Like a patch of barren ground that seemingly sprung into a verdant pasture almost overnight, Ireland’s competitive golfers enjoyed a year in 2022 that could hardly have been foreseen a few years ago, when speculation as to the lack of achievement was top of mind. But that seems to be a thing of the past if 2022 is an honest indication.
Rory McIlroy reclaimed the no. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Rankings after starting the year in less than sparkling fashion. When last seen in 2021, he had rent his garments after a meltdown in Dubai. The return to the Middle East last winter seemed less than auspicious as rallies from out of the clouds in Abu Dhabi and Dubai were frittered away with loose play on the back nine on Sunday.
Back in the States, McIlroy rolled a pair of 76s on the weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and was then a nonfactor a week later in the Players. A missed cut at the Texas Open hardly augured good tidings for the Masters. He was never a threat to Scottie Scheffler, but the second-place finish was a personal best at Augusta.
That kickstarted a resurgence that saw McIlroy produce a medley of top-20 finishes, including top 10s in the three remaining majors, along with victories in the Canadian Open, PGA Tour Championship and, most recently, the CJ Cup.
Almost as striking as his play has been McIlroy’s ascension as the voice and conscience of the PGA Tour in the wake of the fallout from the LIV Tour. He has managed to stake out ground in defense of the PGA Tour without scorching the earth on which he stands. He could very well turn out to be the conciliator needed to help both sides find an acceptable resolution to a very first-world problem.
Shane Lowry ended a three-year drought. INPHO/MORGAN TREACY
LOWRY, POWER MADE STRIDES
Shane Lowry overcame a three-year drought extending back to the 2019 British Open at Portrush to post his first victory since then in the BMW Championship at Wentworth, although the tournament was shortened to 54 holes, due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. There had been frustration aplenty earlier in the year for Lowry, who narrowly missed victories in the Honda Classic and RBC Heritage. Ties at third place in the Masters and ninth in the Irish Open have helped him maintain a high position – 20th – on the OWGR.
Seamus Power solidified his status among the game’s elite in 2022. He began the year with four straight top-20 finishes, although the last of those, a T-9 at Pebble Beach, seemed to have taken a toll on him. He led through 36 holes, having shot rounds of 64, only to fall apart on Saturday, when he shot 74. He then missed three straight cuts but got back on track to finish joint-fifth in the Dell Match Play, after which he got a share of 27th place at the Masters.
Shares of ninth place at the PGA Championship and 12th place at the U.S. Open showed that Power was no flash in the pan. He worked his way through the first two events of the FedEx Cup playoffs before falling out. A November win in Bermuda followed by two top-5 finishes to close out the year have Power on top in the current FedEx Cup points chase. He stands 28th on the OWGR and is well positioned to earn a place on the European Ryder Cup team.
One name that has fallen slightly off the radar is Graeme McDowell. The 2010 U.S. Open champion grabbed the money that the LIV Tour shoveled out and now travels among Greg Norman’s renegades. Although he didn’t prove a factor in any events on the burgeoning circuit, he recently tied for third place in the Asian Tour’s Indonesian Masters, so the fire hasn’t quite been extinguished.
The Irish Open continues to serve as a launching pad for prospective stars. Poland’s Adrian Meronk got his first victory on the DP World Tour at Mount Juliet and now stands 50th on the OWGR, which will see him into the Masters in April.
A VERY BRIGHT SHADE OF GREY
Padraig Harrington proved a dominant force in his first full season on the Champions Tour. Featuring a swing bolstered by speed training, he ran off three top-30 finishes on the DP World Tour’s Middle East swing before getting going in earnest on the Champions Tour. In what might be seen as a nod to his early years on the European Tour, he finished second in three of his first five events before breaking through in the U.S. Senior Open, although not without squandering a large lead on Sunday. In 13 subsequent starts against his age cohort, he won three times and had six top-10s.
One of those top-10s was a second-place finish to Darren Clarke in the British Senior Open. This was an event that Clarke desperately wanted to win and he held off Harrington by a stroke at Gleneagles in Scotland. Otherwise, he was a steady, if not spectacular, presence on the Champions Tour with 11 top-20s from 21 starts.
HERE THEY COME
Reinforcements are on the horizon in the form of Tom McKibbin, Gary Hurley and John Murphy, who earned their DP World Tour cards this fall. None of them had any status on the Challenge Tour at the beginning of 2022.
McKibbin maximized his opportunities via the invites he was accorded early in the season and rode two top-10s in South Africa to regular appearances in subsequent events. Although he didn’t win, five more top-10s helped get him 10th place on the Challenge Tour Rankings and an automatic promotion to the DP World Tour for 2023. He’s already making hay there, having made the cut in each of the first four events of the 2023 calendar, with three top-20s. In a published report, Padraig Harrington touted the 20-year-old as likely to win soon. Few would be surprised if the prognostication should come to pass.
Hurley, 29, found his game on the Alps Tour in 2022. The climax came at the DP World Tour’s Q-School in Spain, where he remained among the top names throughout the 108-hole grind. He took a pass on the first event of the DP World Tour’s 2023 season but has made the cut in the three since then.
Murphy, a 24-year-old University of Louisville grad, trod a path similar to McKibbin’s. He played well enough early on to parlay invitations into an eventual appearance in the Challenge Tour Grand Finale. Although he didn’t qualify via that portal, he rallied at Q-School to just squeeze into the final available spot. He’s yet to take advantage of that good fortune, having failed to make the cut in his four appearances on the DP World Tour south of the equator.
Conor Purcell also tipped himself as one to watch going forward. He finished joint-seventh in the Australian Open earlier this month. He will take his talents to the Challenge Tour in 2023 and hopes to follow McKibbin’s trail.
Two other names that might gain traction in 2023 are those of amateurs Matt McClean and Hugh Foley. The duo met in the final round of the U.S. Mid-Amateur, with McClean taking the prize. He’s eligible to compete in three of the four majors in 2023, the PGA Championship being the exception. They’ve both indicated that they will contemplate turning pro later in 2023 and, should they follow through on that, would take the same fork in the road as late entrants to the pro ranks as did Padraig Harrington a quarter of a century ago.
The collegiate ranks aren’t without a trio to be mindful of. Florida Atlantic’s Alex Maguire and Wake Forest’s Mark Power, both in their senior years, are on the brink of making their way to the next level. Sophomore Paul Conroy of Chattanooga burst forth this past fall in a manner suggestive of future stardom.
Leona Maguire was the February winner in the 2022 Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year awards held at the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, on Dec. 20. Noel O’Reilly, the Irish Times sports editor, and Dr. Una May, CEO of Sports Ireland, are also pictured. INPHO/MORGAN TREACY
THEN THERE’S LEONA
Irish girls have a heroine to emulate in the person of Leona Maguire, who became the first Irish winner of an LPGA event when she took the Drive On Championship in Florida in early February after several close brushes with victory in 2021. She hit a rough patch during the spring, missing three straight cuts, but regained her groove at the U.S. Women’s Open, the first of seven top-10s to fall her way, culminating in a second-place finish at the Tour Championship. She is a major reason for the reinstatement of the Women’s Irish Open, which is slated for late summer at Dromoland Castle.
Stephanie Meadow played well enough to keep her card, a not insignificant achievement considering her body of work in recent years. Now 30, the former Alabama Crimson Tide standout has been a presence near the tops of leaderboards throughout the recently concluded campaign but needs to maintain a level of consistency to get that first win on this circuit.
