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.

True to form, the R & A didn't explain then or indeed since why two of their most formidable players were omitted from a team badly in need of golfers of their calibre and experience. Rumour had it they had upset Colin Montgomerie during an Eisenhower Trophy engagement in South America the previous year although both men rubbished such notions.

McGimpsey and McEvoy, and the rest of us, are, accordingly none the wiser. So it's prudent for all concerned not to count any chickens and that's one good reason why Moriarty and Fox have been the recipients of so many good wishes over the past couple of days.

Just about everyone interested in the amateur game will have their own ideas of the Irishmen to suffer at the whims of a succession of Walker Cup selection committees. One man I have always borne in mind was the late Tom Craddock who, in fact, did take part in 1967 and 69 but was inexcusably robbed of at least two or three more appearances. There are several other such examples.

While Moriarty clinched his place early in the year with some remarkable performances in Australia, it was a slightly tougher slog for Fox. His victory in the Irish Amateur Open was probably decisive but he never relented in his pursuit of a place that had devilishly eluded the Portmarnock golfer in 1999 and 2001 when he was also a member of the Walker Cup squad. Noel has six major championship successes to his credit three East of Irelands, two Irish Opens and a West of Ireland while Moriarty won the 2002 South of Ireland and this year's New South Wales Medal and Match Play Championships among numerous other fine performances.

It has been a very good week for amateur golf in Ireland. Prior to the selection of the Walker Cup side, we had another outstanding South of Ireland at Lahinch where once again the size of the galleries, in spite of some very inclement weather, indicated there is still considerable support for the amateur game, at least in that part of the country. They know their golf in West Clare and have good reason to come out in numbers to watch our best golfers compete in the oldest of our provincial championships.

Three years ago they saw Graeme McDowell, now an outstanding prospect on the European Tour, defeat Ken Kearney in the final. In 2001 it was the turn of Birr's Justin Kehoe to shoot the lights out when beating Stephen Browne in the final. Last year, Colm Moriarty squeezed out Sligo's Sean McTernan at the 19th and now we have Mallow's Mervyn Owens emerging from a barren period to confirm all the high hopes entertained for him in his younger years. Three days after celebrating his 22nd birthday, Owens captured the title most coveted by any Munsterman and he did it in some style with final day wins over Michael McGeady and Moriarty, both members of the recent Irish six-man team in the European Championships.

Interestingly, his victory brought to an end a five-year drought since a Munster golfer, Eddie Power, last won a championship, the Irish Close at the Island in 1998. Owens will now lead Munster in the Interprovincial Championship at Ballybunion next week and will win his first Irish senior cap at the same venue in the Home Internationals on September 17-19.

Somewhere in between, he must return to college in South Eastern Louisiana. But don't think that or anything else will stop Owens representing his country. "That's been one of my life's ambitions," says a young man who has rediscovered his golf game in emphatic fashion and is surely destined for great things in the months and years ahead.