Moriarty and Fox more than earn Walker chance

IT has been common knowledge for several weeks that Colm Moriarty and Noel Fox were virtual certainties for inclusion on the British & Irish Walker Cup side to face the Americans at Ganton on September 6-7.

Nevertheless, until the side was officially announced on Monday, one had lingering doubts they would actually be in the side given the number of disappointments worthy Irish candidates have had to suffer down through the years. To say the least of it, Irish players have invariably had to be that little better than the English and Scots to gain inclusion and while neither the team captain Garth McGimpsey nor Frankie McCarroll, the Irish representative on the selection committee, would want or claim any credit for the inclusion of Moriarty and Fox, there is no doubt their views held a lot of weight when the crucial decisions were taken.

McGimpsey himself has a very proud record as a player. He won the British Amateur Championship in 1985 and he and Killarney's Eoghan O'Connell helped B & I to capture the World Championship for the Eisenhower Trophy in Sweden in 1988 and the Walker Cup for the first time on American soil the following year. Yet McGimpsey has good personal reason not to take anything for granted where Walker Cup selection is concerned. He was at the height of his powers in 1987 when inexplicably omitted from the side humbled by the Americans at Sunningdale. Not alone that but his friend and predecessor as Walker Cup captain Peter McEvoy was also dropped that year and at a time when he was arguably the finest amateur on the globe.