Walker Cup aspirant Richard McEvoy will be at Royal Dublin next weekend fresh from a splendid triumph in the Lytham Trophy. The gifted Englishman from Thorpe Hall is in a quality field for the 72-hole, Ulster Bank-sponsored Irish Amateur Open Strokeplay Championship which starts on Friday. When Noel Fox captured the title last year only one overseas player, Nico LeGrange of South Africa, managed to get into the top 12. But there is good reason to suspect that things may be rather different on this occasion.
Indeed, Irish dominance could be under threat, given that overseas challengers in the field of 164 will outnumber local competitors for the first time in the history of the event. And they include two South Africans, Dean Lambert and Richard Sterne, who rejoice in the status of having plus-four handicaps.
Since the event was revived at Fota Island in 1995, the roll of honour has been: 1995 - Padraig Harrington (Stackstown); 1996 - Keith Nolan (Bray); 1997 - Nolan; 1998 - Michael Hoey (Shandon Park); 1999 - Gary Cullen (Beaverstown); 2000 - Noel Fox (Portmarnock).
At the close of entries, Ireland's lowest handicapper, Michael Hoey off plus 2.5, looked somewhat run-of-the-mill when taken with his brethren from overseas. As it happens, Hoey is joined by fellow Walker Cup squad members Fox and Tim Rice, but the other Irish member of that elite group, Graeme McDowell, remains at the University of Alabama in the US.
It will be recalled that 12 months ago Fox could afford a final round of 74 and still secure a four-under-par aggregate of 284 for a three-stroke victory over Michael McDermott (Stackstown) and Ken Kearney (Roscommon) in a share of second place. Since then, McDermott has stepped up a notch by capturing the West of Ireland Championship in which he beat Hoey in the final.
The Open Strokeplay is the second in a list of nine qualifying events named by the Royal and Ancient as a basis for selection on the Walker Cup team to defend the trophy on the Ocean Forest course, Sea Island, Georgia in August.
The first of them was played last weekend when McEvoy won with an aggregate of 276.
Top Irish finisher at Lytham was Athlone's Colm Moriarty who was tied fifth on 287. Then came Stephen Browne of Hermitage who was tied 11th on 293; Andrew McCormick (Scrabo), tied 12th on 294; Timmy Rice (Limerick), tied 15th on 297; Noel Fox (Portmarnock), tied 19th on 302.
Fox's performance will come as a disappointment, especially after a second-round defeat by Philip McLaughlin in the recent "West". "I have been working hard in practice this year, but I need regular competition to keep my game tight," he said.
Zane Scotland, a current English international, is also among the entries along with six compatriots, including Gary Wolstenholme from the Kilworth Spring club. Wolstenholme captured the British Amateur championship of 1991, but gained considerably greater international exposure as the so-called Tiger Slayer of 1995.
The sobriquet has to do with his exploits in the first day's singles from the Walker Cup at Royal Porthcawl, where the Englishman did the unthinkable by beating Tiger Woods on the 18th. Granted, Woods helped him considerably by pulling his approach out of bounds and he went on to gain revenge with a 4 and 3 win the following day. But Wolstenholme's victory of the opening day remained a very notable achievement.
He is now set for further Walker Cup honours having won the closing singles at Nairn two years ago when Britain and Ireland gained a tremendous victory by 15-9 under Peter McEvoy's leadership. Other notable English entries are Graeme Clark of Doncaster, John Morgan (Clevedon), Dave Dixon (Enmore Park) and Jonathan Lupton (Middlesbrough).
The cosmopolitan nature of amateur golf these days gained rich emphasis in the recent US Masters at Augusta National. There on our television screens on the opening day was Finland's Miko Ilonen who will be remembered in this country, of course, as winner of the West of Ireland Championship at Enniscrone in 1999, before graduating to a British Amateur triumph last year.
As it happens, Finland are strongly represented at Royal Dublin, where their players will be seeking much-desired knowledge of links golf. German players are also there in strength, along with eight Americans and, as we have already indicated, some quality South African challengers who will be attempting to do better than LeGrange's fifth-place finish of last year.
