Aesop’s Fable ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’ is applicable to the golfing journey of Liam Nolan. Unable to make an Irish Boys’ team he has carefully and patiently plotted his way through the ranks and now stands on the cusp of earning a DP World Tour card.
There is still a job to be done with another event in China and the Grand Final in Mallorca to come. But even if he didn’t secure his DP World Tour card he won’t panic. This is a man who turned down an Irish Open spot last year and opted out of Q-School to focus on another season on the HotelPlanner Tour.
In fact, Nolan was unsure whether to play in last month’s edition in Doonbeg or focus on the HotelPlanner Tour. But after finally making his debut and making the cut he believes the Irish Open was a huge factor in helping him push on and win for the first time in his career at the Abu Dhabi Challenge. This thrust him into the all-important top-15 on the Road to Mallorca ahead of the Grand Final where DP World Tour cards are won.
“I’m so happy I played the Irish Open,” smiled Nolan who is 12th in the HotelPlanner Tour rankings. “I was physically nervous in the Irish Open. I could have played in England and focused on the HotelPlanner Tour – which I did last year – the advice I got was to play Irish Open and now I know why everyone told me to play. So I am definitely happy I did that. It showed me another level and I feel like I held my own pretty well.
“The most pressure I’ve felt on a golf course since I’d say the Walker Cup was the Irish Open on the back nine when we were close to the cut line. We said on every hole when there was so much pressure on the back nine this is class like this is so much fun like coming down the back nine with a chance to make the cut in your first Irish Open. Had I not played Irish Open I wouldn’t have had that big pressure on the big stage and when I was leading the tournament that definitely helped.
“We leaned on that again on Sunday we were like every single hole we were like this is so much fun being out in front with a chance to win your first professional event. It flips the narrative then, obviously okay this is this is scary and this is huge you turn it into like no this is so much fun and no matter what happens it’s class like it’s class building blocks for your whole career.”
Nolan’s career had been one of steady progression to this point as he dealt with the ups and downs in equal measure. As a Galway man, disappointments at the West of Ireland and the Irish Amateur Championship in Rosses Point stung badly but there were the highs of victory at the South American Amateur and the Brabazon Trophy which paved the way for a Walker Cup call in 2023.
His professional career began with invites on the HotelPlanner Tour last season where back to back top-4 finishes in his first two starts guaranteed his status and his Grand Final place. But while he ended the season with three top-4 finishes he missed fourteen cuts which cost him a DP World Tour card.
Having not been considered a prodigious talent as a teenager one could understand Nolan’s desperation to reach the top, but he stuck to his measured approach and admitted that not getting his card would be a good thing in the long run. He knew he wasn’t ready, the consistency in results wasn’t there in his first year as a professional. So, he opted out of Q-School the following week.
Until last Sunday, he had three top-10s and just five missed cuts but at 43rd in the rankings he found himself looking over his shoulder and trying to hold on to his place in the top-45 to qualify for the Grand Final at the end of the month. Consistency and top-20s aren’t rewarded on the HotelPlanner Tour but in the last regular event of the season, he broke through and clinched his maiden win in style at Al Ain and changed the complexion of his season entering the business end.
“It is a bit mad. Like it didn’t really sink in on Sunday because we were straight onto a plane in Abu Dhabi,” Nolan reflected. “But having the celebration on Sunday and a nice relaxing day Monday just here in the room with Sean [caddie] just chatting about it was class. And then getting all the messages from people back at home just saying well done you’re like, ‘Oh, I actually did something pretty cool here.'”
“I had to be extremely patient! I was talking to Sean about it a lot before last week and we were saying I’m worse on the rankings this year, but overall I’m just a lot happier with how the season’s gone the big result hasn’t been there, but in terms of consistency and have I gotten better as a golfer, we were both like yes, for sure. It was a lot less stressful even though I was on like the edge of getting to Mallorca before last week obviously. I think there’s a reflection before last week, I was probably still happier with how the season had gone even before what happened in the UAE. The UAE is just a culmination of a lot of hard work since I was 18 is when I started like golf became like number one. I still loved it obviously, it’s just been a lot of sacrifice and hard work that’s turned itself into a win on HotelPlanner Tour.”
All of Nolan’s amateur victories had come when he chased down the leader. This time around he had a two shot lead heading into the final round in the UAE. In 2024 he lost a four-shot lead at the Irish Amateur Open – it evaporated early in the round which prompted a coach to gloat about it in the County Sligo clubhouse.
Thoughts of that heartbreak came flooding through his mind but you wouldn’t have thought so as he powered on and cruised to a four shot victory.
“It looked probably more stress-free on online than it than it was in person,” he laughed. “You have a four or a five shot lead, but you know that can turn on its head pretty quickly with a couple of bogeys and then some some fella that’s chasing you makes four or five in a row and throw an eagle in there.
“I did love the challenge. Even in my amateur career, I’d never gone from the front and pushed on like that. Going around the course, I was just thinking about the Irish Amateur in 2024 oh you had a five shot four shot lead going into the last round and you lost that one. So everything that you can think of in your head keeps coming over the five hours you’re out there. Everything from I’m playing so good to oh well remember Irish Amateur in 2024 and there’s nothing you can really do to stop that from happening but just remember that yeah okay I’m playing really nice so just keep doing that and see what happens at the end of the day.
“I was always traditionally more comfortable chasing rather than going from the front if you look at results and when I’ve won before. So it was really nice to be able to tick this off and prove to myself I was able to go out with a lead, grow the lead, and then maintain it to win a tournament.”
Nolan’s talents won’t come as a surprise to those who know him best. A talented basketball player who seemed destined to rub shoulders with the likes of Kieran Donaghy until his days on the court came to an end, aged 19, after breaking the same ankle twice.
Sport runs through the Nolan household with his grandfather and father Tom – who was on the Galway hurling team that won the 1988 All-Ireland – keen golfers and it is with the former where Liam learned to love the game and in his late teens he decided golf was the path he wanted to take.
“It was the same with when I was an amateur and it was the same when I was playing basketball. I was never the best player from a young age. I had to put in the work, develop steadily and then eventually you become this good player, but it never happened overnight for me.
“I’ve said countless times I never made an Irish boys team but I think my coach helped me a lot as well Kenny Fahey would be like no you’ll you’ll get there when you’re ready and it was the same with last year. I was frustrated at the end of my season and he said well you’re clearly just not ready but you will be at some time in the future so just stay patient and when that time comes you’ll get to the the DP World Tour.
“Whether that’s this year, who knows? As Kenny would say, if you don’t get it this year, it just means you’re not ready and it’ll come. I suppose the long-term goals, I don’t like looking at goals that are season long being like, ‘Oh, I want a card’ because that’s so much pressure to put on yourself and you’re never really satisfied then at any point of your season because you’re looking at rankings and looking at people above you.
“So no, when I’m ready I’ll be a DP World Tour player. I’m pretty confident that will happen. It’s a matter of when, keep putting in the work and when it comes it comes.”
He may have been waiting all season to catch fire but he has found form at the right time and is in contention to win back to back events and seal his DP World Tour promotion on Sunday.
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