After the Famous Five of 2015 and the Fab Four of 2023, there is a possibility that Ireland could have no representatives on the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team this September while there are no guarantees for Lahinch in 2026.
In fact, the World Amateur Golf Rankings make for grim reading for GB&I players, but it’s not down to a lack of form, more a range of factors including a ranking points bias towards US based events and the lure of the professional mini tours.
From an Irish point of view, three players from the last Walker Cup contingent have turned professional (Mark Power, Alex Maguire, Liam Nolan) all of whom are battling it out on the mini tours and the Hotel Planner Tour (formerly Challenge Tour). This means Matthew McClean, the fourth Irish member of the 2023 Walker Cup team is Ireland’s leading amateur.
The promise of youth remains encouraging. But for now, Irish amateur golf is going through a transitional period with McClean ranked 159th in the world and he will be 32 years of age this summer.
There is no reason why the Belfast based optometrist, who played at the Masters and US Open, won a US Mid-Amateur Open title and is the defending Irish Amateur champion can’t go on a hot summer run and book himself a second Walker Cup appearance at Cypress Point Club.
But the World Amateur Golf Rankings and age profile of our leading amateurs makes for grim reading.
Below McClean is Mark Cadden. The Roganstown starlet is only a teenager himself and has amassed his WAGR points via the Irish Junior Open Elite Tour, winning the Irish Junior Open in the process.
Cadden rose to 244th in the rankings, a whopping jump of 339 spots but he will tumble outside the top-400 after a missed cut at the West which will leave Seán Keeling as Ireland’s most likely Walker Cup contender for Lahinch 2026 if not this year as our second leading player.
However, despite clinching his maiden collegiate victory, he has not been able to gather the WAGR points necessary to make a climb up the rankings with just five appearances for Texas Tech in his freshman year.
Behind him are working amateurs Caolan Rafferty (319) and Brian Doran (512) both eyeing mid amateur events as well.
A large portion of Irish players have turned professional in the last two years, this has caused a drain of players to the mini tours like the Clutch Pro and Alps Tours.
Several players in their mid 20s have stepped off the amateur ladder to ply their trade like Hugh Foley, Robert Brazill, Robert Moran who missed out on Walker Cup places two years ago.
An Irish player on the GB&I Walker Cup team this year seems a tough ask with McClean, Keeling and returning amateur Stuart Grehan our best bets for Lahinch in 2026.
There is no doubt that Ireland has good players, just look at our women who seem to break more barriers every week with teenagers Olivia Costello and Roisín Scanlon taking big scalps in Spain and Scotland recently.
But men’s events are heavily skewed in favour of US collegiate events. Great British and Irish events mean precious little in terms of trying to climb the WAGR. Will Greystones star Dylan Holmes (18) be given a ranking after winning the West? The points will be that low he may not qualify.
Looking at the rankings the highest ranked GB&I golfer is Scottish player Calum Scott while just four players are inside the top-50 and six in the top-100.
McClean’s ranking of 159 is also the eleventh best GB&I player.
Meanwhile, eight of the top-10 and fifteen of the top-20 players are United States internationals, meaning they will have the pick of the bunch when it comes to selecting a 10-player Walker Cup team in four months time.
The USA have dominated the Walker Cup in recent times winning four in a row and they are odds on to make it a facile five in September. The stars and stripes have also won eight of the last ten editions.
This has led to calls for the European players to be added to the GB&I contingent as happened with the Ryder Cup in yesteryear.
European amateur golf still remains strong with thirteen players ranked inside the top-65 in the world.
These European players which includes world number seven Jose Luis Ballester of Spain, all play their golf in US college events.
This is perhaps an unrealistic reading of the world rankings, but you might not see any of these players teeing it up in events like the Lytham Trophy, Brabazon Trophy, Irish Amateur, South of Ireland or St Andrews Links Trophy given the skew of points in favour of US events.
It seems to get tougher every year to make the break in amateur golf if you don’t take the US collegiate route.
Leave a comment