Tom McKibbin gave us a timely reminder that Irish golf will have continued success for the next twenty years after he clinched his second tour victory last weekend and one that opens up doors to the Masters and the Open Championship.
In McKibbin he looks like he will be the shining light of the post Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry era. The sky is the limit for the 22-year-old Holywood ace. He might grow tired of the McIlroy comparisons but it’s fair to predict Major glory for him.
The fear though, is that he may have to go it alone. 2007 to the present day has been a golden era for Irish golf. Even before that we had multiple European Tour winners and Ryder Cup history makers, but Pádraig Harrington’s Open triumph in 07 lit the touch paper.
It seems a bit mad to question how long is left given that McIlroy has enjoyed a career-defining season but even he and Lowry have been giving it the “I’m not getting any younger” yarn lately and it makes you wonder if the future is as rosy as the two decades we have enjoyed.
But while all this success has been happening it has papered over some worrying cracks. Outside of our big three, the last Irish DP World Tour winner was Jonathan Caldwell in 2021. The 2007 Walker Cup player had a journeyman career bouncing in and out of the game and retired recently after some struggles on the HotelPlanner Tour.
It’s easy to take our success for granted, insert the ‘punching above our weight’ phrase but the truth is when you become so used to it you just expect it – and we have. It is considered a failure if McIlroy doesn’t win a major, it is considered a failure if Lowry doesn’t win a tournament and we still hold out hope that Harrington has one more day in the sun.
Yet the real failure in Irish golf has to be the dearth of talent coming through on the DP World Tour.
As it stands, Ireland will have no regular DP World Tour representatives in 2026 – a staggering statistic considering our rich European history with the Des Smyth’s, Damien McGrane’s, Peter Lawrie’s, Paul McGinley’s and the Michael Hoey’s of our time.
It’s not quite a golfing famine, but there is a screw loose in the system and the facts show it has been happening for fifteen years.
Last season saw no Irish player earn a DP World Tour card via Q-School for the second successive year and seventh time since 2010 – (2018, 2016, 2014, 2011, 2010). Of our Walker Cup players in that time, none of them are on the DP World Tour while some remained amateur or gave up the game.
Still, this week brings new hope that we can begin to bridge that gap.
The final stage of DP World Tour Q-School begins tomorrow in Infinitum where five Irish hopefuls will bid for cards including Conor Purcell who is looking to make an immediate return to Europe’s top level a fortnight after losing his card.
Joining him are Mark Power, Cormac Sharvin, Max Kennedy and John-Ross Galbraith who are all in good form.
Kennedy, who missed out on a card by a shot last year as an amateur, breezed through a morale boosting second stage of Q-School after missing out on the HotelPlanner Tour’s Grand Final last week while Power also came through with minimal fuss.
Power is bang in form too having won for the first time as a professional at the Clutch Tour finale a few weeks ago. Much has been expected of the Kilkenny man but the pro ranks has been a tough school for the two-time Walker Cup player, but it appears that after a couple of seasons of struggle he might be turning a corner.
If Sharvin was to earn a card it would be a remarkable story. The Ardglass man had briefly given up the game but after two seasons of competing on the Irish PGA region he has rebuilt his game and confidence and a final round of 64 at second stage would have been a mental hurdle overcome.
At 33, there is still time.
Galbraith is in uncharted territory as he makes his final stage debut.
The players themselves are aware of the gap at the top too.
“I want to be one of the Irish professionals out on tour, the more the better because we need them,” Power told IrishGolfer.ie a couple of years ago. “There have been a lot of great amateurs coming through but I feel we haven’t had as many professionals kicking on in the last while and look, I would love to be part of that in the future.”
Liam Nolan decided not to play this week so it is the HotelPlanner Tour for him again next year which is no harm. Yes, we are in need of talent on the DP World Tour but we can’t expect this crop of 20-something’s to progress straight away it will take time.
At the moment I would hardly call our presence on the HotelPlanner Tour ‘a crop of players’ so even to secure five cards on that tour at the very least over the next six rounds would be a reason to be hopeful of future progression given the success rate of graduates coming from that tour.
Purcell had to go it alone on the DP World Tour last year so maybe getting a strong Irish presence on the HotelPlanner Tour and having everyone pulling each other along to try and bridge the gap at the top is where we need to build from.
“It’s been a tough transition phase for a lot of the guys,” Nolan said last week. “I can imagine it’s so hard to drop down and come back but it’s a testament to their character and their willingness to want to play at the highest level. From an Irish point of view there would be a lot of interest from home as we all know. I can’t wait to spend time with them and get the team aspect of spurring each other on me and Max had that where we root for each other so it would be great to see the lads come through.”
After two barren spells, the players will be keen to avoid an unlucky Q-School three-peat.
