Can Golf Ireland create a pathway to tour success?
PRODUCING the next generation of Irish winners looks like an uphill task as the world’s professional tours becoming increasingly competitive.
But Golf Ireland, which will take over from the GUI and the ILGU in January 2021, has identified what it believes is a clear pathway to success, even into the professional game.
This week, the new governing body’s High Performance Committee revealed the organigram of a high performance programme (inset below) that aims to equip players with the necessary skills to help them participate in the sport for life or even become a professional golfer, “if that is what they wish to do.”
It’s a laudable goal with players progressing along a pathway from club golf to Area Development, Performance Development and High Performance panels.
If they are good enough, they may even make the Team Ireland Golf panel for budding professionals hoping to follow in the footsteps of LPGA Tour players Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow or Major winners Pádraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke and Shane Lowry.
The Team Ireland scheme has invested a whopping €4 million in 106 budding professionals over the past 20 years, yielding European Tour wins for the likes of Michael Hoey (5), Philip Walton (3), Peter Lawrie (1), Damien McGrane (1), Simon Thornton (1) and Paul Dunne (1) as well as many successes on minor tours.
The big names continue to thrive but there is a gap forming with only Jonathan Caldwell and Cormac Sharvin enjoying full status alongside the Major winners on the European Tour this season.
The disappointing Irish entry in the recent Dubai Duty Free Irish Open – there were more Scottish than Irish players in action at Galgorm Castle – has provoked much debate about the lack of strength in depth in Irish golf right now.
Of the five strong home contingent that made the cut, only Caldwell is a current European Tour member with amateurs James Sugrue and Mark Power joined for the weekend by club professionals McGrane and Colm Moriarty.
Straight-talking McGrane, who is now the professional at Carlow Golf Club, did not hold back when speaking to RTE Radio’s Greg Allen about what he described as a “miserable” week for Irish golf.
“The new men are struggling still to find their feet and
struggling to establish themselves on the tour,” McGrane said. “There is a kink in the system somewhere from leading amateur to leading tour pro. The few guys who have made it, they have made it big. But there are too many guys falling by the wayside.
“I believe that our leading players need to help them more. They need to nurture them and help them along. Paul McGinley always promoted that. There are a lot getting caught in the quicksand and they disappear. And these are good players.”
Producing great amateurs does not mean that Ireland will produce a conveyor belt of great professionals and new solutions are required.
“What happens is that when the top amateur turns up, the tour pro looks up the line and just sees another young lad – a victim, a lamb to the slaughter,” McGrane said.
Whatever the future holds for Golf Ireland, helping our fledgling stars fly the nest is key to the our future success.
“In order for all aspects of Irish golf to succeed, we need Shane, probably Pádraig, Rory, Graeme, Paul Dunne and all these fantastic players to succeed and that keeps Irish golf at the top,” McGrane said.
“Somebody has to figure out why this gap is forming because Ireland should be producing a conveyor belt of great golfers.”