Rory McIlroy will most likely end the year a Masters winner, a grand slam winner, an Irish Open winner, an away Ryder Cup winner, and a seven-time Race to Dubai winner. But don’t let that fool you into believing that Irish men’s golf is in a good place.
This week’s DP World Tour Qualifying School results are incredibly worrying. Of the five Irish players competing at the six-round marathon at Infinitum only one (Mark Power) made the 72-hole cut and subsequently missed out on a card for next season. This is the third successive year that Irish golfers have come away from Q-School empty handed and the eighth time since 2010.
This means that Ireland will have no regular representation on the DP World Tour next year aside from when McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Tom McKibbin are away from PGA Tour and LIV Golf action. One can’t foresee them teeing it up at the Soudal Open, mind.
If you think back to 1997, Pádraig Harrington was often one of ten Irishmen in a European Tour field, now we will have none for most of the year. We have fallen behind Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Scotland and others.
2010 was the last time Ireland had three players on the European Ryder Cup team. Graeme McDowell was second on the Race to Dubai while Peter Lawrie, Gareth Maybin, and Damien McGrane joined McIlroy and Harrington in the top-50. Lowry also kept his card at ease in his first full season as a professional.
Since then, we have been lapped. Despite the Golf Ireland Professional Scheme handing over €5m to over 100 aspiring professionals since 1999, the men’s game hasn’t got bang for its buck.
There are mitigating circumstances for this ‘gap at the top’ – while it can be argued that the depth of talent is not there on the DP World Tour, it has become a much more global arena which in turn has put a squeeze on those precious cards – 10 of the 20 available this week went to non European players. It’s a tough school.
Fifteen years ago there were just two Danish golfers in the top-50 on the Race to Dubai. Ahead of the 2025 DP World Tour Championship there are four Danes in the top-50 while the number on the tour is in double figures. Norway has two, while Japan, China and even Finland are represented.
Both Denmark and Ireland have populations just short of 6 million but it is fair to say that they are way ahead of us in terms of talent production.
Even with the PGA Tour rejects taking up spots in DP World Tour events, this year’s Danish Championship had 19 home players including four national invites. Eleven Irish players teed it up at the Amgen Irish Open compared to 27 fifteen years ago. Opportunities have become more limited as spaces for invites decreases.
Denmark continue to churn out talent at Europe’s top level with some going on to earn PGA Tour cards. Thomas Bjorn mentors young pros who are invited to remain as part of the national team environment they would have enjoyed as amateurs while the elite amateurs in camp can practice with the tour pros.
Alex Maguire and Mark Power. (Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Ireland has become the centre of major golf events recently. The Palmer Cup, both Amateur Championships, European Team Championships and the Open Championship have been held on our shores while the Walker Cup is coming to Lahinch next year before the Ryder Cup stops in Adare Manor.
The Government has committed €8.5m in financial support for key professional golf tournaments, including the Amgen Irish Open, KPMG Women’s Irish Open, HotelPlanner Tour, and OFX Irish Legends.
This is like Ireland being a co-host for the 2028 European Championships. Sure, big games will come to the Aviva Stadium but what legacy is that going to leave behind for Irish football? Does hosting a massive international tournament benefit grassroots football, the League of Ireland, the Irish national team?
What will be the point of hosting the Open in Portmarnock if we have a minimal playing presence? Surely the lasting legacy of any governing body is the betterment of the game. Bringing through players sounds pretty important…
Things aren’t exactly rosey in the amateur game either. Only one player is ranked in the top-100 while our top three ranked amateurs are all in their 30s. At the 2025 World Amateur Team Championships, Ireland finished 21st behind Morocco, Singapore, Czechia, Paraguay, New Zealand and level with Guatemala.
There will still be glory days. McIlroy and Lowry will sit at the top table of world golf for a few more years, but even they have been looking over their shoulder at father time as they approach their late 30s.
Tom McKibbin’s ceiling is unknown, but at just 22 he looks the real deal and has made a move to LIV Golf work for him. He looks like he will enjoy the same benefits and more as he would have if he had remained on the mainstream tours. He may even make it on the 2027 Ryder Cup team in Adare and make it an Irish triple threat like we had between 2002 and the K Club in 06.
But with the uncertainty surrounding LIV players eligibility for European Ryder Cup teams, the prospect of having no Irish representation in future contests is not out of the question. A harrowing thought given where we were in the late 90s and 2000s.
Tom McKibbin (Photo by Anthony Kwan/R&A via Getty Images)
Remember when Seamus Power was a Ryder Cup contender for Rome? As high as 28th in the world he was ranked when Luke Donald selected him for the mock exam that is the Hero Cup (as was McKibbin last year). But injury combined with a loss of form has seen him plummet to 182nd in the world with his PGA Tour status severely in doubt.
A two-time PGA Tour winner, the only Irishman to win a regular event outside of McIlroy. Where does our next Seamus Power come from? Behind him in the world rankings is Conor Purcell in 438th place.
Where does the next Michael Hoey come from? God be with the heady days of his five European Tour wins. An underrated career.
This year only one player qualified for the HotelPlanner Tour’s Grand Final and just two finished in the top-70 on the rankings. Rookies Liam Nolan and Max Kennedy enjoyed encouraging seasons on Europe’s second tier which is seen as more of a holy grail than Q-School.
Next year they will be joined by Mark Power – who must be commended on a good end to the season – Conor Purcell and James Sugrue while Rob Moran and Alex Maguire will be hopeful of starts.
Conor Purcell (Photo by Patrick Bolger/Getty Images)
Purcell was often the lone Irishman on the DP World Tour last year. Hopefully the strong Irish presence on the HotelPlanner Tour next year where they practice and stay together can yield the shoots of recovery we need in the game.
All aged in their 20s, more needs to be done to help bring these players through. We can’t rely solely on the sparkling prospects of McKibbin.
Since 2007 Irish golf has delivered 11 major championship wins second only to the USA in that time. This was undoubtedly a golden period. Did we take it for granted?
Irish golf has had lean periods before, after all we had to wait 60 years for the Claret Jug to return to these shores. But this is stark, our Tour participation numbers are dropping.
Even the players are aware of the tough transition Irish golf is enduring from amateur to the professional ranks. Surely the latest run of results have set alarm bells ringing? Unless the batteries need changing.
