Sometimes last minute plans can be the best plans and that’s the hope for Alex Maguire ahead of his first professional start on the DP World Tour after receiving a Monday afternoon invite to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews.
The Laytown & Bettystown golfer’s professional career may be in its infancy but the former St Andrews Links Trophy winner is one of just a few players to have lifted individual silverware at the Home of Golf, not even Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm or Brooks Koepka can say that!
“It’s an exciting week I’m very lucky with the course rotation I got, Carnoustie, Kingsbarns, St Andrews. It works in my favour given how last minute it is,” said Maguire who joins McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Pádraig Harrington and Tom McKibbin in the field.
The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is played across three courses, Kingsbarns, Carnoustie and St Andrews. Maguire has some recollection of Kingsbarns from a Walker Cup practice round last year and played nine holes on Tuesday and he plans to play as much of Carnoustie as he can today with his only knowledge of the course being highlights of Pádraig Harrington’s 2007 Open win.
The Dunhill has been good to blossoming young Irish professionals with Paul Dunne, Gary Hurley, John Murphy and Mark Power all earning professional starts following the Walker Cup.
Barclay Brown and James Ashfield, members of the 2023 GB&I Walker Cup team, were already pencilled in to compete but Maguire was left crestfallen last week when he was told an invite for him to join his former teammates wasn’t forthcoming.
That was until his father Sean alerted him on Monday morning that there were still four spaces for invites available. So with little time to think about it Maguire headed for St Andrews.
“I knew my manager applied for an invite for me at the start of the year when you can apply for invites. I always knew that Walker Cup players have always got a kickstart to their careers in this event, so I was sort of banking on it and hoping I would get an invite this year,” Maguire explained.
“Last week I was playing on Clutch and found out I wasn’t getting an invite that all the slots had been filled with thirteen new players so I was gutted and annoyed but when it comes to invites there is no point in being annoyed because there is no merit to them, you just hope history repeats and I do get an invite.
“I guess it came from my dad, I didn’t tell him I didn’t get in and then he looked up the entry list on Monday and called me asking what’s going on because I didn’t tell him. He mentioned there were four more invites available which I didn’t realise.
“I texted my manager and he got in touch with the guy who organises the invites and maybe that sparked something, so on Monday afternoon I got told to ‘get your arse’ over to St Andrews.”
Maguire enjoyed a golden summer at St Andrews last year, winning the St Andrews Links Trophy which propelled his amateur career to another level as appearances in the Open Championship and Walker Cup followed.
After a difficult start to life as a professional, the Mornington native hopes the Old Course can weave its magic again and kickstart his career
“It’s such a special place, there’s a huge buzz around the place the fact I have a small bit of my own history there and won a trophy and the Walker Cup is pretty cool. It’s nice to come back to somewhere I am very familiar with and have great memories and I hope that can help me especially on Saturday because I haven’t played here since the Walker Cup.
Maguire has been handed a favourable draw with a seemingly benign Carnoustie to come on Thursday before Kingsbarns on Friday and St Andrews on Saturday with the cut falling after 54 holes before the final round at the Old Course.
“I’m going to get Carnoustie on Thursday on a good day with no wind which will be a nice treat. If I can set myself up over the next few days to go into the weekend at St Andrews back to back I know I can play really well around there. I would like to think I can put myself into a good position to have a chance.
“The St Andrews Links Trophy would be a similar set up to the Dunhill because of all the amateurs playing so I would back myself going into the weekend. It’s all about getting off to a good start the first two days and keeping the ball in front of me, playing aggressively when I can and being conservative when I need to be.”
Maguire tees off at Carnoustie alongside Thailand’s David Boriboonsub at 10:17 and he will be joined by amateur Seamus Dunne.