The Irish pairing of Aveen Moran, a two-time breast cancer survivor, and Mark Fallon secured a thrilling win in The R&A 9 Hole Challenge Final at Royal Troon.
Golfers from all over the world played more than 700,000 nine-hole qualifying rounds in the hope of securing the opportunity to play the Championship course just days before the world’s best male golfers compete in The 152nd Open.
First staged in 2016, The R&A 9 Hole Challenge encourages people to compete in a shorter format of the sport, with players from Argentina, Australia, Great Britain and Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and, for the first time, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands all participating to be one of the 38 finalists in action at the Ayrshire venue.
From the 19 team pairings, it was the Irish duo of Moran and Fallon from Grange Golf Club near Dublin who won the Stableford competition with a nett aggregate score of 36 points to take the 2024 title over holes 1-5 and 15-18 at Royal Troon.
They followed in the footsteps of another Irish pairing, Olivia Byrne and John Murphy, who triumphed in the 9 Hole Challenge Final at Royal Liverpool last year.
Moran said, “The day was phenomenal and the course was amazing. I loved every minute of it. It felt like we won by getting here so, to be honest, this is the icing on the cake.”
Having come through two battles with breast cancer, she added, “Golf definitely gave me a goal to get better as fast as I could so that I could get back on the course. Even playing golf itself, walking up a fairway for example, it’s just so stunning with the solitude and the peace it gives you. It’s your mental health, that mental space you get when you’re playing golf, and you leave your world behind.
“For me, it was the motivation to get back playing golf that helped me definitely with my recovery. Now, five years later, when I’ve finished treatment, it’s just an appreciation for being out every day. To come here and win is sensational. There just aren’t words for it.”
Her playing partner, Fallon, remarked, “It’s amazing to win, unbelievable. It’s very surreal the whole thing, to qualify and then win here at Royal Troon. Everyone should play in this event given how good the prize is. It’s also been great to meet people from so many different countries.”
Peter Morse and Tim Charles from Canada claimed the runner-up spot on 34 points. Following a card countback, the Argentinian pair of Miguel Angel Hernandez, aged 72, and his 22-year-old partner Alan Tiseira claimed third place on 32 points.
In an action-packed day, there was even the sound of wedding bells as Sanne Wolffenbuttel proposed to her Netherlands team-mate Leroy Verrips on the 18th green.
The R&A 9 Hole Challenge was open to golfers across a record number of countries this year as the shorter format of the sport continues to grow in popularity.
Golf New Zealand had a 57% increase in nine-hole players from the previous year, aided by their Make Time Play 9 competition. In South Africa, clubs that were part of the 9 Hole Challenge saw a near 10% increase in rounds played from 2022/23 to 2023/24.
The first year of Golf Canda’s involvement in the 9 Hole Challenge also saw over 10,000 participants tee up in the 2023 BDO National Golf League, a season-long individual competition taking the best nine-hole scores to qualify for provincial championships and then a national final.
The R&A 9 Hole Challenge is central to the organisation’s wider drive to promote this form of golf as an ideal way to enjoy playing the sport in less time, either recreationally or competitively for handicap purposes, and experience the physical and mental health benefits golf provides.
There has been an impressive growth of nine-hole golf in recent years, aided by the ease of the new World Handicap System™ (WHS™) to submit scores.
Please visit randa.org/nine-hole-challenge for more information.