Michael Hoey will be following the lead of Sergio Garcia by turning professional after next year's US Masters at Augusta National. So, his last important amateur assignment will be the Home Internationals at Woodhall Spa on September 12th to 14th.
In the meantime, the British Amateur champion, who originally planned to go to the Tour School this autumn, will have a predictably heavy schedule. Most immediately, he will decide tomorrow whether to compete in the Irish Close, which starts at Co Sligo on Saturday.
"After all the excitement of Prestwick, I feel a bit tired at the moment, but that may change in a day or two," he said yesterday. But he is certain to miss the North of Ireland Championship at Royal Portrush on July 9th to 13th, when he would have been the defending champion.
Hoey yesterday officially entered for the British Open at Royal Lytham on July 19th to 22nd, by paying a £95 Sterling entrance fee to the Royal and Ancient. And he will accept a sponsor's invitation to compete in the Loch Lomond World Invitational the previous week.
It will be recalled that as the British Amateur champion of 1998, Garcia went on to win the amateur medal at Augusta National the following April, completing a Spanish double with Masters winner Jose-Maria Olazabal. He then turned professional and had his first victory in the 1999 Murphy's Irish Open at Druids Glen. Meanwhile, Declan Branigan is making something of a sentimental return to Rosses Point for the Irish Close. It has to do with advice he received from a particularly active veteran, Barry Reddan, who told him: "There'll come a time when you won't be able to play in these events."
Branigan, who will be 53 next month, played all four rounds of the recent East of Ireland at Baltray and was in the Laytown and Bettystown team which won the North Leinster section of the Barton Shield last weekend. But the real persuader was his attachment to Rosses Point. "I have a reputation as a bit of a home bird and if there was one place in Ireland I would live, other than Baltray, it would be in Rosses Point. Now you know why I'm playing in the Close." Branigan also won the Close at Royal Portrush in 1977 and the East in 1981 and 1995.
Hoey is the only survivor from the 1999 side in Ireland's six-member line-up for the European Team Championship at Ljunghusens GC, Sweden, on July 3rd to 7th. But the only new cap is Stephen Browne of Hermitage, who has been rewarded for admirable consistency at championship level.
The team is: Stephen Browne (Hermitage), Noel Fox (Portmarnock), Michael Hoey (Shandon Park), Michael McDermott (Stackstown), Graeme McDowell (Rathmore), Tim Rice (Limerick). East of Ireland champion Ken Kearney was unavailable.
