It was a boiling hot morning, Eisenhower Trophy week, and Jack Hume had just completed his practice session before he took to the course – luckily he didn’t hit the first green.
The World Amateur Team Championship was taking place across Mayakoba El Camaleón and Iberostar Playa Paraiso just to the South of Cancun, and the Irish team of Stuart Grehan, Paul McBride and Hume formed an exciting trio.
Hume was beginning his week on Iberostar that Wednesday and when he went to his bag for his 56 degree wedge, he noticed there were 15 clubs in it.
“It didn’t help when I started the week with that on the first hole, I don’t know what happened,” said Hume.
“I was warming up and I only had 14 clubs in my bag so I don’t know what happened. I hit it greenside and I went to take out my club for a pitch and I seen I had two 60s in the bag. I was just like, ah shit.
“The penalty is two shots per hole that you play. Lucky I found it on the first hole. It does throw you but you just have to regroup and go again.”
The team, and Hume, did regroup while it turned into a history-making week for the Irish. Ireland finished tied third in the standings along Austria on -18.
It was yet another notable achievement in a glittering amateur career for the Naas golfer, which all came on the back of a phenomenal run during his underage career.
Having captured the Munster U-18s Boys Championships in August 2010, it meant Hume became only the second golfer to win all four regional titles in the one year.
“At 15 I got pretty serious with it. I spent most days at the golf club at the time, the dream was to play PGA Tour and play Majors. I always followed Tiger when I was young, he was entertaining to watch,” said Hume.
“I did pretty decent at underage, I started playing properly good golf and it was just a slow progression up until I stopped playing.”
At that point Hume had worked with some of the best coaches in the game here, from Brendan McDaid to Seamus Duffy and Gavin Lunney. He had attended the Darren Clarke School and also worked alongside Golf Ireland coaches Neil Manchip and Donal Scott.
His career was on an upward trajectory, in August 2016 he survived the lowest US Amateur cut in history in a field which included the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Wyndham Clark.
It was a year after he formed part of the ‘Famous Five’ teaming up with Gavin Moynihan, Cormac Sharvin, Paul Dunne and Gary Hurley in the Walker Cup.
The opponents from the US had another star-studded selection with Bryson DeChambeau and Maverick McNealy the world class players of that era.
“Competitions breeds quality in Irish amateur golf,” said Hume.
“When you played on a team as well, you travelled a lot together and shared rooms. It’s nice to have your travel partners that are your mates and you can have a laugh with them. It makes the travel a bit easier.
“The Walker Cup was up there with the best of the team events anyway. It’s the most Irish players to be on a Walker Cup team and that was a great team. All mates as well so we had great banter for the week.
“It was mad, we weren’t sure if there would be five on the team. I remember getting the phone call and we were all ringing each other; ‘did you get on?’ It was great. Dermot McElroy would have been close too.
“The US team that we played were really highly ranked. If you look back on it now there is a few of them doing really well. DeChambeau, Maverick McNealy, him and Bryson were number one and two in the world. Then you had Robbie Shelton who is on the PGA Tour, Denny McCarthy does well, he is on the tour.
“We were just all really excited to play it. It’s just one of those events you really want to play before you turn pro. We were all just buzzing to get there and enjoy the week and try beat them really.”
Great Britain and Ireland were comprehensive winners that year and it was another stepping stone towards professionalism for Hume. He did join the professional ranks but would soon fall out of love with the game.
However, he still thinks back on his amateur days as some of his fondest memories in golf and this week he gets to mark that with the tenth anniversary of his victory at the West of Ireland.
The Naas youngster was two down with nine holes remaining in that dramatic final at County Sligo Golf Club but he battled back to defeat Robbie Cannon, 1up.
“I think I was 20 when I won that,” said Hume.
“It’s a nice tournament to win. It’s at the start of the year for everyone, so there’s always a bit of lead up to it, everyone is looking forward to it although the weather is never great.
“All the good players have won it. I think Harrington won it, Lowry and McIlroy won it. It’s nice to be on that list and have a trophy like that. It is one of the good ones. Everyone hasn’t had much competition all winter and they are buzzing to get there.
“It’s definitely up there. Ben Bulbin up there on the left as well, it’s a different beast when the weather changes. It’s a lovely course too, like every links course it depends on the weather. If it is calm, you can really get after it but if it is windy, just knuckle down and try and get it in the clubhouse.
“For the stroke play it was unbelievable, 20 degrees and flat calm. It was really nice and then it got windy again for the match play.
“I won 1up, the first time I led was the 18th tee. I got a bit of a shady start, a couple of bogeys in the first four holes and then clawed it back from there, bit by bit. It was a tight final, wasn’t the best golf but it wasn’t the worst either.
“It was just another stepping stone. You don’t get too carried away, it’s a tough game. It’s always nice to win.”
The 30-year-old has switched focus to coaching now and that’s where his future lies. He does still play but not competitively and he is learning to fall back in love with golf again.
“I didn’t play a whole lot of pro golf,” said Hume.
“I stopped quite early. If you are not putting your all into it, I don’t think there is any point in doing it. It’s too competitive and just too time consuming. You need to be there mentally.
“About nine or ten months ago I started getting back into it. Just getting back into golf in general, took the clubs out again to play. Just got back to the actual enjoyment of it.
“I had played a couple of times here or there, maybe only once or twice a year before.
“Then I started giving them my friends opinions on their games, helping them. I felt like I had a bit of knowledge to share about it. It’s thinking about the right way to go about it now.
“I’ll just start by going and getting the PGA degree first and then look on to the online aspect of it then. I will stay in Ireland for now and we will see what happens.
“With golf you just have to teach the person in front of you. You would treat a low handicapper very differently than you would a high handicapper.
“For the high handicapper it’s just about getting them to find enjoyment in the game and shoots of improvement. For the low handicapper it is a bit more detailed, a bit tougher on them, you can push them.”
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