Rónán MacNamara in Straffan
Alex Maguire was supposed to have a week off to continue his preparation for Q-School, but after being granted a late invite to the Amgen Irish Open he could forego that if he can roll the dice and the right number comes up.
Maguire is making his second Irish Open appearance having debuted as an amateur at the K Club in 2023 and although this week was supposed to be a week of practice he still feels tournament ready after a stretch of three HotelPlanner Tour events in four weeks.
“Yeah, delighted to be in. It was a last minute sort of job,” explained Maguire on Wednesday. “I was fortunate that Conor Purcell got in off his category which freed up an invite for me,I was gonna accept it, no matter what. Bit of a bonus more than anything else. So I think even teeing it up here tomorrow and on Friday, hopefully the weekend is it’s just a bonus. It was supposed to be an off week so pretty happy.
“It was supposed to be an off week, supposed to be like a practice week with no tournament, getting ready for Q-school in a few weeks. So I was ready. It was a great time, because I had a good plan with Donal, my coach, going forward into Q-school. So it’s a great week to test that out, make sure I’m in the right headspace to be able to go forward.
“Played three of the last four weeks on Challenge Tour so tournament ready, it’ll be a great week to just test what I’ve put in place.”
The stock answer to questions about expectations and mindset it to say that it’s just like any other week. But when you are an aspiring Irish professional bouncing between events on the smaller tours a start at an Irish Open alongside the likes of Rory McIlroy and co is not a normal week.
For Maguire it’s a brief taste of what life could be like in the future but also a huge opportunity to make a name for himself on a big stage.
“It’s difficult because it’s like every part of the week is so different to Challenge Tour. You get here and you get
priority car park space, and then you get into the trucks, and then you get great food. You have great service. There’s nothing to ever complain about, you know, you’re treated really, really well this week. So it’s hard to come back down to earth to be like it is a golf tournament at the end of the day.
“But I think for me, it helps that I played here in 2023 as an amateur, and I feel like I didn’t play too bad, but I’m aware of the mistakes that were made, and they’re fairly easy mistakes to rectify and highlight, and go right, okay, let’s see if we can work on that.
“If it was a week where I was over in maybe Scotland, or if I had to fly over to America for a week, it’ll be a lot different because of the pressure of travelling, and I’d feel way more pressure. But to be fair, we just played a home event in Killeen Castle and I don’t really think it’s much different.
“Pressures that I put on myself are going to be high enough anyway. Yeah, it’ll be a great week. It’s so much fun, like, you know, seeing crowds out here they are not necessarily for me all the time, but it’s nice just having a bit of buzz about the place, and it’s way more fun and enjoyable.”
The Laytown & Bettystown professional would be the first to admit that he hasn’t taken advantage of the opportunities he has been given. A run of four cuts in eight HotelPlanner Tour starts with a high finish of 29th hasn’t cut the mustard for the 24-year-old.
Maguire has had to learn the hard way, last minute invites, late flights, lonely trips in strange countries but he feels the difficult experiences of an early professional career have made him a better player and one that is better equipped to handle adversity even if results haven’t been forthcoming.
“I think I have to put results aside, because I stepped up a level of golf going from amateur to professional golf. I think if you were to base your evaluation of yourself based on your results, I think it’s very hard. You get no progress out of it. I think you get no satisfaction of oh, I’m improving this year. I feel like I have improved. I feel like I’m getting closer, but I think I’m still probably a better golfer now than I was back then.
“I feel like I’ve way more armour around me to be able to handle these bad situations. I don’t let myself get sort of too low or get ahead of myself. I feel like I haven’t played a ton over the last two years, but I feel like I’ve played enough, and I’ve gone through some pretty tough experiences over the last two years that I feel like going into these weeks where I’m not as nervous in the first couple days.”
The Amgen Irish Open is being viewed as a free hit for Maguire. Worries about tour starts, status or Q-School are far from his mind at the K Club and that may free him up to surprise a few.
“It’s a free week. I’m also aware of my position in the game at the moment. And that sort of looms large in my mind. But I think when I get on the golf course, that’s when that worry goes away. Funny enough, I think the only time I think about it is when I’m off the golf course, think of what I’m going to do, where I’m going to play, but when I’m on the golf course, I feel like I’m just as normal as if I had full status somewhere.
“It’s a free week of playing with house money, and hopefully I can make the most of the opportunity.
“I think definitely in between shots, my goal this week is to remind myself to have fun. Remind myself of how fortunate I am to be in this position. I have always wanted to play an Irish open, so the fact that I’m here, I’ll try to remind myself as much as possible. But like, when you’re in the heat of the battle, in the heat of the moment, it’s very hard to look up and smile and smell the roses, when you know you have a short sided shot, you want to get up and down and all the scenarios you play out in your head.
“I’m gonna make mistakes this week, which is the thing, I think sometimes that you want to go into this, into weeks being like, I want to play perfect golf, and I want to shoot 10 under for the first few rounds. But generally, within those 10 unders, you’re going to make a few bogeys.
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