Four Irish golfers have been selected for the Great Britain and Ireland team to compete against the United States of America in the 49th Walker Cup match at St Andrews.
Alex Maguire (Laytown & Bettystown), Matt McClean (Malone), Liam Nolan (Galway) and Mark Power (Kilkenny) were all selected, while Caolan Rafferty (Dundalk) is a reserve, to take part in the biennial encounter over the Old Course.
It will mark 100 years since it was first played at the home of golf, when the Walker Cup takes place between 2 and 3 September.
The Great Britain and Ireland team are bidding for their first win in the famous match since 2015.
The event has been staged in Ireland twice when it was hosted in Portmarnock in 1991 and Royal County Down in 2007. It will be returning to Ireland to Lahinch in 2026.
They will join the 48 other Irish players to have played in the tournament, including Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Paul McGinley, Rory McIlroy, Jimmy Bruen and Roddy Carr.
It has been another wonderful year for the Irish after the men’s team secured a bronze medal at Europeans and then the Home Internationals side just missed out on a famous win in Machynys.
Matt McClean played in The Masters and the US Open and Alex Maguire played at The Open. There were also big Irish wins in the St Andrews Links Trophy, Brabazon Trophy and South American Amateur.
“It’s a great thrill for all players who are selected to contest the Walker Cup in such an historic venue and something which we will all be very much looking forward to,” said Golf Ireland Performance Director Neil Manchip.
“We were very fortunate to have had so many players in contention for a spot this year.”
The Walker Cup team will soon start to ramp up their preparations for this year’s match and Golf Ireland CEO, Mark Kennelly, said he is delighted to such a strong crop of Irish talent at this level in 2023.
“It has been a phenomenal couple of years for Irish amateur golf and today’s selection is a testament to that,” he said.
“We saw it again just last week with how strong our teams competed at Home Internationals that we are continuing to produce the very best amateur golfers and I am excited to see how they can contribute to the Walker Cup this year.”
Meanwhile, three Irish players have been selected in the Great Britain and Ireland team to play the Continent of Europe in the Jacques Léglise Trophy in France. Donnacha Cleary (Tipperary), Sean Keeling (Roganstown) and Jack Murphy (Douglas) all got the call up.
