Head Professional of Tullamore Golf Club Brian McCormack was pleased to see his offseason labour pay off after he clinched his first win of the PGA in Ireland campaign at Mount Juliet Golf Club earlier this week and he is hungry for more as he chases some big titles.
The Irish PGA Championship is firmly on his mind as the first week in August at Limerick Golf Club begins to peak its head over the horizon. McCormack is a different animal this year having gained up to 18 yards in driving distance courtesy of his work on the practice facilities in Tullamore which he feels has been the ideal place to sharpen his game for the thick of the season.
“I did a lot of work in the offseason and it was like building a new vehicle with the swing and the clubs. Just learning how to drive it takes a bit of time and I played a significant amount of golf in May and so far in June,” said McCormack who built his own rescue club at McCormack Golf and found it to his liking when testing it on the tricky Tullamore layout.
All of McCormack’s work paid off in Mount Juliet as he won there for the second time in his career, adding to his 2023 title, albeit he was surprised to be in the winners enclosure this time around after a three-under 69.
“I had some success not in scoring but I knew the shots and flights I was hitting were different compared to previous years so I knew it was a matter of time before it clicked. Ironically Mount Juliet wasn’t my best ball striking day. It was playing so long relative to other courses but I have increased my length considerably in the off season and it helped me on this occasion.
“Anytime I did spray it I was a lot further down than I would usually be which allowed me to miss the green in the correct spot and get it up and down, the good approach shots I hit in I converted on the greens, so removing the bogeys improves your score. It was damage limitation and executing the correct shots at the correct time.
“I left Mount Juliet thinking if I can shoot three under hitting it like that six or seven will win. As the day went on that wasn’t happening so I got back into the car, brought the wife to Mount Juliet and kept an eye on the score as I was going. It looked good and fortunately nobody could get ahead.
“It was nice to win for the second time, Noel of MCM Engineering is brilliant and we have a good relationship.”
At 34, McCormack is by no means looking to keep up with the young lads but he felt increasing his ball speed and consequently his driving distance was vital if he was to take his game to the next level and win on some of the trophy courses like Mount Juliet, Druids Glen, Bunclody, the K Club etc.
The Tullamore native has always been a deep thinker of the game and he applied what he read in a book to his own swing and has seen his driving speed go up from 110mph to 116mph this year.
“I’m a compulsive reader, I was reading a book on multiple different players between LIV, European Tour, Challenger Tour etc. There was a particular chapter on Francesco Molinari of his rise from 2016 to his Open win in 2018. The way I looked at it was, on the PGA Tour statistically if a player gets 20 yards longer without improving his driving accuracy he will improve his stroke average by almost three shots per round.
“I went through how Molinari did it, he threw away the accuracy initially then tidied it up at the end. He got 18 yards longer in carry over 18 months, I tried my best to follow that and with what we do in McCormack Golf with optimisation of clubs I went from 110mph to 116.”
McCormack thinks big but that allows him to dream big as well and he is determined to put everything he has into his three main goals for the remainder of his career.
“I’m 34 now, the next six years will be focused totally on those and if we achieve those then I will focus on the PGA Cup. Right now, it wouldn’t be at the forefront of my mind at the moment. I would love to do it but I don’t want to take my eye off the ball in relation to my immediate goals.”
“We have a few events coming up I’m looking forward to the PGA Championship, it will be low scoring and if the driver is on that week, fine, if it’s not I still have a 260 rescue club shot I can rely on.
“The PGA Cup is a focus, it’s not the main focus. The three goals I have left in my heart is to play the Irish Open, the Open Championship and to win the Irish PGA Championship. These are the three goals I have left and will focus tightly on those and whatever age I am at that time.”
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