Louis Goodman believes preparation and confidence are key as the County Louth golfer gets set to make the trip to Cork Golf Club as one of the contenders hoping to get his hands on the coveted Flogas Irish Boys’ Amateur Open Championship trophy.
90 of the best up and coming golfers, including eight international players from countries such as France, Norway, Germany, and the USA, are set to tee it up at the Little Island course this week.
It has been a busy start to the season for Goodman, having already competed at the Scottish Boys’ and the French International Boys’ U18 Championship in recent weeks. Now as the 18-year-old returns to more familiar surroundings, the experience gained from taking on some of the best talent from across the globe could prove vital.
“Since last year, I’ve just been doing bigger and bigger tournaments, gradually building it up, and it’s definitely been a nice experience and a new experience, because it’s all the higher level, you get to see much stronger fields, better players,” said Goodman.
“Because all the tournaments are in such quick succession at the moment, I know where my strengths and my weaknesses are in my game, just from reviewing the previous tournaments so I know what areas to focus on more, so my game is more complete.”
Having been a part of the 2024 Irish Boys’ Home Internationals team last August, Goodman will have plenty of his teammates to contend with this week including John Doyle (Fota Island), Finlay Eager (Royal Belfast) and Rory Gallagher (Galway Bay).
Now in his Leaving Certificate year at Clongowes Wood College, Goodman, like many other elite amateurs his age, strives to strike a balance between his studies and his golfing ambitions with his parents Jane and Laurence continuing to be two of his biggest supporters on his journey.
“They’ve been unbelievable, truly”, said Goodman.
“Particularly my mum, she’s driving me everywhere and at the same time letting me do all this golf at the moment. She still pushes me to get my work done and all that sort of stuff, but I suppose we both make the plan, make sure we’re organised, just so we can get both done as efficiently as possible.”
As his focus turns to the Flogas Irish Boys’ Amateur Open Championship, Goodman knows that the confidence gained, and preparation completed from his recent events will be important components when looking towards success this week.
“Knowing I’m able to go out there, do what I need to do, do what I know I have to do, just adds to the confidence going into each event that I could be in”, said Goodman.
“If you don’t put in the prep, you don’t expect the results.”
View the first-round tee times here.
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