Last week’s Men’s and Women’s Spanish Amateur Championships gave a glimpse into the future of Irish amateur golf and after we waved goodbye to several stalwarts of Irish teams over the years as they entered the paid ranks, there is plenty of reason to be optimistic over the next generation of amateurs.
To highlight a few team achievements for Ireland, since 2021 Golf Ireland panels have won two Home Internationals titles, were third at the 2023 European Men’s Amateur Team Championships and have produced eleven players across the five Walker Cup and Curtis Cup contests combined in that timeframe.
Last year, for only the second time in history and the first time since 2016, Ireland won the European Nations Team Championship.
Stalwarts of those teams and other Irish panels include Hugh Foley, Alex Maguire, Max Kennedy, Robert Moran, Mark Power, Liam Nolan, Sara Byrne, Anna Foster, Annabel Wilson and Lauren Walsh. All of whom have turned professional within the last two years, with six of the above, playing their first seasons as professionals this year.
Áine Donegan and Beth Coulter are expected to add to this list over the next couple of years having been added to Golf Ireland’s new programme initiative: the Professional Pathway.
Understandably, when there is a huge turnover of players like there has been heading into 2025, there can be cause for concern over a period of transition and there has certainly been an injection of youth into the High Performance Panels.
Fionn Dobbin (Malone) is making the immediate step up from U18 Boys HP Panel to the Men’s Panel. On the women’s side, Anna Abom (Edmondstown) was the winner of Bridgestone Women’s Tour for 2024 and moves straight from the U18 Girls HP Panel to the Women’s Panel. Marina Joyce Moreno (Llavaneras) and Ellen O’Shaughnessy (Co Louth) also make the same move from U18 Girls HP Panel to the Women’s Panel for 2025.
The Irish championship season begins next month and while there are always going to be the usual experienced suspects lingering around the top of the leaderboard on trophy day, it is imperative that some of our younger players start to get in and amongst the silverware conversation.
We already got a glimpse of what is hopefully to come in Spain over the last few weeks with Olivia Costello and Luke O’Neill enjoying deep runs at the Spanish Amateur Championship.
16-year-old Roscommon star Costello was particularly impressive, reaching the final of the Women’s Spanish Amateur Championship, only to lose out on the 18th hole in a thrilling finale.
The teenager is part of the U18 Girls High Performance panel for this year but there is no doubt that she is one of Ireland’s brightest young talents.
During her time in Spain, Costello also added a runner-up finish at the Women’s Andalucia Cup to her list of results, a tournament she led after the first round.
Costello also moved up to fourth in the race to make the 2025 European Junior Ryder Cup team.
There is a fresh look to the Women’s HP panel for this year with only Kate Lanigan and Emma Fleming the only survivors from the 2024 crop.
But there is reason to be hopeful that the new panel can make the grade with Clandeboye’s Rebekah Gardner, Katie Poots (Knock), and Anna Abom impressing in recent months.
Abom was the low amateur at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open while Gardner has won team titles on the collegiate circuit with Miami as well as shooting a career low round of 67 at last month’s Therese Hession Regional Challenge.
The men’s panel still boasts major winners Matthew McClean and Caolan Rafferty while plenty will be expected of teenager Seán Keeling again as he hunts his maiden win at men’s level this season.
Brian Doran is a Mullingar Scratch Cup winner but it’s another conqueror of the midlands in Luke O’Neill who catches the eye heading into the summer after his semi final run in Spain.
The Galway man captured the title in 2023 and after a quiet year last year he has started 2025 on the right note.
Now graduated from Kansas State University, the Irish championships will be of huge importance to the 23-year-old. He was already a highly-coveted talent before taking up a golf scholarship in the US after winning the prestigious Allianz German Boys Open in 2019.
2022 saw him win on the US collegiate circuit for the first time, claiming the Colleton River Collegiate in South Carolina thanks to a closing 66 while he also reached the final qualifying for the US Open a year later.
20-year-old Gavin O’Neill enjoyed an excellent 2024, with a runner-up at the Mullingar Scratch Cup and 6th at the Irish Close while he impressed Stateside with two top-5 finishes for Grand Canyon University.
A fresh Irish championship season is almost upon us with plenty of new names waiting to get a taste of the spotlight.
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