Young Irish golfers earn US scholarships

PETER O’KEEFFE and Aaron O’Callaghan, two of the most promising young golfers in Ireland, have been awarded scholarships to the University of South Eastern Louisiana.

They are both members of Douglas Golf Club in Cork and have developed into two outstanding performers over the past few years.

O’Keeffe, 22, has been a member of the Munster senior team for the past three years and has represented Ireland at boys and youths levels.

More recently, he has been consistently making his mark in senior golf and finished third in this year’s East of Ireland Championship at Baltray.

O’Keeffe moves to Louisiana in January, while O’Callaghan, 18, delays the move until next August on completion of his Leaving Certificate.

The 2004 Irish Examiner Junior sports star for golf, O’Callaghan is the current holder of the Munster Boys, lost in a play-off for the Irish Boys and is a valued member of the Irish Boys team.

“I had this opportunity when I was 19 but didn’t feel I was ready at the time,” explains O’Keeffe.

“Mervyn Owens from Mallow and Mark O’Sullivan from Galway attended the same college and spoke in glowing terms about it. Aaron and I travelled over there recently on a recruitment trip and we just couldn’t get over the magnificent facilities. The coach showed us the courses we would play, the practice range, the gym, the lot.

“Quite simply, it was all a golfer’s heaven. They are putting a new team together for Division One of the NCAA Championships and we hope to be part of that.”

O’Keeffe and O’Callaghan join a long list of other young Irishmen on golf scholarships in the US.

They include senior internationals Gareth Maybin and Richard Kilpatrick from the north of Ireland, Cian McNamara (Limerick) and Greg Bowden (Hermitage), along with Muskerry’s Niall Turner and Kenny Fahey from Connemara.