After a season where he racked up 10 top-10 finishes – including two runners-up and a further three third-place results – but victory continued to elude him, Colm Moriarty finally got over the line on the PGA in Ireland circuit when he and Tim Rice shared the honours at the Conor O’Dwyer Charity Pro-Am at Kilkea Castle in mid-August.
Just over four weeks later, he completed his fourth victory with a course-record-equalling eight-under 64 in the Irish Club Pro Championship at Palmerstown House Estate and he feels the seeds for his hot streak were sewn at the Brown & Brown Irish PGA Championship at Monkstown at the start of the month.
“Yeah, golf is small margins, isn’t it, you know what I mean?” Moriarty said between lessons at Glasson Lakehouse where he is the Head Professional. “But I’ve been playing pretty nicely all year really, just not getting it done. Leading up to the [Irish PGA] Championship, I felt that my game was coming together nicely and I played well there in the Pro-Am and then I played OK the first couple of rounds.
“In the last round, I think I shot 65 and that kind of got me going, I suppose. I think I finished third there in the end, but from then on I’ve shot a lot of really good scores, since then and then in Palmerstown on Tuesday, everything just came together really well.”
The Irish Club Pro Championship differs from the tournaments most commonly held on the PGA in Ireland circuit in that it’s a pro only event, meaning that the professionals get to tee it up and play alongside their fellow pros.
Moriarty played with current Elavon Order of Merit leader and the man who topped the board at the Irish PGA Championship, Simon Thornton, and the 2024 Elavon Order of Merit winner, Tim Rice. Rice was ultimately the man who came closest to matching him with a six-under 66 of his own, and Thornton finished tied for fifth at -3.
“Playing with Simon and Tim – and they were playing lovely as well – so there’s a good few birdies going in to start with. The course up there, it’s absolutely fantastic and greens are really good, and like we’ve said before, there’s a stage you get to when the game feels a little bit easier and you start creating lots of chances.
“You hole a few, you keep the momentum going and I think I was four-under after nine, birdied 10 to go five, and then missed a couple of chances, Made an eagle on 14, birdies 15, birdies 16, next thing it was nine-under, you know.
But I’ve always putted well there. Those greens – sometimes you get courses that suit your eye on the greens – but yeah, I was delighted obviously to shoot a score like that and and to win the tournament.
“When you look at the trophy, I mean it’s got a great history and it’s great to see it back on the schedule.”
Part of being a PGA Professional is that you’re a teacher, you give lessons, and you advise. It’s not always possible to be introspective and self-analyse, and it’s far from unusual for PGA Professionals to offer advice to their fellow pros, even if the goal is to improve one of their main competitors.
“I suppose we’re lucky as professionals,” Moriarty said. “Tim Rice and Michael McGeady have been advising me a bit on different technical things, and we’re very lucky as PGA Professionals that we can kind of bounce stuff like that off each other, you know. Kelan McDonagh, who’s based in America now, when he comes home, he helps us as well, but a lot of the stuff that we’re working on is very similar.
“But my point being, as PGA professionals, and there are so many great PGA Professionals in the country, we’re fortunate to be in each other’s company a lot.
“And it’s often very basic stuff. I’ve been doing a lot of work on my grip and I’ve really committed to it, but the way the game is going now, it’s very easy to forget the basics and that’s something that so many of us talk about.”
As part of the 2024 Great Britain and Ireland PGA Cup side – his first team golf appearance since being part of the victorious 2003 Walker Cup side at Ganton Golf Club in North Yorkshire after which he turned professional – which took on the United States in Oregon, Moriarty would dearly love to get a chance for revenge and the announcement of The K Club as the host venue for the 2026 staging has only served to whet his appetite to make the team again.
“As I’ve spoken about before, I’d been away from team golf for so long that it was such a fantastic experience to be part of that team over there,” he recalled. “Unfortunately, the result didn’t go our way, so we’d all be very keen to get the trophy back in our hands. And The K Club is such a fantastic tournament venue traditionally and it’s been at the forefront again with so many great events in recent years.
“It’s great to see it it back in Ireland – I think it’s the third time at The K Club – so yeah, it’d be a huge goal of mine for next year. The way the team is structured, there is a qualifying procedure and some captain picks as well, but I’ve had a reasonable start this year in the points system, so yeah, it’s going to be a huge goal of mine next year to get on that team.
“I met David Scott last year in Oregon – he’s the PGA captain this year and captain for the PGA Cup – so it’d be fantastic to be part of his team.
“It would be very different from last year – going to Oregon, we couldn’t have been much further from home – but my wife came with me and I’d heard from everybody involved prior that these are all great occasions because it’s such an individual sport. And it absolutely was.
“To be able to share that with my wife and meet all the other guys, their partners, and the wider PGA team – it’s such a well organised event, and you can see how much it means to everybody. So I’m sure no matter who’s fortunate enough to make the team next year, they’ll all be doing their absolute utmost to win the trophy back.”
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