Following discussions with Golf Ireland, the popular Champions Weekend pioneered by the Darren Clarke Foundation is set for a relaunch in early 2024.
The Champion’s Weekend was first staged in 2002 and over the years has played host to a significant number of boys and girls who have gone on to become Irish golfing superstars. Having been put on hold for a number of years due to Clarke’s busy United States PGA Champions Tour schedule and with COVID-19 making international travel difficult, Clarke’s relocation to the Bahamas sparked the revival of the Champions Weekend that will now be hosted at the Abaco Club, on Abaco Island where Clarke makes his home, in February 2024.
This will coincide with the Irish schools’ mid-term break and Darren has made sure that he will take a week off from his Champions Tour Schedule – where he is a four-time winner, including the 2022 Senior Open Championship – to host the event.
”It was just fantastic to see the Irish involvement in the Solheim Cup and, more recently, in the Ryder Cup,” Clarke said, just days after Europe had successfully retained the Solheim Cup and regained the Ryder Cup, both in dramatic fashion. “Leona [Maguire], Rory [McIlroy] and Shane [Lowry] all participated in the Champions Weekend during their formative years, and we are keen to continue to foster and support Junior Golf in Ireland in partnership with Golf Ireland. We want to help the current generation of young Irish golfers in their endeavours to become Major Championship winners and achieve selection on Amateur and Professional representative Teams. Who knows where or when the next Rory McIlroy will emerge in Irish Golf.”
Initial conversations have taken place between Dougie Heather, Chief Executive of the Foundation, and James Corcoran of Golf Ireland, and details are being worked on and will hopefully be finalised in the coming weeks.
The current plan is to invite 10 young Irish golfers – five boys and five girls – to travel to the Bahamas for a four-day coaching and mentoring session with Clarke, winner of the Open Championship in 2011, the Senior Open Championship in 2022, and more than 25 professional tournaments worldwide in a career spanning 35 years.
Two Golf Ireland representatives will be selected to accompany and guide the 10 youngsters, and hopes are high that this will once again become an annual fixture for our top boys and girls to look forward to.
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