Dun Laoghaire Golf Club are set to welcome 150 of the top Irish and international senior amateur golfers this week as the Irish Senior Women’s Amateur Open Championship and Irish Senior Men’s Amateur Close Championship get underway on Wednesday.
Canada’s Shelly Stouffer headlines a strong travelling contingent as she bids to become just the second woman since Finland’s Minna Kaarnalahti in 2012 to successfully retain the Irish Senior Women’s Amateur Open title.
Stouffer, who won on her Irish championship debut at Kinsale in 2025, will make the 11-hour
The three-time Canadian Senior Women’s Open champion secured her seventh straight British Columbia Senior Women’s Championship in June and has her sights set on adding more silverware to her collection this week.
“I love competing and I love the opportunity to get out there and try to win as many tournaments as I can as a senior,” said Stouffer.
“It’s always nice to get another national championship under your belt and just experience new golf courses and I feel like that was what I did last year.”
Stouffer produced a remarkable final round comeback at Kinsale, overturning a five-stroke deficit with six birdies in a closing two-under-par round of 72 to win by three.
The Qualicum Beach Memorial golfer edged out 2022 champion Laura Webb last season, and she is looking forward to once again teeing up alongside the Royal Portrush golfer for the opening two rounds this year.
“That’ll be great,” said Stouffer.
“It was really fun playing with her last year and it was great. I’m totally looking forward to that.”
On the men’s side, Eddie McCormack will also be looking to defend his Irish Senior Men’s crown after becoming the first player to win both the Irish Senior Men’s Amateur Close Stroke Play and Match Play titles in the same season. The Galway Bay golfer begins his title defence alongside Jody Fanagan (Milltown) and Stephen Browne (Hermitage) at 2.15pm on Wednesday.
Stouffer, meanwhile, will have the honour of leading the women’s field away from the first tee at 8.30am.
The Canadian has already claimed multiple championships across North America and as she gets set for her return to Irish shores, a back-to-back victory would be another major accolade to add to her already illustrious senior career.
“My goal would be to defend my title, that would be the number one goal.”
“I want to play as well as possible and see what happens at the end. Try to keep the process, hit fairways and greens and make some putts. In the back of my mind the goal is to win, obviously, but just to play as well as I can and keep the ball in play.”
The Irish Senior Women’s Amateur Open Championship will be first to get underway tomorrow at 8.30am, with Stouffer and Webb set to tee off from the first tee while Shirley Real (Castletroy) and Clodagh Hopkins (Woodbrook) begin their championship from the 10th.
The Irish Senior Men’s Amateur Close Championship starts at 10.20am, with Karl Fitzsimons (Killeen), Sean Lynch (Old Conna) and Tony Walsh (Royal Tara) away from the first tee, while Ken Ross (Lisburn), Des Egan (Moyvalley) and local Dun Laoghaire hopeful Noel Mannion get underway from the 10th.
View tee times and scoring here
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