Hugh Foley looks up at the maestro and then through the windows to the Bull Island links and beyond the dunes to the distant white tops on Dublin Bay and the adventures that lie over the horizon.
O’Connor, the great Galway genius, turned professional at the age of 26 and while Foley is a year older as he says goodbye to the amateur ranks in this week’s Concession Cup in Georgia, he can still remember some sound advice he got from the master himself.
It wasn’t about psychology or strength and conditioning or any of the myriad things the modern touring professional worries about but the art of judging long-distance putts.
What he told Foley was no great secret — split the putt in two, walk halfway to the hole and use feel to get an idea of how hard you need to swing that putter.
Keeping it simple is part of the secret of making it as a professional and while Foley was at least a four or five handicapper when he spoke to Christy, he got down to as low as plus six a few years ago and believes putting is the best part of his game as he prepares to take his first steps into the big, bad world of professional golf.
Hugh Foley in action
Golf writers and other long-time observers of the game tend to see sharks lurking in seemingly tranquil waters, But budding tour players are merely keen to ditch the armbands and fling themselves headfirst into the deep.
Being concerned for them is a natural instinct, given how increasingly difficult it has become for Irish golfers over the past 15 years to carve a niche for themselves on one of the major international tours and stay there.
But while many predict starvation for a player who did not make a cut in any of his forays onto the Challenge Tour over the last three years, he’s ready to give it a shot, believing his best golf is good enough to compete, providing he can find the magical ingredient – consistency.
“It’s something I’ve dreamt of doing for a long time,” says Foley, whose father David, regarded as one of the great cardiologists of his time when he passed away three years ago aged just 59, would have been the first to encourage him to follow his dream.
“I owe it to myself to see how far I can get.”
Unlike the likes of Rory McIlroy, or his coaching stablemate Sean Keeling, Foley is one of Irish golf’s late bloomers.
From playing off a modest four handicap at the age of 18 — Paul McGinley was off five at 19 — he has worked with coach Geoff Loughrey and Loughrey’s mentor Michael Bannon, to turn himself into one of the most prolific male championship winners in Irish amateur golf since McIlroy emerged 18 years ago.
He won the AIG Irish Close in 2020, the West of Ireland in 2021 and the double of the North and South of Ireland titles in 2022 (the first to do so since Darren Clarke in 1990).
He lost the 2022 Irish Close final in sudden-death and even reached the final of that year’s US Mid-Amateur Championship.
In the end, he lost to Matt McClean to miss out on a Masters and US Open spot.
It was the first of a series of near misses for the Dubliner, who put so much into trying to make the 2023 Walker Cup side, his game suffered.
To add insult to injury, he missed out on a spot in The 2023 Open at Hoylake by a shot.
“It was all or nothing,” he says of that Walker Cup disappointment. “I thought, I am going to make this Walker Cup team. I’m going to turn pro, and that’s it. That’s my whole life.
“I kind of lost what had gotten me better over the last five, six years, which was improving my golf game, and waiting for the results to come. It was all about results, results, results.”
This season has been another nearly year for Foley, but while he missed out at the first stage of the DP World Tour Qualifying School, he’s determined to give the pro game a go, even if there is no Plan B.
He’s even told Padraig Harrington as much.
While Ireland’s three-time Major winner played three Walker Cups and did an accountancy degree before taking the plunge, he’s still given Foley’s plan the thumbs up.
“I told him I just had a plan A, and he was 100% in agreement with that,” Foley explains. “I’ve heard him give two answers to the same question.
“But to me he was saying, ‘Yeah, you can’t be doing two things at once. You have to give everything to one thing and go for it. You’ll be more likely to give up if you have a plan B’.
“So he was being just really positive, which is great to be around.”
Foley likens listening to the naysayers as akin he parents of a young medical student being asked at a dinner party, “So what’s plan B, if he doesn’t pass his exams?”
“You’d get a fairly stern response back,” Foley says with a grin. “So I feel like this is what I’m doing. I’m going to do it until I either make it or I don’t. It’s as simple as that.”
Blessed with a sound putting stroke and a great, rhythmical swing, Foley knows he can go low, as he showed when shooting 18-under to finish fourth in last year’s European Amateur Championship.
He plans to head to the Alps Tour Q-School later this year and simply play to get better.
Having become friendly with PGA Tour player Kevin Streelman in recent years, he’s ready for the pain and the hard work.
“I’ve definitely leaned into him a lot,” Foley explains. “He went to Q-School seven times and was playing mini tours for seven years, which is tough. He finally made it when he was 28 or 29 and he’s now made over $20 million. It’s definitely possible.”
Foley loved the amateur game but thanks to sponsorship from Camiral and Uniphar, he been able to make a special effort in recent years to play overseas as much as possible and escape the over-emphasis on links golf and the comfort of the Irish team set up.
“I want to branch out and play different courses around Europe,” says the Dubliner, who is not afraid to put his neck on the block. “So I’ll try and shoot as low as possible for a year and see what happens.
“Padraig was supportive, telling me to go and play the Alps Tour, travel five to a car and five in a house and learn the trade.
“I’ve had a few frustrations over the last while but I think I’m due a bit of a boost. I can’t see a future for myself outside golf so I am ready to give it a go.”
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