Galway targeting gold as European Men's Club Trophy reduced to 36 holes
Ronan Mullarney. Picture by Pat Cashman
Just two Irish clubs have won the European Men's Club Trophy but Galway Golf Club is determined to join that exclusive club in France this week.
With Liam Nolan, Joe Lyons and AIG Irish Amateur Close champion Ronan Mullarney set to do battle and Liam Power the travelling reserve, the Irish Senior Cup winners are hoping to go one better than their runner-up finish to Racing Club La Boulie in 2017.
The action in the 54-hole team event was scheduled to begin at Golf du Médoc in Bordeaux on Thursday but the European Golf Association was forced to cancel the round due to unplayable course conditions and reduce the event to 36 holes.
With the best two scores to count over the three rounds, senior servant Lyons headed to France convinced Galway have the quality to deny the seven-time champions Racing Club La Boulie a hat-trick of wins they last achieved in 1997.
"We are looking forward to it," said Lyons, who had an excellent season on the domestic scene, winning the Munster Strokeplay title and remaining unbeaten for Connacht in the Interprovincial Championship.
"Eddie McCormack was unavailable due to work commitments and Luke O'Neill is doing his Leaving Certificate and back at school, but we have a strong team.
"Liam Nolan is a much better player than people give him credit to for. He won the Leinster Boys last year and he is an exceptional player, a real talent.
"I am playing reasonably well myself at the moment and I'd imagine Ronan is very much on a high after getting through the First Stage of the European Tour Qualifying School.
"We are going there feeling pretty confident."
Limerick Golf Club became the first Irish club to win the title in 1980, claiming the sixth staging of the event at Santa Ponsa in Mallorca when Ivan Morris, Jackie Harrington and Vincent Nevin won gold with Pat Cotter as non-playing captain.
Shandon Park then won back-to-back European crowns Parco de' Medici Golf Club, Italy in 2000 and 2001.
Michael Hoey, Gary Wardlow and Philip Purdy won the millennium staging before Hoey, Purdy and Alastair McKinley returned the following year to complete a successful title defence.
Lyons is confident that Galway has the firepower to get over the line this week with Mullarney in a rich vein of form.
"This will be my fourth time going to the event and the standard is pretty high, particularly at the top end,” Lyons said.
"We might have been guilty in the past of seeing it as a celebration for winning the AIG Senior Cup. But we went in 2017 with the intention of trying to win it and won the silver medal, so we are going out to try and do well again.
"I really like the venue and Ronan really loved the course when we played with Luke in 2017. He's champing at the bit to get back out again and he is such a consistent player.
"He qualified for the Second Stage of the Qualifying School with a few shots to spare and maybe I am biased, but I genuinely believe he deserved to be in the Walker Cup squad last year.
"We might have made the Irish team a few years before he eventually made it and always seems to have to do a little more to prove himself, possibly because he's not a bomber.
"I mean Ronan played Palmer Cup and roomed with Viktor Hovland that week. I know the Walker Cup is seen as the pinnacle of amateur golf at the representative level, but there is no doubt in my mind, the Palmer Cup is the same standard.
"He has done everything in amateur golf and shot 62 in the West of Ireland at Rosses Point this year. I know he didn't go on to win, but he shoots very few high scores. I don't want to put pressure on him, but I'd be very surprised if he didn't shoot a few rounds in the sixties in Bordeaux.
"For us, having Ronan just before he goes to Second Stage of the Qualifying School next week, I'd say he's confident.
"Liam Nolan wouldn't look out of place on an Irish team either.
"Geoff Lenehan played Liam in the Senior Cup finals at Thurles last year and he had to shoot eight-under-par to beat him. He's on a high too and I'd expect to see him make a move in the next few years on the amateur scene.
"His brother Cathal played Interpros a few times and his father Tom won the Senior Cup with us at Enniscrone in 2006 and two All Ireland hurling medals with Galway in 1987 and 1988."
As for Lyons, now off plus three, he's enjoying a new lease of life at the age of 47.
Unbeaten in the Senior Cup and the Interpros, he made Final Qualifying for The Open, he has worked hard on his fitness and found time to mix his work in the golf travel business with competitive play.
"It's been a good year to date and it would be lovely to cap it off with a win," said the former West of Ireland champion who has won four All Ireland Senior Cup titles and a Barton Shield. "I enjoy competing and I am lucky to play a sport that allows you to compete later in life. I'd love to win a European gold medal."
The Chateaux Course, which will host the world's best amateur players for the 2020 European Amateur Championship, will pose a serious test for Europe’s 25 national champions for the third year in a row.
Racing Club de France La Boulie successfully defended the title last year, making it three wins out of four since 2015. The French club, who are the most successful team in the event's history, will have the chance to lift the trophy for a record-extending eighth time this week.
The other 24 teams in the field will be looking to win the event for the first time.
Of the 75 players in the field, 48 have entered with a handicap of 0.0 or lower.
Michael Hirmer, representing Stuttgarter Golf Club Solitude, is the highest ranked player in the field. Currently 38th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), the German player has represented his team at the European Amateur Team Championship in both of the last two seasons.
Kiet Van der Weele will be looking to lead Rosendaelsche Golf Club to their first title in the event. The Dutch national team player represented the Continent of Europe in the 2018 Jacques Léglise Trophy.
