It takes a lot more than beefing up 14kg in the gym to go from zero to hero, and Galway Golf Club's Liam Nolan hopes to put all those elements together as he chases his third victory of the season in the AIG Irish Men's Amateur Close at Malone this weekend.

The Close is a 72-hole strokeplay event for a two-year trial period, with the top 39 and ties after tomorrow's second round making it through to the weekend.

It will be a test of focus and endurance at the Belfast venue, but few are better equipped than Nolan to meet the mental and physical challenges after he worked hard on those elements of the game to mould himself into one of Great Britain and Ireland's leading amateurs.

While he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was only 14, Nolan has gone from being unable to make an under-age panel to putting himself in a position to make the Walker Cup team when it is announced next week.

Winning the South American Amateur Championship and the prestigious Brabazon Trophy at Sunningdale so far this year, combined with some excellent performances for Ireland, have singled him out as the man to beat in Belfast.

But he wasn't always a winner and it's been learning what it takes to become one and dealing with the high expectations that come with success that has kept Nolan busy for the past two years.

"I knew on my day I was as good as the other guys, but I suppose the difference was the off days, where I wasn't at the races at all," he said of his transformation.

"So it was a question of building a swing and a mentality where the days you don't have it, you're not completely losing ground."

At the highest level of amateur golf, it's the mental game that's made the difference and as the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pointed out, "Don't panic" is the golden rule.

"For me, it was mostly about not panicking," Nolan confessed. "When things weren't going my way, especially last year, and I was getting a lot of top fives but not winning, I just had to trust what I was doing because there is no point in drastically changing things if you've gotten to this high level by trusting what you've been doing throughout the years.

"You have to keep trusting what you're doing with your coach. And if you get in that position enough times, you'll become much more familiar with it and that familiarity will pay off and you will be a bit more calm coming down the stretch."

Patience certainly paid off for Nolan, who is going into his final year of study in Bio-Medical engineering at the University of Galway and has no plans to look at the pro game until he graduates next summer.

But there was also some science involved and with his coach Kenny Fahey, the Head Professional at the Golf Ireland Academy in Carton House, he worked on building a swing that would deliver consistency as well as power.

To achieve that, he dedicated himself to the gym last winter and arrived at The Island for the Irish Amateur Open in May, looking a new man.

"I was quite the heifer in South America," chuckled Nolan, who increased his body weight from 83 to 97kg thanks to six hours of weight training a week and a 4,000-calorie-a-day diet.

"I did a lot of gym work over the winter; I put on a lot of weight and just filled out a little bit to allow me to get my swing into a few more solid positions and be able to hold the club there.

"Under pressure, I'm more well-equipped to keep my swing consistent and hit the shots I'm used to hitting when I'm on the third or fourth hole on the 16th, 17th and 18th as well."

He shed 7kg, so he'd be at his ideal weight for the bulk of the season, and after claiming the Brabazon Trophy at Sunningdale, he's thrilled with how it's gone.

His goal now is to win an Irish Championship, and while Matt McClean was the only Irishman to qualify for the matchplay stages of the US Amateur at Cherry Hills this week — Mark Power, Hugh Foley and Chris Devlin all missed the level-par cut — Nolan is arguably the biggest name in Malone.

The field is also missing Walker Cup hopefuls Caolan Rafferty, Alex Maguire and Max Kennedy, who is hoping to impress the selectors in the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Ballymena, where he has Des Smyth's former caddie Ray Latchford on the bag.

Nolan is low on energy after a busy summer, but he believes he now knows how to win.

While he missed the cut comfortably in the Irish Challenge this year, he found it a helpful exercise in the kind of calm and diligent preparation required to excel in strokeplay events.

"It's the next level of calmness, really," he said. "A mistake didn't faze the professionals at all. So if you don't get upset at mistakes, it gives you every opportunity to play the next shot better.

"Matchplay can be a very long week, so four rounds of stroke play, it's very fair and the best golfer always comes up on top."

As for thoughts of making the Walker Cup team, he will just banish them as he has done all season.

"I have done a very good job this year of not thinking about any selections, as much as I can anyway," he said. "I find I play my best golf when I'm not worrying about what teams I might get picked for and I just focus on my own game. So I will try my best to do that again and not worry about waiting for calls and any of that stuff."

Still, he admits it would be special to get the nod.

"It'd be a dream and, again, something I thought was so out of reach two years ago when I was playing my first Home Internationals.

"I would never have thought I would have been in this position now. I've played really well all year and over the last few years, but again, so have a lot of other people.

"Whatever happens, I'm very proud of what I've done, and hopefully it's enough."