Donegal Golf Club Murvagh will break new ground this weekend as it welcomes the PGA in Ireland for the inaugural Donegal Pro-Am sponsored by Total Splicing Solutions Ltd.
This challenging Championship Links Golf course will provide a stern test to the top players on the region with a cool €30,000.00 prize fund up for grabs from 7-8 July.
One of the leading lights in getting this two-day pro-am into the schedule is Derry’s Michael McGeady who himself is one of the top players on the Irish region having won on the Challenge Tour (2008) and reached the Open Championship Final Qualifying on Tuesday and he is thrilled to see a dream come to fruition.
“It’s surreal to see it all set up and they are just finishing off some signage but it’s great to see a dream become reality. I’ve been trying to get this for a few years and it’s great that Murvagh took the offer up and they have really ran with it and they are really excited about the event as it’s their first pro-am ever,” said the 2013 Irish PGA champion.
“Hopefully the weather holds up and we can showcase the golf course and people enjoy coming to play it and they go away and tell their friends and there are more people coming up to the North West of Ireland to play some of the world’s best golf courses.”
It’s been a few years of trying for the Derry native but having struck a strong relationship with Donegal Murvagh General Manager Grainne Dorian the pair have managed to attract a strong field to Tír Chonaill with the likes of Simon Thornton, Liam Grehan, Damian Mooney, Richard Kilpatrick, Richard O’Donovan, Brendan McGovern and David Higgins amongst others set to tee it up.
“My job was to get the link between the PGA and Donegal Golf Club. Grainne the General Manager has been fantastic from tee signage to getting the sponsors and getting the teams and tee times organised, she has been the driving force between it she deserves all the credit, I just connected the dots,” explained McGeady who often has to travel up to four hours for pro-am events.
“One of the big things I wanted to get the players was a decent prize fund. If you look at any of the main tours, the bigger and better players go to the bigger prize funds and higher ranking events so with more euros to play for that’s more points for the Order of Merit so that will entice the players to come.
“It doesn’t stop here, we want this event to go really well but I am keen to get more events into the north west.”
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