After Winged Foot Sugrue set for Irish Open debut
WHEN Mallow’s James Sugrue finally gets the chance to turn professional (likely to be the start of 2021) he will likely look back at last week’s exploits in the US Open as one of the most positive learning curves of his young sporting life.
The tournament, which took place at the infamous Winged Foot, New York, did its best to bring golfers of all ages and abilities to their knees, and in the case of more than most it did just that.
Young Sugrue didn’t make the cut last week, after a tough first day and an even tougher second one, but he did make birdie on his last hole to show that he is well capable of fighting to the bitter end – something that is a prerequisite for any successful sports star – regardless of the chosen discipline.
Sugrue gave the US Open his all and will hopefully get to compete in that event again in the future, but for now the most significant thing to come from his trip across the Atlantic was the intervention of his playing partner for the two days, Lee Westwood, whose comments about his “surprise” that Sugrue had not got an invite to the Irish Open seemed to have focussed some minds. Sugrue subsequently got an invite (a fully deserved one at that) to his national championship.
So, this week, just seven days after he teed it up at one of the most feared golf courses on the planet, Sugrue gets to pit his talents against some of the best professional golfers in Europe on the 7,087 yard Galgorm Golf Resort Parkland course.
Sugrue will only get better with the experience gained at Winged Foot and this week’s Irish Open experience (his first) will also play a part in what this young star is likely to achieve into the future.
Sugrue still has the US Masters at Augusta to look forward in November but if his schedule doesn’t change from now to the most famous golf tournament of them all, then this week will be his last chance to get a professional tournament in before the last of the 2020 Majors.
Sugrue’s abilities on a golf course are unquestioned, his talent is obvious for all to see and this week affords the young Mallow Golf Club member the opportunity to show that to a large television audience, but as an amateur the expectations are still restrained – the pressure on Sugrue to perform this week in Antrim will all be internal and that may well suit his chances.
James Sugrue may win this week, and that would be quite something. Rule nothing in or out, but the number one real will be to get off to a solid start, then to get his game flowing and hopefully then make the cut. Making the cut is the main goal this weeked.