In September 2022, Matthew McClean won an all-Irish final in America when he edged out Hugh Foley to win the US Mid-Amateur Championship at Erin Hills.
McClean became the first Irishman to win a USGA amateur event when he beat his Royal Dublin opponent 3&1 in the 36-hole championship decider and it set him on his way to major appearances at the Masters and US Open as well as a Walker Cup appearance for Great Britain and Ireland at St Andrews.
The Malone man was just the second foreign born player to win the US Mid-Amateur Championship and it remains one of Irish amateur golf’s great days.
McClean joined Pádraig Harrington, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell as the only Irishmen to win USGA titles.
Going in search of another USGA title at Erin Hills is Leona Maguire as the 80th US Women’s Open begins this week.
It’s the biggest championship that the golf course has hosted since the 2017 US Open which turned into a low scoring shootout won by Brooks Koepka.
Rory McIlroy missed the cut so Erin Hills wasn’t a happy hunting ground for Irish golfers up until McClean’s victory which was his first championship win of any kind after a few near misses.
“Winning is a big hurdle to get over. I go back to the Irish Am in 2022 because that was the first time I was really in contention and leading one of those high-class fields. I learned that this was one of the first times I was in that position, and I struggled to get over the line.
“I felt the disappointment was quite high, but I always say if I had won that week, I don’t know how the rest of the year would have gone. It was one of the biggest negatives that I turned into a positive to use to my advantage.
“I keep going back to that week. I was quite high in Brabazon and the East, so I was on a good run then won the US Mid-Am at the end of that year.”
Turning attention to this week in Erin Hills, Maguire is the lone Irishwoman in the field and is coming in very much under the radar.
The hype around the 30-year-old is minimal ahead of a major championship where she has missed four of six cuts, although she was T8 in 2022.
It seems like a long time ago since she held the 54-hole lead in the Women’s PGA Championship in 2023 where she finished eleventh. Her highest finish in a major since is 24th at the 2024 Women’s PGA while she has missed three of her last six cuts in majors.
Now ranked 80th in the world after back to back missed cuts on the LPGA Tour, the Cavan woman is coming in on a very low ebb.
Erin Hills is a big golf course with the official yardage for the women checking in at a hefty 6,829 yards, though that’s likely to change throughout the week depending on weather.
Eight years ago, the men played from 7,721 yards while low scores in 2017 were aided by the fact that the wind didn’t blow.
Considered to be a second-shot golf course, there will be a premium placed on course strategy and the ability to work the ball both ways, something which Maguire can do, but will the length of the golf course be her hindrance?
As ever, Nelly Korda is the star attraction this week as the world number one bids for her third major title. But her US Women’s Open record is not good with a T8 finish alongside Maguire in 2022 her best in her home open.
Korda’s often been questioned over her stomach for the toughest tests and after three missed cuts in five US Women’s Open’s she has a point to prove.
