As you know we are a sponsor and good friend to up and coming Irish Professional Niall Kearney. He’s had a hectic schedule and some great results in recent weeks and we’ve asked him to share some of his stories from his last four weeks on tour.
What a couple of weeks. My defence of the Irish PGA Championship couldn’t really have gone better and my trip to Woburn for the British Masters was simply fantastic. Sometimes, what can be a lonely road of the professional golfer leads to weeks like these and all seems worthwhile!
Irish PGA championship 2015 – Dundalk Golf Club
As many of you will know, some golf courses just suit your eye and others don’t. Sometimes for no good reason a course just feels comfortable and the game seems that bit easier. You hear on TV when golfers comment that the course suited their eye and they shoot low scores in that venue. I haven’t played Dundalk that often and indeed hadn’t played it for a few years so I really didn’t have expectations either way of how I would do. It was an hon-our to win the championship in 2014 and an honour to attempt its defence.
My game was good going into that week but to shoot 22 under on a course that’s challenging to say the least was terrific. My tournament got off to a great start with a really solid first round and I was tied for the lead with my great friend Eamonn Brady.
“The last few weeks have been really satisfying. Between the winning of thePGA Cupwith my GB & I colleagues, the defence of my Irish PGA title and the Woburn adventure I must say I’m delighted that hard work is paying off.”
Heading into round two, I knew that with Eamon and other top players in the mix, nothing would come easy. I was surprised to have a healthy lead at 11 under after round two and subsequent rounds of 5 and 4 under respectively gave me a winning margin of 14 shots.
All in all an amazing week and it was great to catch up with friends from the Irish region that I don’t see too often.
British Masters Woburn Golf Club
Having played in the cauldron of the BMW Championship in Wentworth earlier this year I was somewhat mentally prepared for the British Masters in the beautiful Woburn Golf Club. I felt really comfortable all week and although putts weren’t dropping with the same regular-ity as the previous week I played solid golf and felt at home at this level. This is where I want to be week in week out and where my goals are set. The prize money from Woburn will help enormous-ly with my expenses as I head to Asia for a 10-week stint involving 7 or 8 tournaments. Good form over the coming weeks would see me retain my full Asian Tour Card and get me into the hugely lucrative co-sanctioned events next year. These are tournaments run joint-ly by the European and Asian tours. Venues are spectacular and prize money very good.So all in all the last few weeks have been real-ly satisfying. Between the winning of the PGA Cup with my GB & I colleagues, the defence of my Irish PGA title and the Woburn adventure I must say I’m delighted that hard work is paying off.
Once again I have to thank you all for the support. I’ve received literally hundreds of messages of congratulations and support and I really appreciate it.