Alex Maguire will make his major championship debut at this month’s 151st Open Championship in Royal Liverpool.
Maguire was the winner of the Open Amateur Series which rewarded the top points scorer on the World Amateur Golf Ranking from the St Andrews Links Trophy, Amateur Championship and European Amateur Championship.
”The Open is of the biggest events in the world and the major I would love to do well in the most,” explained Maguire who was named on Ireland’s six-man European Championship side on Friday.
”I’ll take it one step at a time and get all the stuff done before I go over to Hoylake and enjoy the week as much as I can and hopefully have some good golf.”
The Laytown & Bettystown club member put himself in a strong position at the top of the points list after winning the St Andrews Links and he strengthened his grip with a quarter final run at last week’s Amateur Championship at Hillside GC but a spanner was thrown in the works after he opted out of playing in Estonia this week which threatened to scupper his chances of qualifying for Hoylake.
But results went his way on Saturday afternoon and Maguire will be teeing it up alongside Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Seamus Power and Pádraig Harrington in what is another boost to his Walker Cup hopes.
“I was on the edge of my seat watching scores in Estonia!”
”It’s a pretty hard situation to be in sitting at home doing calculations as the scores come in waiting to see how things pan out. I made the decision not to look at the scores until today.
”Going down the back nine I knew I had a pretty good chance and I saw myself in a solid position and then I got a call to say it was confirmed.
”It’s a massive relief because I felt like I shot myself in the foot by not playing this week. Nonetheless I’m going now and what an incredible opportunity this is.”
Maguire is still not in the Walker Cup squad but with recent results and now Open qualification its surely only a matter of time.
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