Turning professional during a global pandemic is not something that James Sugrue would recommend and after adding sixteen months of injury hell on top of that he hopes that 2025 will see his luck finally turn for the better.
Sugrue has had a taste of the big time, winning the 2019 Amateur Championship in Portmarnock which allowed him to tee it up at the Open Championship in Royal Portrush and the 2020 US Open and Masters as an amateur.
But since turning professional, the Covid-19 pandemic curtailed his formative years on tour and some rotten injury luck since, including a back problem and broken ankle ruled him out of action effectively for the last eighteen months.
Now, the 28-year-old from Mallow is feeling fitter and stronger than ever and believes he can start to rise through the levels, starting with the three-event Middle East Swing on the Clutch Pro Tour later this month.
“Looking forward to the year ahead, the last year has been a disaster, because I injured my back and just as I came out of that I broke my ankle so I was out for 12 to 16 months so really looking forward to getting back over. I’ll be playing Clutch all year and I could have up to seven Challenge Tour starts so you never know where that could take you,” says Sugrue who believes his best golf is still ahead of him as long as his body obliges.
Sugrue has had plenty of luck during his professional career, all bad. Just after recovering from a back injury, he slipped down the stairs in Metz while checking out of his Airbnb and broke his ankle which brought an end to his 2024 before it had got off the ground.
“I was actually playing golf in Metz in France. I was checking out of the Airbnb and had my luggage behind me and slipped going down the last couple of steps and my ankle just went,” he explains with a laugh in his voice.
Sugrue became the first Irishman since Alan Dunbar in 2012 to win the Amateur Championship when he beat Euan Walker in a thrilling 36-hole final on home soil six years ago. He would go on to play on the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team alongside Caolan Rafferty and Conor Purcell.
While Rafferty has continued to excel on the Irish amateur scene and Purcell has blossomed as a professional, earning his DP World Tour card for this year, Sugrue has become a forgotten man of Irish golf and he is planning on etching his name firmly in the memory bank of Irish fans this year.
A clean bill of health has allowed Sugrue to put a proper pre-season in over the winter and as we head into March, hope springs eternal for the Cork man who is looking forward rather than back.
“Future looks bright, busy anyway! I’m really pulling out all the stops this year, I have been training hard and practicing every day. I spent all of January over in Spain and I was over there before Christmas as well and I am now at home for a few weeks before Dubai.
“It was a disaster and I have had a good bit of injury trouble for a year and a half and now I am really looking forward to putting what has happened behind me and driving forward with what I have and the tools that I have sharpened throughout the winter and the last six months.
“I’m excited for what is ahead and leaving behind what has happened.”
A full season on the Clutch Pro Tour will help Sugrue reacclimatise to what it feels like to be a touring professional and he knows he is still young enough to hit his peak and finally live out his golfing dream, with aspirations of making it to the top of the game still firmly in his mind.
“I feel fitter and stronger than I have ever felt and on my day I know that I am as good as anyone in the world so it’s just about building up the reps and continuing to tell myself that and I am sure that good things will follow,” Sugrue declares.
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