On this week’s edition of the Irish Golfer Podcast we revel in Sara Byrne’s record-breaking victory in the United States as she made it back-to-back collegiate titles while Conor Purcell looks to earn promotion to the DP World Tour at the Challenge Tour Grand Final in Mallorca. Eleven Irish hopefuls are set for the four corners of Spain for the Second Stage of Q-School and we discuss Ryan Griffin heading to LIV’s version of Q-School and the future for Graeme McDowell.
[Music] Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the Irish Golfer Podcast. It’s been a while. It’s been a while, but we’re back. We’re back because Peter Finnen has gone off gallivanting once again. So, it’s Ronan McNamera here with you, and I’m joined as ever by my partner in crime, Mark McGawan. How are you? Well, Ron, yeah, this this week’s edition might be a little bit of a stretch. This month’s edition is maybe maybe a little bit more accurate, but uh but yeah, we’re back. We’re back back as a two ball. We got rid of got rid of fending off to the States again. So, uh you can you can expect better better quality content out of myself and Ronin this week now than we would have had if Pete was here. Yeah, Boss Man’s away, so the boys can come out and play. It is actually our first recording in in literally a month. Uh, I was checking the Spotify there to see if we had anything to catch up on. And our last podcast was the RER Cup recap on the 2nd of October. So, this one’s long overdue. There’s been tumble weed going through the Irish golfer office of for the last month. And h people probably not wondering where we’ve gone to, but we’re going to we’re going to come back. Yeah, I was dropped for the writer podcast uh because apparently my microphone sounded like it was recording with a toaster as Pete said. So, I took I took no offense at it really. Just hope the two of you crashed and burned, but uh anyway, um back back on. So, all’s forgiven. You and your ham your ham sandwich microphone. We’re back this week and as we seem to always do, Mark, we have a couple of Irish winners to talk about in the podcast this week. Uh, first off, Paul Conroy won for the second time at the Furman Intercolgate in the States. And Sarah Burn won before she went off to the World Amateur Team Championships. Played the World Amateur Team Championships. Flew back from Abu Dhabi to the Hurricane Invitation, which was Miami’s own event. And she won that as well for back-to-back college wins in record-breaking fashion. broke the 54 hole scoring record with a 19 under total, including a second round of 63, which was an 18 hole scoring record for the program. Quite the win considering she flew 16 hours from Abu Dhabi had three hours sleep before playing the first 36 holes. Yeah, I mean, it’s it’s incredible. Uh, it’s incredible. Has anybody as anybody who stepped off stepped off an airplane and onto a golf course or even if anybody who stepped stepped out of a bar onto a golf course, you can you can you can often get off to a great start and think everything’s going well, but like you’d often often hit a wall around the around the six or seven hole mark in and what what was coming easy is no longer coming easy. So for her to for her to keep it up for for all 18 holes and uh well 54 holes of the competition in total um it was I mean it’s incred it’s incredible shooting. Um and she’s going through she’s having a she’s having a hell of a year. um as you as you mentioned the win before the Abu Dhabi team championships um she probably didn’t probably she’s probably a little bit disappointed with how how she went in the end up in the in the world team championships or world amateur team championships after a good I think she had a great she opening round out there but to come back and to come back and have a win in runaway fashion like that is incredible and I mean she’s have like I said she’s had a great year finishes top leading amateur at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open and but she was I mean just like she’s she is a a pro in waiting you know it’s as soon as as soon as she graduates I imagine she’s going to easily transition into the pro ranks yeah I agree with you like we seem to have a a good cohort of young female amateurs coming through with Ana Dunning Beth Coulter and Foster to be added on to that and of course we’ve Lauren Walsh recently turned pro and going well on the le access. So, it does seem like behind Leona Magguire, Stephanie Meadow, and Olivia Mafy, there’s going to be a good uh crop of young pros coming through in the next two or three years. Yeah, we could be the next we could be the next South Korea. No, we’re the next Sweden. Next Sweden. So, Cup heroes all around. Well, we take that. We take that. But no, it is it’s been some run for her as well. like she obviously tied for the lead after round one of the world amateur teams, finished 31st as you said, which would have been a little bit disappointing, but like she’s won the Irish close championship already this year and like she’s just gone from strength to strength and she’s carried it over into the fall season in the US. Um she won by nine shots actually we forgot to mention there and then boy freshman Rebecca Gardner is also playing for Miami and she started well actually to her college career she finished eighth as well. So all round it was a good week for the Irish on the college scene and yeah, it’s great to have a couple of winners on the pod. Keep us keep us talking for for a few minutes anyway. Yeah, I suppose if it’s if it’s just me and you doing the pod every week, we’ll uh the the Irish Irish golfers will be happy anyway. They’ll they know they know one of them’s winning that week. And hopefully we can have a couple of winners this week on the professional scene with Connor Pcel heads to Morca this week at Club to Golf Al Canal for the challenge tour grand final. It’s the climax of the race to Morca. He tease off in 36th position in the order of merit rankings as it were with the top 20 earning DP World Tour cards on Sunday. What are the chances? But what does he need to do? Is it realistically does he need to win? I don’t actually know with a second or third place. Everyone in the 45man field has a chance of earning a card. So if the person ranked 45th wins, he’ll get a card. So I don’t think he needs a win per se, but certainly needs to be in the top 10, one would imagine. Excellent. And you’re and you’re packing your suitcase to head over there to cover it for the weekend. I’m packing the suitcase. I’m down there to get the good news. and the so that’s it. That’s it. Yeah. And well, I’m I’m not that long a return from south of Spain myself, so it’s it was it was pretty nice when I was down there. Uh well, I got I got the good weather. Um it there was a storm that absolutely [ __ ] it pissed with rain. Uh but that’s but that came in the middle of the night, so it was all was all sun and all sun and smiles whenever we were in the golf course. Very good. But yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how Connor gets on because the challenge tour in recent years has been quite kind to Irish players. Obviously John Murphy went great guns on the challenge tour last year and got his card via DP World Tour Q school and then Tom McKibben obviously is a challenger tour graduate and he’s won on the DP World Tour this year. One of four Challenger Tour graduates to actually strike gold in Europe’s top tier. So it shows there like it’s a tour that you know builds and I suppose replenishes tour players for the future. So you know if Connor can get his card this week there’s no reason why he can’t make the next step up. And even if he doesn’t like in hindsight and looking at things in retrospectively like it’s his first year on the challenge tour full time. And so to make the grand final in itself is a is a great year having played on the ABS tour in 2022 and then actually earned his full card just with a li his limited starts toward the end of the last challenge tour season. So like regardless of what happens it has been another step in the right direction for him. Yeah, I mean I think he’s had a very he’s had a very good year. He’s he’s quite often I think a lot of tournaments maybe one bad round has kind of has kind of cost him a little bit or he’s or he’s often had great had great starts and maybe maybe followed it up with a a disappointing enough second round. So I mean the the ability is quite clearly there. He’s got um on the look on the challenge you need to go out and most weeks on the challenger tour at least you need to go out and shoot low scores every day. uh the quality the quality is that high and quite often the golf courses are set up for you know for good scoring although they have they’ve had a couple of competitions this year where the weather conditions and everything made low scoring pretty much impossible but uh but yeah I mean Connor’s had a Connor’s had a great year I mean played in the Irish Open and made the made the cut there um just got himself a couple a few nice a few nice quid for that uh but I mean there’s No, there’s no reason why he he’ll not be going there thinking there’s any reason why he can’t why he can’t win or can’t do enough to to play his way into the top 20. Um it’s going to be it’s a big ask of course. I mean there’s 45man field. It’s the top 45 players on the challenge tour and every single one of them, you know, is capable of winning the event. So it’s a big ask, but it’s not one that’s beyond him. Yeah, absolutely. and hopefully the sun shines there because he loves the good weather. Obviously had great weather for the Horizon Irish Open. But in Australia, he kicked off his year with his highest ever deep world tour finish of seventh at the ISPS Handa Australian Open. Carried it on to the start of the Challenger Tour season with finishes of seventh and sixth in South Africa. And then he had to wait a while before coming second in the Dormy Open. And since then his form has been a little bit patchy since making the cut in Horizon Irish Open. But he said himself to me earlier this year, he loves playing in the sun, loves the warm weather. So maybe the sun will shine on him. And it’s pretty much a an Irish uh version of the Spanish Inquisition this week because we have 11 Irish uh all dotted around all corners of Spain this week for DP World Tour Q School. So it’s going to be a busy week in Spain just played across four golf courses. Just to run through the names, a mixture of professionals and amateurs this week. You could say Roy McGee, Rob Mourn who won the Irish close, Mark Power of course who’s recently turned professional and has impressed recently. Alex Maguire looking to cap off a great amateur year but winning his card and John Murphy returns to the second stage of Q school. All those players are playing in Fontana’s golf club in Jerona. Meanwhile, Paul McBride, Nile Carney, and Obster Order of Merit winner Rona Milani are playing in Isla Canella Lynx, while Cart House amateur Mark Boucher is the only Irishman at Desert Springs Resort at Golf Lap Panala. Dur Mroy and Connor Walk are playing as is Paul Dunn who’s making his grand return to competitive action. Hopefully, we’ll be writing a few feel-good stories come Sunday evening, Monday morning. Please go ahead. I mean, you have to you’d have to feel sorry a little bit sorry for Mark Boucher. He’s up there all all on his own in uh in and al Maria Almria which is in kind of eastern and Lucia I think. But at least he’s on the at least he’s on the southern southern part of southern part of Spain. Uh the boys that are playing up in uh Jirona, that’s that’s where we’ve got the most of them. The as you said, the five five lads, Mark Parr, Rory McGee, John Murphy, Roborn, and Alex Magcguire. They’re all playing. It’s quite northern northern Spain. So weather could be could be interesting to see what what they get. But I mean, that’s a very it’s a very strong quintet that are that are playing there in um in Jirona. You’d you’d have to think from those five at least at least one or two are going to be very close if not you know you could you could easily see all five of them placed near the in and around the cutoff mark. Um I assume I’m not I’m not sure. Do you are you do you know how many qualify from each event? In and around the top 25 in ties qualify to the final stage depending on how many players are actually in the field uh once the week starts but for the uh so I was talking I was talking to Ron Milani a couple of weeks ago just before the before the Alps Tour grand final. So he was planning on heading down to So he’s playing at HVA which is near the Portuguese border. So he was planning on heading down to Quintilago for uh for the week leading up to it to get to get some nice warm weather warm weather practice and then it’s a short enough short enough hop across the across the border for him. So um obviously he’s had a great year on the Alps tour. Uh has a challenge tour card guaranteed for next year. So, in a way, he’s kind of in bonus territory coming into coming into Q school. A little bit like, you know, sort of, you know, a little bit like John Murphy was last year where, for example, Murphy knew that he was guaranteed um guaranteed a challenge tour card and probably would get a couple of European tour starts or DP World Tour starts, but then went to Q school and, you know, and to to use Pete’s phrase, kicked on. um didn’t got to got to skip the challenge tour alto together and so yeah I mean look we’re hopes are high it’s obviously going to be an extremely high standard as as usual um you just look at some of the names that are there and there’s I mean there’s there’s a lot of lot of extremely talented Irish players that went out and fell at first the first stage of Q school so anybody anybody that’s playing second school second stage is a high quality player and it’s just going to be a case of turn up, play play your best over the four days. If you play your best, you’ll get through. You know, if if you’re a little bit off, chances are you’re not. Yeah. If you’re a little bit off, see you later. And like there’s not much for turnound as well after the four rounds before they go and play the marathon six days at the final stage. But for the five guys up playing up in Fontanas in Jerona, I know a few of them are big football fans. So h maybe on the Saturday that they’ll take a trip out to see La Liga side Jerona who are joint top of Spanish’s top tier with Real Madrid of all of all teams in just their fourth season in La Liga. So hopefully it’s a good week for everyone over there. Yeah, I thought you were I thought you were going to say they’ll go into the um go into Barcelona to see Barcelona play. It’s it’s a good it’s a good spin down from Jonah to Barcelona. Good spin. And it’s a even though Ryan Air will tell you you’re flying into Barcelona, but when you’re actually flying to the Jonah, but that’s uh that’s classic Ryionaire market in there. Classic Ryan Air Martin. Their social media man has given up the go. He’s resigned. So Ryan Air social media man has ah that’s a disappointment. He put a big emotional tweet there this morning. Uh Michael Corkran. So God love him. Ah that’s that’s very disappointing. I’m sure they I’m sure they’ll hire somebody else to fill his boats and come on and abuse passengers who don’t read the don’t read the small print when they’re booking window seats and that kind of thing. I’m flying flying out to New York now on uh Friday with Lufanza, so I’m hoping that there’s no uh window seat shenanigans going on with the Germans. You know, they’re bastions of efficiency and what have you. Well, I’m not I’ll not hear a bad word said about Ryan. I I love them. They’re cheap. That’s the That’s the primary thing I look for in an air on an airline ticket. What about your golf clubs? Well, Ryan Air haven’t lost them yet. Swiss Swiss Air have, but Ryan Ryan Air batten 100% for me. So, Swiss Air and they haven’t broken any yet. So, maybe maybe I’m maybe I’m one of the fortunate ones. But maybe Blame the Alps. Blame the Alps. Speaking of the Alps, um, obviously we haven’t had a podcast in about a month, so people mightn’t have heard this, but Ronan Milani, of course, won the Alps to order of merit. He was already guaranteed his challenger card ahead of the grand final, but recovered from a poor opening day to uh preserve his place at the top of the season long rankings. And that’s good. Like his consistency was awarded two two top 10s and a load of other no two two wins, sorry, and a load of other top 10 and top 20. So, it’s good to see good to see him progressing cuz as we talked to him a few weeks ago, it hasn’t been easy for him falling off the Euro Pro tour, he kind of had nowhere to turn really for for a few weeks. So, it’s great to see him progressing and going to Q school this week is almost a free hit for him considering he has already won promotion to the challenge tour as well. So, best of luck to him. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, he was he had a hell of a year on the on the ALS tour. um as he was telling us when we were talking to him uh he just just the one missed cut lot of top 10s. He was he was saying that quite often the formula or maybe a better formula on those sort of like what the what he called the third third tier tours is you know maybe have three or four wins and a ton of mis cuts and that’s you know tends to work out maybe better in terms of order of merit ranking points. uh he only had the one miss cut but had a couple of wins as well. So I mean he was a a worthy winner of the worthy winner of the marathon and it gives him gives him slightly better uh a slightly better ranking going into the challenge tour should he not progress through Q school. um all the all the Alps tour graduates will be ranked within the same category obviously but if it’s a case of the cut off point comes comes halfway through that category at least at the top of the at the top of the list he’ll he’ll squeeze through. So uh so yeah I mean this is exciting times for him. He’s um it’ll be great to have another Irish another Irish man on the challenge tour and hopefully hopefully another man on the DP World Tour. Yeah, hopefully another couple because we need them because they’re in short supply at the moment. Moving on, of course, we had our own Irish Golfer Magazine uh events grand final a couple of weeks ago in the K Club. Uh, Candibboy star Lucy Morrison, just 14 years of age, became the first female winner of the grand final with a fantastic score of 45 points. Mark, have you ever had 45 points? Believe it or not, I actually have. I always knew you were a band. I had 40 I had for I had 46 points playing off 15. A jeez. Once I actually I actually had once one summer I had two I was playing open competitions in Luca and I won I won two competitions out there. The first one I was playing off 18 and I had 46 points and then later on that summer I had 46 points playing off 15. But but they were the like they were the only like I played I play must have played maybe 20 30 open competitions that year and those are the only two that I even like came in the prizes and so I can only imagine what they were saying about me out about looking but uh I can I can assure you it was those were freak results but I got but I got slashed accordingly. I was I was playing by like 10 or something like that by the end of the year. So but and you’ve m you’ve maintained that handicap ever since. It’s American fairness. You’re not one of those. I mean, well, I know I’m I was I was down to I was down to seven at one stage, but since I since I joined Quandy Siggo, I’m the slide continues. I can’t can’t seem to score above 31 or 32 points out here. So, the green keepers revenge at the weekend. Done you out of it. I say, did it keep revenge? Well, they certainly got revenge on me. Pins hanging off the front of Greens into bunkers and all sorts going on down there just to get you Ah, it was it was it was a great it was a great day. I’d never played in one of those before. Um really really enjoyed it apart from apart from having to play off a chair on the first te and and having two swings and misses. But uh that um they were very a very interesting tournament. I’ll definitely I’ll definitely make sure and put that one on the I’ll definitely play in that one next year again. Yeah. Yeah, and it was obviously a great time of year to have it along the bank holiday weekend. And as we all know, the weather hasn’t been great and probably won’t be great now until the spring by all accounts, but those type of suppose fun days for one of a better word are great to get people out, you know, in the winter and keep the eye keep the eye in. And I suppose other golf clubs could follow suit in Ross’ point and, you know, put on a couple of not say gimmicky competitions, but something different, you know, something to bring people out, bit of crack whether you’re playing good or bad. Yeah, I saw somebody somebody replied to because I I I wrote a piece on it and had it up on the site and um somebody replied on on Twitter, I think it was. Um I can’t remember the club they were in now. Uh so they’d have to forgive me, but they they had a a video of um their own green keepers revenge. Somebody you had to play off a mattress on the first tea. So, it was a there’s like a piece of uh like a piece of artificial grass laid over the top of a mattress and you had to play on that. So, uh keeping your keeping stability through your swing there would would obviously be extremely difficult. So, it’s there was a couple of a couple of videos of people people sort of hacking their way off that. So, um, yeah, there’s they’re obviously a pretty becoming much more popular around the country and everything and great way to get people out for a bit of crack and all the all the proceeds were going to the green keepers Christmas party. So, as I said, I hope they deserve the I hope they enjoy the pints that we that we bought for them. So, in fairness, green keepers are put up with a lot uh this summer, especially with the rain. So, every point they get is well and truly earned. Moving on to a bit of Golf Ireland news and last week Golf Ireland and ISPS Handa announced a new partnership to grow participation in Ireland for golfers with a disability. This innovative new agreement will see ISPS Handa become the title sponsor of the ISPS Handa Irish Open for golfers with a disability which as we know is played in Rogentown and we’ll see golfers with a range of disabilities competing against players from Ireland overseas. It’s great to have uh as we all know ISPs Hand are a global brand. I think everyone who knows anything about golf knows who they are. So it’s fantastic fantastic coup for Golf Ireland to get these fellas on board. And of course my new best buddy Dan Carter indeed. Yeah. Who who’ have thought you’d become an egg chasing man? Uh I am I am big broker. I was quoted from my from my from my best pal Dan Carter on Saturday as h the all backs were were bested by the spring box. Quoted for him. Yeah. Yeah. I’d say I would I would say he didn’t he didn’t need to slag you about uh about the All Blacks beating Ireland anyway. You you had you had no skin in that game at the start. I’d have joined in the slagging to be honest with you. I tell you what, rugby Twitter was unbearable at the weekend saying, “Oh, that basically South Africa winning means Ireland basically won the World Cup.” So, you know, congratulations. Yeah. Well, ah, look, after after my golf with Brian O’Driscoll earlier on this year, I’m a fully converted rugby man as well. So, packing in swapping the needle size five for a Gilbert. What would your hero Michael Murphy say about that? For sure. Of course, you could be a conic rugby man now. You’ll be transferring from Olster to Conor Rugby now that you’re you’re over there in Siggo. It could be. It could be. In fact, maybe maybe it’ll start maybe I’ll become mates with Bundiaki. Good. My life in golf piece. That could be. And I would say I’m I’m going to going to venture as far as to say Bundiaki would be a rough man on a golf course. Ah, he’d be powerful like you. Not stylish, but powerful. Yeah. Very weward. Very weward. Could he hit a seven iron though? 197 yards on a simulator. Well, very few of us can do that. Very Did you have a go with it? I did. I did. I got to 187. So, 187. For those for those of you have no idea what we’re talking about here, we got a simulator in the office. Um, so I generally work from home, but I had took a had was took a spin up to the office there last week and sure spent the first hour I was in there hitting balls against the against the screen seeing seeing what I could do. So 197 yards with a seven iron. I was pretty happy with that. That was one out of about 40 shots. I won’t tell you what the what sort of numbers or what sort of what sort of trajectory the other balls had, but must have been a faulty golf ball. Speaking of Speaking of and golf like a classic classic social media golf influencer, you only put you only put up the good shot. Only put up the good shot. Is right. Is right. And speaking of losing uh golf shots left and right in the long grass, the Open Championship could be coming to Port Maruk potentially in up in Dublin there. What do you make of that? That could be um that would be really really good off the back of having it in in Port Rush. Ah, that’d be incredible. That’ be incredible. Um, I mean, well, I think it was M. Mroy first kind of mentioned it in, uh, you know, speaking of the Irish Open after I think it was after his first round or maybe after second round this year. Um, so he obviously knew that discussions were going on in the background. Um but I mean since since then we’ve had so port Marin have come out and said that they were um that they’ve been in discussions with the RNA and were seeking government funding for the infrastructure infrastructural changes required. We had Katherine Martin coming out and saying that um that the government were in favor of bringing us here for all the tourism and everything that it would generate. We had Paul McInley who tends to have the inside line on most of these things saying that he sees it he sees it as very much a possibility didn’t say uh he said a 10year time frame would be sort of what he would expect and at the same time we had Martin Slumbers the CEO of the RNA saying that he was very much open to the possibility obviously with um certain hurdles that need to be cleared first But uh should those hurdles be clearable then he was in favor of it. So I would say it looks extremely likely. Um I think I think we’re going to have an open championship in this country probably within the next 10 years and it’s just going to be incredible. It’s going to be outrageous. Yeah, it should be absolutely fantastic. And of course, they’re hosting the women’s amateur championship next year. And then you would imagine they will get the women’s open championship at some stage as well as sort of a sort of a precursor for hosting the Open Championship in a few years time. So you you’d imagine there’s a a few joining of the dots that needs to be done before the Clar Joe can touch down in in Port Marik. Yeah, I would say the I say the women’s the women’s open will come first and that will look we I mean obviously we we all love we all love the women’s open we all we give it incredible incredible coverage and we’ll be delighted and can’t won’t be able to wait to to attend that. But in the grand scale of things, it is a smaller obviously a much a smaller event in terms of the the crowds the and the infrastructure the hospitality everything that everything that’s required for an open championship will is a you know the women’s open championship is that on a smaller scale. So yeah it will probably be a little bit of a trial run. Um but I mean the in recent years I mean the Open Championship hasn’t been at Murfield um since 2013. Murfield is one of the I mean if you talk to if you talk to any of the any of the pros the top pros they’d all tell you that Mirfield is possibly one of the best maybe maybe the best golf course on the open roa. Um although Port R Port Rush a lot of people were saying that about Port Rush after 2019 but Murfield just didn’t get the crowds that that a Port Rush got or that you know that St. Andrews gets or sort of any of the other open venues really. And I mean that’s so that’s obviously it’s obviously a massive massively important thing for the RNA. the revenue generated, you know, funds so much of so much of their uh annual, you know, expenditure on golf and and which I mean of obviously is from grassroots right the way up. But I I think they’re looking at looking at Port Marik saying that this could be a potential huge money spinner because it’s in for starters, we all know the Irish Irish people will attend absolutely anything going. Uh we saw the I mean the huge the huge crowds we had at the K Club this year for the for the Horizon Irish Open. uh Port Marik obviously just just north of Dublin city close to Dublin airport um if they can if they can work out those infrastructural issues and I have no doubt I have no doubt they will be able to where there’s a will there’s a way uh I think we’re just going to have we’re going to have an absolutely massive open championship. Yeah, record crowds and you know big crowds are obviously where the RNA seem to be going and obviously we’ve at the open come to Royal Port Rush in 2025 and in 2019 they had a record-breaking crowd of 237,750 fans which was a record for a championship stage side of St. Andrews and of course they’re looking to looking to better that and try to get around 280,000 which would just be which would just be outrageous. But as you said like great golf courses like Murfield and I’m sure a couple of others might feel you know maybe they’re be left by the wayside because they just won’t be able to compete with these numbers. So it’s going to be interesting to see how the open championship ro actually looks over the next say 10 15 years. Will really a traditional golf course be kind of ousted for the sake of for the sake of space really I suppose? I mean yeah to a to a to a certain extent. Um but I think Mir I don’t I don’t think the crowds I don’t think the crowd’s issue was because Mirfield doesn’t have space. Now personally I’ve never been there. I’m not sure if you have. I was there. It’s difficult to get to like it’s difficult to get any accommodation uh nearby. Like just reading up on it there like the organizers h in 2013 blamed the I think they blamed they blamed the hot weather rather than like the high ticket prices because there was a drop of 20,000 spectators in 2013 from the last time uh the event was staged in Murfield which I think was 2002. So you know they’ve had a crowd drop before. They going to are they going to risk another one I suppose by returning there is is the question. Yeah. But is it do they have do they does the course and the area like have the capability to host bigger numbers? It’s just the town and the maybe it’s a little bit awkward to access but theoretically if if 200,000 people or 250,000 people turned up for the week could the course and everything cater for them? I don’t I was only a child, Mark, when I was there. Would you relax? Were you not Were you not planning for your future your future career in journalism when you would be asked this question on a podcast? I didn’t think you’d ask me that back though. I’m just saying like we stayed in in uh in Fal Kirk, which is up in Scotland obviously. And just googling here in the Google maps. I think it was a good hour away like so you’re that’s what you’re you know you’re talking about and you we would have booked it quite early at the time as well. It’s just hard to get to then you obviously had to park in various parking rides which is obviously no picnic just going yeah it was almost a 2hour twohour train train journey in an hour drive like it’s it’s difficult place to get to. So you were there for the for the open championship. Yeah. In which what 2013 was it? 2013. Yeah. Like I just I just remember like there’d be no real sort of scurry or That’s That’s only what that’s only 10 years ago. You You were 15 or 16 or something like that, weren’t you? Very immature for my age. But even then, like I remember Don’t be I thought I thought you were I thought you were going to try to tell me you’re like one of those little toddlers, you know, that the cameras pan to with a plastic golf club swinging away. I might as well have been given the side. Sure, you’re practically all you probably could have managed to get served in the bar there and all. No comments. No comments. No comments. But just going back to the Open Championship uh potentially coming to Port Maruk, obviously the British Open tag has been taken away from well the or have tried to get it away there. Obviously some traditionalists will still call it the British Open. Um, does the open potentially come to Port Marik open a can of worms with respect to why can’t France or Spain or Portugal host the open championship if they’re going to move it outside of the UK? Well, I would say the ethos of the Open Championship, regardless of what name it’s called, um the ethos is going to be play it has to be played on a link’s course. Uh I mean we’ve never we haven’t well at least the proper the proper open championship. I know the senior open and the women’s open have gone to non-links courses before but I think the I think the open championship will always be played on a pure on a pure links course. So, I think that’s going to that’s going to rule out most of Europe in maybe might be a couple of courses in Holland which maybe have uh going to throw their throw their hat into the ring. Uh is what’s that? Is Amsterdam links? It’s not not that far away though. Not that far away. Um, but I think I think what’s what what’ll be more interesting is I’m looking looking forward to the I mean, we all know the Americans purely refuse to refuse to use the Open Championship tagline. It’s always the British Open. The British Open. I mean, in fairness, 90% of the time I’m referring to it as well. I call it the British Open until I’m actually writing something official and you have to give myself a slap in the wrist and say it’s the Open Championship. Um, but when when Ireland when Ireland are hosting the if Ireland do host an open championship and everybody’s calling it the British Open, there’ll be a lot of uh be a lot of people on social media complain and it’s it’s Britain. Britain is this is this is it’s in the Republic of Ireland. It’s you know it’ll be a fun it’ll be a fun fun one. It’ll be like the Brits are at it again. They’re trying to claim trying to trying to claim Dublin’s Britain now. trying to claim all our Irish players as you see on Sky Sports nearly every other week. And moving on, some other news. Rory Mroy and Tiger Woods have revealed the details for their new high-tech indoor golf league that I think it’s the TGL that it’s called. It’s going to start on the 9th of January of next year with 15 of the world’s top 20 already signed up. It’s a kind of a virtual golf league played in a simulator in a kind of a dome setting with loads of fans and it’ll have its own short game area as well for when they’re around the greens and on the greens. It actually they’ll use real grass as well which is which is quite interesting. Will they be watching? I mean I probably will. Yeah, it’s going to be a they’re going to be on like what is it Monday evening or I think it’s Monday evening or Tuesday evening. um starting in the middle of winter, isn’t it? So, starting this second week of January on ESPN. So, for those who still haven’t been arrested for having the dodgy box, I’m sure you’ll be able to find it somewhere. Well, that’s that’s if if any if any uh 50 listening, I don’t have a dodgy box. I’m all I’m all legal. Um, but it’s if it’s going to be on Monday, if it’s going to be on the evening time in the States, which is in it’s all in Florida, isn’t it? It’s in Palm Beach uh State College, which I presume is in Florida. Yeah. So, it’s if it’s going to be on the evening time there, which means you had obviously add five add five hours on for us. So, it’s you’re like likely it could be like 2:00 3:00 in the morning that it’s going to be broadcast live here. So, don’t know. We might have to get paid overtime to set up to set up and set up and cover that one. Yeah, we can all get we can all get Tuesdays off after staying up to watch the TGL. Yeah. Awesome. This will be no no change from your current life then your Tuesdays off. None at all. None at all. I still play my golf on the Tuesday. Still play my golf on the Tuesday. Uh, moving on then, your buddy from I have to be careful now of what I say here, but from Bali Buffet and Stranora, but who also plays his golf out of Rosapena, Ryan Griffin of Man University is heading over to Dubai next month for the Liv Promotions event, which is essentially the uh European tour QL equivalent for Liv. Obviously, it’s a $25 entry fee and it’s a $1.5k prize purse with a potential 200 grand payout for the winner. And he qualifies because he was a member of the international Palmer Cup site earlier this year and he actually impressed that week as well. So for $25 compared to around the €3,000 euro mark to enter Q school for the DP world tour. I suppose if you put your your human your human rights um morals aside like and you’re a young amateur looking to you know get into the program and kickstart your career. Why wouldn’t you? I mean absolutely absolutely uh I mean if you all you all you need to do is go over there and play play four good rounds. I mean, obviously it’s a, you know, make it sound a lot easier than it is, but if you go over there and you play four extremely good rounds and manage to get yourself into there, there’s only three cards on offer. So, it’s I mean, it’s a it’s a huge ask. First of all, you’d have to play a one one round to qualify from stage one and then there’s a reset with uh with the additional players. So there like the likes of the players dropping off live, players who’ve kind of who have um performed performed really well in the the amateur championships, players who’ve performing well on the on the other professional tours will all come in at the second stage and scores reset and then you’ve got a just like a 54hole qualifier from them effectively. But I mean, you can if you can if you can go out there and put four really good rides together, get yourself one of those tour cards, uh, if you play a full season on Liv next year, you are guaranteed to win over $1.5 million. That’s guaranteed. You if you finish last in every single event, $1.5 million. Uh, not not to me, I mean, see Kim this year pretty much did finish one finished last in nearly every event. Not far, not far off it, but but but with team with team bonus money and everything, he earned like 1.7 over over a $1.75 million. Not bad. I mean, for for for students or for people coming out of college and everything, it’s like you couldn’t you couldn’t hold it against somebody going over there. If you want to if you want to hold it against the the likes of the top players who are already multi multi-millionaires, that’s a different thing. Uh holding it holding anything against like a young young person who doesn’t have two pennies to rub together really uh that’s you know they’d be crazy not to go I think. Yeah. Yeah, I think when you look at the suppose the more established uh professionals going over to live then of course some of the footballers going to the Saudi league like it’s it won’t change your life but it’ll change your legacy whereas the case of Ryan it’ll definitely change his life if he can be even mildly successful and he gets he gets to where he wants to go. There was obviously four Walker Cup um walk no four places available for Ireland’s four Walker Cup players Liam Nolan, Alex Magcguire, Matt Mlan and Mark Power. But they all have other priorities. Liam has exams in NUIG while Matt McClean is going back to the day job as an optometrist up in Belfast while obviously Alex and Mark are DP World Q school. They’re they obviously have three grand those two fellas. But um no it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out and especially into the future as well because obviously the Hinch is going to host the Palmer Cup next year. Hopefully we’ll have a couple of Irish players playing that as well. So and if they live Q school continues to be a thing, you know, why wouldn’t you go as well and that’s just the way it is. Speaking of uh why wouldn’t you go? Why wouldn’t you buy or why would you buy as far as Roy Moy is concerned? Just a little story to add in that he wants to invest in a we little stake in Manchester United Football Club. He wants to get into bed with the Glazers and be the brunt of the fans blame even though it’s completely the player’s fault and the manager’s fault for when things go wrong. Mroy might fix the roof, but he won’t fix the Man United team. So, uh, would you ever invest in a football club, Mark, if you had the chance? If I had Maroyy’s money, I might. I think there’s no there’s no danger no danger of me investing in a football club in the on the IGM salary. That’s for sure. Uh I think even even Finn Hars has probably turned away my turn away my money. Um I don’t look Maroyy’s obviously he’s he’s a well publicized big Manchester United fan. Um I would suggest he’s probably getting he’s you know he’s also getting involved in Formula 1 and everything and I’d imagine a lot of those things are for you know to turn a profit out of. I don’t know if he’d be throwing money into Man United with the with the idea of getting a profit out of it. I’d say that might be just like a labor of love. Maybe I think he should fleece him for every penny they have. But uh this is this is I’m looking forward I’m looking forward I mean but if he if he if he does throw his hat in Man United I’m looking forward to you know the Rory Marro you’re a wanker you’re a wanker chat chance chance of you know when he when he turns up and he turns up at the open championship next year and there’s a or there’s a ton of Liverpool fans there the first te I tell you what many United fans be going to the Nor City club shop and absolutely rinsing the place out of for those for those green and yellow scarfs But um on a more serious note like looking at what Mroy is trying to do and what he has done with the Alpine team with the investment there like this is kind of becoming the done thing in sport like because we Jordan speed and Justin Thomas h they’re part of the 40 49ers group who invest in Leeds United over the summer and they actually approached Mroy to join them but being such a staunch Man United fan he couldn’t go but we’ve obviously seen Tom Brady at Birmingham City and how he’s now cocked that up with the appointment of Wayne Rooney like can you see other golfers getting involved in owning major sports teams or sports franchises as some of them are becoming? I mean, well, certainly. I mean, these these guys obviously have got like obscene wealth and they’ve they’ve all got like financial managers or teams teams in place to to manage those finances. And I mean, the only reason the only reason any of them are getting involved in in these teams or these sort of ventures is that they think that there’s there’s a profit to be made there. Um no they may be they may be given like a list of options you can invest in this software company or you can invest in this sports team and then people are like ah actually no like the sports team that’s I’d rather I’d rather have uh I’d rather be associated with a sports team. I’d rather get like get to get to follow something than just sort of looking at like how the IBM stock is fairing or something like that. But um but yeah, I mean they’re all they’re all doing it for for a financial for financial return unless like I said unless they’re like st supporters of that team or something like that and they’re like well I’d like to I’d like to help here but I mean that’s I don’t know maybe maybe Maro is I in a profit with Man United because you never know. In which in which case he’ll be as bad as the Glazers. Oh, good. Good. I rub my hands together on that one, but uh he could do a Shane Lowry. He could do a Shane Larry and maybe invest in down GAA. Obviously, we know what Larry’s done for for Offley so far and it’s it’s been brilliant. You’d want to keep the fans on a leash down there in Offy now considering what the pull boys were at that referee a couple of weeks ago. You’d expect you’d expect nothing else. I mean, they were they were screwed out of it. Summer Hill. You’re me. You’re your Summer Hill boys for me. Obviously paid off the ref. That’s nonsense. The referee got that call spot on and he should be applauded for changing his mind under the most fierce pressure and sticking to his guns. Like I didn’t Well, didn’t he change his mind twice? I don’t know. But either way, he got to the right decision. And Summer Hill march on. Summer Hill march on. I didn’t actually I didn’t actually see it. I only saw the I only saw the video of him going down. I have to say not not standing not I’m not on here defending people who abuse referees or put their hands on referees or anything but he did go down a little bit easy I would just stop he did he took a little bit of a dive so you’re pro violence that’s what you’re saying let the fans on let them stream let’s all go loud part about not defending people who put their hands on referees says I’m pro violence but anyway moving moving swiftly on. Speaking of fellas who are going down, where does Graeme McDool go next? Obviously his live contract expired upon the conclusion of their second season which was um a couple of weeks ago the team championship in Miami or was it in Jedha? I don’t even know. That’s how much attention I pay to it. But he earned over five million across his two years despite having only just only one top 10 in two years. earning over just over $5 million. Where does he go from here? Is he going to get a new deal? Is like he was a stop gap player when he signed the deal two years ago in the first place. And obviously he seems to think that he was such a great spokesperson for the tour that that might earn him a few browning points with the with the Newcastle boys. But it’s interesting to see what what happens now because it seems after having such a poor period after COVID on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour, Liv kind of gave him a lifeline and saved him from limbo, but now it feels like he’s obviously going to be back into limbo. Yeah, look, he obviously he obviously hasn’t performed performed particularly well since since going to live. um sort of I was I was reading he was Graeme’s playing over in the international series um the Asian Asian tours international series event this week which is like the Volvo Volvo China Open was a former European tour event um but it’s now under the Asian tour ring but he was so he was actually asked about um about that event you know the promotions the promotion event like the open qualifier they were talking Ryan Griffin’s going to and So obviously at you’d imagine every Liv player who doesn’t get themselves a contract for next year. So if you’re if just in case people aren’t aware, the top 20 top 24 players in the live rankings were guaranteed their status for next year. Uh as were all team captains who are outside of the top 24. Um then there’s kind of like a there’s a a per there was like was it four or five players who were definitely relegated. Uh definitely relegated although they will have an opportunity to enter that open qualifier and you know play their way back in. Uh so Graeme wasn’t one of those guys. He was he’s in he’s sort of like finished in what’s kind of like the limbo positions. He was a 42nd out of the 48 and only the top 24 and team captains are guaranteed a contract for 2024. Yeah. So, he’s not guaranteed a contract, but between obviously between now and the season starting next year, you expect they’ll be Liv will be trying to approach and bring in new players. You’d imagine from the from the DP World Tour, the PGA tour. I mean last year they got you know Thomas Peters amongst amongst others. Thomas Peters probably the the headline name that they got in the sort of offseason last year. So you have to figure it looks like the there’s going to be no framework agreement signed between the PIF and the PGA Tour. So it should still be open season for them. Could we could see the likes of a Patrick Canley, Xander Schoffley maybe possibly jumping ship to saying this that this is their this is their last chance to get a potentially their last chance to get a to get a big signing bonus to go in case there is an agreement reached and things come back together again or whatever. But after after these players are are brought in whoever and and players will be brought in, team captains can then assemble assemble their teams however they wish. And you’d have to think, okay, he may not have been he may not have been fantastic, but I I still think Graeme will will be given a spot by one of the by one of the team captains cuz I mean going going down the sort of the Asian tour rankings outside of outside of McDarl, I’m not sure there’s any players there that you’d that you would definitely think are going to are going to perform better than him. So, I would say you may go with the sort of the tried and tested. That being that being said, uh if he doesn’t get if he doesn’t get uh a pick from a team captain, then it will be to the open qualifier qualifier with him and try and get one of those three cards. Uh but I was just reading sort of reading between the lines in his in his quotes and this he was just he was saying it’ll be very curious to see who’s in the field in at this open qualifier. Uh saying obviously no live players don’t live players don’t want to be there because that means you’re in the you know you’re in the relegation zone or you’re you haven’t secured your job for next year. But he was just saying it’ll be very cur I’m very curious to see who’ll be there. the fact that he wasn’t saying I’ll be there. I’m I’m guessing that he’s gonna get that he’s going to get a nod. Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what happens as well with the DP World Tour supposedly giving away their best the PGA Tour and then going and getting the PJ tours reject. So, it could be a load of I don’t know Tom Hogis and Michael Kim coming over to the PJ tour and what’s his name? Grayson Murray coming over as well. So, it’s an interesting interesting um Tom Hogi. Tom Hoggy would be a big coup actually for the unfortunately it’s probably going to be it’s gonna be your Austin Smotherman’s and your Tom in the 126 to 200. Tom Hogy couldn’t hack it at the K club. Would you go a but Tom Hogi’s in the top one top 125 so he’s not gonna he’s not going to not going to count for that. We’re getting Jimmy Walker. That’s who we’re getting. Jimmy Yes. Good man. One. Number 126. Number 126. The golden the golden slot in the world of golf. Right. What’s next on our uh what’s next on our list to talk about this week? Uh why Peter is such a beep. No, I think we should move on to heroes and villains, Mark, because I’ve got a I got a quite an interesting hero. Well, he could be a villain depending on where you look at it or just an just an all round clown. But Australian allround cricketer. Glenn Maxwell has been ruled out of his size World Cup match against England after falling off a golf cart and sustaining a concussion. I didn’t I didn’t hear about this. Excellent. So, he’s When did When was he playing? was in uh it doesn’t if Maxwell finished well actually yeah if they’re supposed to be playing in England they’re not going to be playing in oh it’s the cricket the the cricket world cup’s on at the moment India isn’t it yeah he was playing around golf at Gujarat’s Kalar Blues and Greens club on Monday evening and he was riding on the back of a golf cart with his teammates when he lost his grip fell and hit his head so that’s good I’m sure that wasn’t premeditated anyway to get him to get him dropped and someone as can take his place. It’s fantastic. So, he’s he’s your hero. He is my hero. Excellent. Well, I was going I was going a little bit more serious. I was going to go with Sarah Burn as my hero. Ah, but having winners as your heroes is just too mainstream. That’s a real thing. I was I was actually struggling for this this week. The the heroes and villains. The v the villain’s very easy. The villain’s always very easy for me, but there’s not that there’s not been that much happening and it’s been a quiet time in golf. So, heroes were kind of heroes were a little bit harder to to dig up. Uh, but the villain this week, almost like the almost like the weekly villain for me is of course the PGA tour as always. Um, this week the reason the reason they’re the villain this week is because they suspended two players for betting on golf. Now, it’s okay. It’s a little bit of a murky world there. you know, professional athletes betting on the sports that they’re that they’re playing in, whatever. But this wasn’t quite backing yourself to lose or yourself to get booked or yourself to give away a penalty or anything like that. Wasn’t quite Sandro Tenali. It wasn’t. It wasn’t quite like Snooker players begging. Snooker players backing I’m going to lose the first frame and going to win the second frame and you know well this these were so the two guys u no it’s the PGA tour suspending them but they’re like they’re cornfy tour players. Uh so Jake Jake Stano and Vince India they’re called um so Stano was suspended for three months and India was suspended for six months. uh the the suspensions start now which means that they can’t take part in deep on the Q school. So they’ve no no opportunity to you know to to advance or to to play their way into onto the PGA tour for next year. But the reason that they were suspended uh well obviously betting but Staniano admitted that his bets which was $115 in total I think it was. So he bet he bet he put $25 on Bryson Dshambo to Birdie a par five during a PGA t tour tournament that Stiana wasn’t playing and had no involvement in. This was obviously prior to Bryson going to live. And then he had three other bets all all during the the Shambo, Brooks, Kepka made for TV, the match, the 12hole match they played last year. So there’s four bets totaling $116 were all He must be a Bryson fan by the way, I’m assuming. Um but but he got a he got a three-month suspension for that. And that is extremely harsh. That is extremely harsh. There’s no reason there’s no reason why they couldn’t have gone to him and just like just gave him a little slap in the wrist and say here we know what it’s come to our attention that you’ve been gambling on this [ __ ] Cut that out. This is this is your this is a warning. Don’t [ __ ] around. Uh the suspending for three months and six months respectively is extremely harsh. So it is villain of the week for sure. It is. But like I suppose you can argue like foreign furry PJ tour they’re all the one. And if you’re betting on uh Bryson and PJ tour event and Bryson in the match when he was a PJ tour player like I suppose they can they can argue that it’s all intertwined into the one and you’re representing the company or the brand or what have you. But I do agree with you. It is. It’s very harsh and it’s not the events he’s missing as well. Like that’s could be the difference on whether you make it or not as well. Yeah. I’m not I’m not saying I’m not saying just look the other way altogether. I’m saying definitely definitely pull him into a room and set him down and read the riot act. I wonder did he did he win those bets? That’s what I want to know. Exactly. Well, Bryson Bryson lost that if assuming going on the logic that he backed Bryson to Birdie a par five and then had three more. His other bets were all on Bryson right. I’m figuring he’s a Bryson fan and Kepka spanked him in that match. I know cuz I had Keepa back in it. It’s like the one the one thing one thing’s for sure is that Kepka is going to treat this like a major. He’s not gonna he’s not going to want to lose to Bryson. So I I’m going to I’m going to assume that he lost those bets. He may have won the birdie the par five bet, but he might have. He might have. We here at Irish golfer don’t know about gambling. But if you do fancy a filter, please gamble responsibly. Had to get that in before the lawyers come in. You don’t want to be getting suspended now, Mark. It’ll just be me on the podcast then. Well, I gamble and I do not gamble responsibly. Oh, we know, we know, we know, we know. And on that note everyone, I think it’s time to say goodbye. Mark, we’ve had another great run and like every any great team, we’ll be aiming to go back to back next week. Yeah. Amen. You can trust us. We’ll we’ll not we’ll not miss a podcast between now and the end of the year. Oh, that’s a stretch. Promise. This promise is delivered to you by Peter Finn. Oh, then it’s definitely not happening. Not happening at all. Anyway, as always, thanks to everyone for tuning in and hopefully we didn’t bore you to death and you stuck around. For those who did, um, please check out the website for reports on the challenger grand final. Uh, some live videos as well be coming from there on the social media channels. We follow Connor Pel in his quest to make it to DP World Tour. Of course, we’ll also have updates from the four Q school venues this week as well. Uh Stephanie Meadows in LPGA Tour action as she looks to close in on the race of CME Globe Tour Championship in a couple of weeks. Just two regular events remaining before that. I think she’s 65th in the rankings with 60 players making it true at the end of the year. And of course there’ll be other Golf Ireland stuff across the week. And of course the Asian tours GMAC looks to earn some much needed cash now that his contracted live is due to expire. Mark, thanks very much for joining me this week. Pleasure as always, Ron. [Music]
