Former British Masters champion Paul Dunne is back on home soil this week as he caddies for his girlfriend Georgia Hall at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open at Carton House.
Dunne, who hasn’t competed in a men’s Irish Open since 2022, has been looping for Hall for six months as the pair take their new relationship onto the golf course.
The Greystones man looked to have the world at his feet. He was part of the Irish ‘Famous Five’ for Great Britain and Ireland at the 2015 Walker Cup, just weeks after holding the 54-hole lead at the Open Championship as an amateur.
Dunne held off Rory McIlroy to win the 2017 British Masters, his only DP World Tour title to date, before a persistent wrist injury and driver struggles completely shattered his career on tour.
According to Hall however, the former world number 65 has still got it around the greens and she feels his capacity to perform on the big occasion during his playing career is one of his biggest assets as a caddie.
“He’s done it all in my opinion and I think he’s a great player,” Hall said of her boyfriend. “He’s definitely the best chipper I’ve ever seen in my life. Whenever I have a chip I will ask his opinion on what he would do. I wish he would play it for me!
“It’s nice to have someone who has been under pressure in certain situations and obviously he is from here he has played this course a hundred times so I think I have got a great addition to the team.”
Hall may have found happiness off the course, but on the course it has been anything but for the Englishwoman who has missed six cuts and registered one top-10.
However, she feels Carton House is like a second home given how often she has played the course while staying with Dunne and his family in Greystones on off weeks.
“As long as we don’t argue! I’ve come here quite a lot over the last four or five months because of him so I was here last week and staying in a home environment for me and him in Greystones it will feel very local,” said the world number 113 who needs a high finish and maybe a win to secure one of two invites to next week’s major championship at the Evian.
Dunne isn’t the only Irish caddie with an international player. Swedish star Madelene Sagstrom fully understands how this will be a special week for Wexford’s Shane Codd.
“People have been more coming up to him actually! It’s great, he is really happy to be at home and staying home most of the week so he will spend some time with his family, I’ll go to his hometown and check it out. I hope to get as much local support as I can from his side,” said Sagstrom.
Codd took Sagstrom’s bag five years ago and the pair got their first win together at the T-Mobile Matchplay in April.
“We get along great and he has been a huge asset to my team especially to the links part of my game he has added a tremendous amount of creativity. We just have such a good time together, he is such a nice genuine guy.
“I like Irish people so it has been a good partnership over the years.”
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