Sometimes it’s off the beaten track where the great golf stories are found. I suppose it’s true for any sport. We love to see the pauper become the prince if only for a little while. Even in the World Cup there has been a catalogue of upsets, teams winning their own World Cup without actually lifting the trophy. We were all Cape Verde fans last night right?
Irish golf has been in the headlines over the last fortnight. On Tuesday David Howard came through Final Qualifying at Dundonald Links to book his spot at The Open Championship in Royal Birkdale – his major championship debut.
Howard was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis aged 7 having been waiting seven years for a diagnosis. Unsure if he would even see his current age of 27, he only played his first Irish championship three years ago. His big breakthrough came when he won the East of Ireland last year and now he is Open Championship bound where he hopes to inspire children battling CF on a global stage.
Thanks to life changing advances in medication, the Fota Island star is able to live out his dream and his story will be a shining light on The Open in two weeks.
A week earlier Irish golf was basking in glory when Stuart Grehan became only the ninth Irishman to win the Amateur Championship after a dramatic 36-hole final at Royal Liverpool.
The backlash surrounding a former professional winning one of the biggest titles in amateur golf is just nonsense. Grehan is an example of what golfers could or should do if the professional game doesn’t work out. Grehan is an example that it is never too late.
Speaking of never too late… At the top of the US Senior Open at the halfway stage it will come as no surprise to see that defending champion Pádraig Harrington is hunting down the lead. But just below him is the lesser known Chris Devlin.
More often than not the Champions Tour is full of ex PGA Tour players who are looking to prolong their playing careers, play golf in a more relaxed setting and of course take advantage of what can be seen as a handy enough payday. Then there are the Steven Alker’s of the world who scrimped and saved on the smaller tours but since turning 50 is now pocketing sums in the millions. You get the Tim O’Neal’s who are now starting to make a significant living on the seniors tour after a wilderness pre-50 career.
Then we get to Devlin who at 51 is playing in just his second US Senior Open and is just four shots off the pace after hitting 14 fairways in a second round 68. He could set up a life changing weekend and win a one-year Champions Tour exemption with the most unlikely of victories.
The Ballymena man has had a nomadic golf career to this point. After an unsuccessful pro career in Europe and on the Korn Ferry Tour, he took the Grehan route and returned to the amateur ranks in 2019. But as mentioned, golf is a long career and the Champions Tour gives you a chance to keep chasing the dream. So, he turned professional last year to chase his senior tour dream only to find that Q-School had been cancelled in favour of Monday qualifiers to ensure big stars kept their places.
Devlin, who won the 2024 Trans-Miss Mid AM by 14 shots, was back on the outside looking in again. He currently runs a healthcare company to keep funds coming in.
“I was debating whether I would turn pro again. I’d started a company called Priority Care Connects. I’d gone into healthcare. I’d hurt my back and I’d gotten into healthcare about nine years ago, and I retired from playing professional golf.
“I wasn’t really playing much, and then as I got closer and closer to 50 I started playing in a few more USGA Championships and things like that. I was lucky enough to qualify for the U.S. Am a couple of times. I wasn’t playing golf full-time at all.
“I’m still not. I’m still having to run the company, and it’s been a blessing to be able to do that. We manage high-risk patient populations for physician groups all over the nation, and luckily enough, we’ve been growing. So that’s helped me to be able to play golf when I can.
“Certainly last year, as I turned 50, my goal — I had too many people at home and friends saying, you need to go play golf. I was like, don’t tempt me. But then when I qualified for the U.S. Open last year I decided to just go ahead and turn pro again.
“Unbeknownst to me, I didn’t realise the PGA TOUR were going to cancel the qualifying school. Had I known that, I probably would have second guessed it, but they didn’t let anybody know until late in the year. It was kind of a shock they were going to cancel The Q School, and there’s really no way to get onto the Champions Tour, which is disappointing.
“Again, there’s nothing that I can control about it. All I can do is try to do well in these tournaments where I can and where at least the USGA lets us qualify. That’s a good thing.”
His journey is an interesting one, he will forever be linked to 2010 US Open champion Graeme McDowell after he gave up scholarship money so his Portrush pal could join him at UAB. A sliding doors moment perhaps.
“Graeme’s a good friend of mine. We kind of grew up playing golf at Royal Portrush,” Devlin said after his 2-under 68 on Friday, which got him into a tie for fourth after he signed his card. “We were both members there growing up, so we were very fortunate to play one of the best courses in the world growing up.”
Devlin continued: “I had fortunately done really well in college and I was due a raise in my scholarship. The coach came to me and said, ‘I wanted Graeme to come,’ and he had come to me, and I just said, ‘You know, you could just give him my raise so he can afford to come.’ It ended up, he came over and struggled a little bit his first year, but after I left, he went nuts. He acclimatized, put on some weight, and started hitting the ball harder, and it worked out for him.”
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