Alex Maguire is no stranger to lifting silverware after winning the North of Ireland Amateur Championship last year and the East of Ireland Championship a fortnight ago but he feels that winning the Amateur Championship this week would cap the biggest week of his life.
Maguire saw off fellow Irishman and friend Mark Power in Thursday morning’s last-32 tie before squeezing through to the quarter-finals by the minimum against Jamie Roberts of Scotland.
The Mornington native survived a late comeback from the Scotsman to come through 1UP after he had built up a four hole advantage and he is still in the hunt for the Amateur title and a place at the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews next month.
“It’s probably the biggest week of anyone’s life if you win this,” he said. “ I’ve won a few tournaments at home and one over in the States but nothing the size of this. I mean, again, any amateur in the world really wants to win this and obviously the stuff that comes with it. Yeah, it definitely would be the biggest week.”
Six Irish progressed to the last-32 but one was guaranteed to have their dream come to an end when the Laytown & Bettystown golfer was drawn against Kilkenny’s Power.
Maguire came through 2&1 to take a sizeable scalp over the 2020 semi-finalist and he feels he was at his best to win.
“Well, playing against Mark Power, one of the best amateurs in the world, you want to have your game, and luckily I played well this morning. It was a great match against Mark. It’s sort of tough to beat one of your friends. I know he wanted to win this so much.
“But it was nice to get through that round and then played quite well in the afternoon and struggled on the back nine. I think a bit of fatigue sort of crept in. And then I had a neck injury on the very first hole today that sort of was creeping back in today and it was quite sore to move to my right.
“But yeah, I’m just lucky to get over the line today.”
The 21-year-old will face Max Charles of Australia in Friday’s quarter-final.
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