“Total golfing heaven” is how West of Ireland champion Keith Egan described Royal Portrush as the course’s Dunluce Links is set to host the men’s season closing North of Ireland Amateur Open Championship.
Four rounds of strokeplay action lie ahead for the 120 players looking to etch their name on the final of the “big four” trophies on offer to the elite of Irish amateur golf this year with proceedings set to get underway tomorrow morning.
One of those players is Keith Egan who got his season off to an amazing start back in April when securing the West of Ireland Amateur Open Championship and the Carton House golfer aims to bookend his campaign in style when he tees off at a course he enjoys so much: “there’s no way I can miss it.”
“I’ve been so lucky to play so many good courses but for me nowhere comes close to Portrush in terms of a golf course. It is total golfing heaven, it’s got everything you want,” said Egan.
“It’s got the undulation of a parkland course; it’s got the trickiness of a lot of the other links courses but everything about it is totally fair and depending on the wind some holes can be just completely different in even a tiny bit of wind.”
The Newbridge native will be one of the top contenders in the field, competing alongside other title winners this season including Mullingar Scratch Trophy champion Brian Doran (Millicent), Munster Men’s Stroke Play Champion Paul Coughlan (Castleknock) and Connacht Men’s Amateur Stroke Play Champion Jake Whelan (Grange).
Having recently been named as the fourth best golf course in the world by Golf Digest, The Open hosting Dunluce Links will offer the ultimate test of stroke play golf this week, something that Egan is relishing as he feels his month long preparation has the 31-year-old primed and ready for action.
“Championships seem to always be match play on the links courses so four rounds stroke play on a links course is cool, it’s great that we do that especially on such a great course but also because it is an Open venue as well so you actually get a very good understanding of how good the pros are when they play it in the conditions that they are playing it because you literally play the exact same type of course,” said Egan.
“My body and my golf is good and I am raring to get going now. I’ve put in a bit of time on my golf to try get myself ready and I feel like I am playing well, it just comes down to managing my game and being able to play very freely around Portrush, which isn’t a very easy thing to do.”
Egan looks to join an exclusive list of players who have won both the West and North of Ireland Championships this week and though it would “be phenomenal” for the Carton House golfer to achieve his goal there is a lot of work to be done before he thinks about the possibility of bringing the prestigious title back home to Kildare.
“It kind of goes without saying that you want to win the North and you want to win in Portrush. For me the focus is on my golf and playing well and not think about the tournament until I get on to the last few holes in the last round so it’s staying disciplined and just putting myself in a position where I can actually think about that,” said Egan.
“It would be phenomenal, and it would be something that has probably rarely been done but I have a good chance, and I feel like if I play well, I’ll give myself a great chance to do it.”
A total of 25 players qualified for the North of Ireland from the Galgorm Castle qualifier on Monday, with the final seven places decided by a play-off contested by nine players.
The North of Ireland gets underway on Wednesday morning with Cian Harkin (Letterkenny), Benjamin Oberholzer (Clandeboye) and Ben Cahill (Dundalk) the first group set to tee off at 7.30am.
Follow all the action here