Michael McGeady hasn’t had quite the season that he’d been hoping for on the PGA in Ireland region, but a win in the two-day Connemara Pro-Am was a big step in the right direction and could be a sign of things to come for a man who traditionally finishes off the season strongly.
The Donegal-based Derry man opened with a five-under 67 on Saturday, birdieing three of his final five holes in a bogey-free back nine to sit one shot off the lead, and he came out firing in round two, birdieing the first, sixth and seventh holes to move into sole possession of the lead.
A bogey on the eighth dropped him back to -7, but after picking up further birdies on 14 and 15, a soft bogey (by his own admission) on the 16th brought the realisation that he needed a big finish to overtake Tim Rice who’d posted the clubhouse lead at -9.
“I was putting in my score for 16 on the live scoring and I had a sneaky wee look at the leaderboard and saw that Tim had finished at nine-under,” he said. “I was eight-under at that point, so I knew I needed a big finish. I just said to myself, ‘four good swings and you have a chance’.
“There were two par-5s to finish and I actually knocked it on the green in two on both of them. I two-putted for birdie on 17, then holed a 15-footer for eagle on 18, which was obviously nice.”
Though two putts on the last would’ve seen him overtake Rice and post 10-under, he was conscious that somebody in the afternoon wave could come out and shoot a really low round and steal his thunder. But the putt was downhill, and getting too aggressive and missing could’ve left him with a nasty comebacker that he’d absolutely need to hole.
“No, I wasn’t that aggressive with it,” he said. “It just happened to be downhill and I didn’t want to have a tough one back, but I started it on the perfect line and I was just delighted to see it go in.
“But at the same time, I was thinking that making eagle was going to give me a much better chance of winning because I was out at the end of the morning wave and there was always a chance that somebody from the afternoon could overtake me.”
As it happened, nobody did, and nobody overtook Rice either and the Limerick man – who also played the final two holes in three-under, albeit with an eagle on 17 and a birdie on 18 – took solo second.
Despite being a regular feature in the top 10 and top five on the Region this season, the wins have been rare and his victory – completed in course-record setting fashion – at the Ballyneety Ishka Pro-Am was his only victory of the season prior to Connemara. And that, he says, is testament to the ever-increasing standard of play across the Region.
“It’s not just this year,” he explained. “The standard has been increasing over the past few years, which is great. But at the same time, you know if you don’t post a low score then there’s no way you’re going to win. You just have to go out there and go as low as you can.
“But that’s great for the Region as a whole because it puts us in good standing for things like, should we happen to get more Irish Open spots in the future or something like that, that the players who get those spots will be well able to compete at that level.
“A strong standard on the region means strong winners and that’s the way forward in my opinion. We’ve got a few more events left this season, then it won’t be long until the new season starts again and the new calendar is announced and hopefully it’s going to keep getting bigger and better.”
Though he’d obviously have liked to have banked another win or two this season, his main regret is not playing to the levels he’s capable of in the two biggest events on the Region – The Irish PGA Championship and The K-Club Pro-Am.
“Yeah, I didn’t play well enough in the events that mattered most,” he said. “That’s affected my Order of Merit ranking because I think finishing in the top three would be what I was targeting. My putter just went stone cold at those events, and that puts a little bit of extra pressure on doing well at the end of the season then.
“But fortunately, I tend to play a wee bit better towards the end of the season so we’ll see if that continues this year.”
At 48, McGeady is just under two years from being eligible to qualify for the Staysure Legends Tour – formerly the European Seniors Tour – though unlike Simon Thornton and Tim Rice who are both turning 50 next year and intent on travelling to Legends Tour Q-School in January, McGeady is keeping his powder dry on any whether or not he’s going to attempt it himself.
“Yeah look, we all think about it and we’re all tempted, but I’ll need to see the lay of the land when that time comes,” he explained. “I’m working on keeping fit and keeping myself strong, but I know the standard that my game needs to be at and I’ll just wait and see how the game progresses over the next couple of years. But never say never.
“I’m doing a lot of coaching as well, so I don’t get as much time to practice as I should if I want to go down that road.
“At the same time, running a successful coaching business allows me to be my own boss and schedule as I see fit, so if the game’s there and I’m posting nice scores, we’ll see.”
Alongside the coaching business and playing on the Region, himself and Colm Moriarty have recently set up Condor.ie, a bespoke business that merges golf travel and corporate hospitality, organising events on a large scale in some of the more popular – and some of the lesser known – European destinations.
“It’s busy,” he said. “Busy, but very exciting.”
Leave a comment