a lot better than I used to and that keeps rounds ticking over. Getting up and down for par is such a boost.”
While most will wish to forget 2020, Fahy will be able to recall the year of the pandemic as the season he won the Bridgestone Order of Merit.
“I was just happy that the season went ahead, but when they announced the four tournaments and they were spread out nicely as well, it was something really good to practice towards,” he said.
“I got the head down and worked hard because I knew it was a short season but hats off to the GUI for even getting the four events in, and for Bridgestone’s continued support.
“These are strange times, but I know how much it meant to the lads, to not only have a bit of competition this season but also a bit of normality because at one stage it was looking like a long, boring summer with no golf on the horizon.”
Fahy now has real structure
to look forward to amongst the country’s elite amateur players, though he admits his future in golf is uncertain.
“Maybe in a couple of years I’ll think about turning professional, but I’m not going to rush anything,” he added. “I’ve found in the past that if I try to push and take it really seriously, I almost go backwards, but if I take a step back and keep practising, I seem to develop better.
“When you’re purely focussed on golf I think you can get in your own way a bit, but I’ll definitely play a full season next year and depending on how I do, I’ll see what the next step is after that.”