Pat Murray: winner of the Irish Close Championship in June

PAT MURRAY has the ideal opportunity to show the Irish selectors the error of their ways in the 108th South of Ireland Championship which begins at Lahinch today.

Murray’s omission from the six-man European Championship team – on the day in June when he cruised to an emphatic victory in the country’s flagship event, the Irish Close – seemed a remarkable decision.

Murray, the 37-year-old Limerick Golf Club secretary/manager, was passed over for six full-time golfers. And to compound the sense of injustice felt not just by Murray but all those who work for a living and play golf in their spare time, Ireland not alone failed to complete a hat-trick of European Championship wins at Conwy in North Wales but they didn’t even qualify for Flight One.

Four of that side, defending champion Niall Kearney of Royal Dublin; 2006 winner Simon Ward (Co Louth), Cian Curley (Newlands) and Dara Lernihan (Castle), will be hoping for better fortune when they line out at Lahinch. Adding spice to the occasion is the presence of Pat Murray, who ironically has been placed at the very bottom of the draw and apparently seeded to go all the way to the final.

It’s not as if Murray became an overnight success in the Close at Enniscrone. He is a seasoned international golfer and a regular in the closing stages of various championships for many years. Nor could his victory at Enniscrone have been more convincing given that he beat Irish team panellist Andrew Hogan by 6&5 in the semi-finals and Cian Curley by 5&4 in the decider.

The higher handicap players have the stage to themselves today when among those in action will be 63-year-old Noel Pyne of Ennis who continues to set records for longevity in the event. This will be the 45th appearance for the former Clare hurler while also trying to do a ‘Tom Watson’ over the next five days will be 1987 champion, Barry Reddan of Co Louth, also 63, and 60-year-old Paraic O’Rourke of Kilkenny, the winner on three occasions.

Meanwhile, the younger schools is represented by Arthur Pierse junior, a son of the former Walker Cup star from Tipperary.

The real action, however, gets underway in tomorrow’s second round when the big names of the current era enter the fray. Holder Kearney (who finished ninth in the South of England Championship at Walton Heath earlier this week) is drawn in the first quarter where he can expect a serious challenge from three-time former Close champion Eddie Power, a quarter-finalist 12 months ago, Andrew Hogan and Nick Grant from Knock, another to reach the last eight in 2008.

Cian Curley and Daragh Lernihan are favourites for quarter-final action in the second quarter although Lee Valley’s Niall Gorey, a semi-finalist last year, may have something to say about that. Simon Ward’s success three years ago demonstrates how at home he feels at Lahinch and he could come through the third quarter. The danger men are newly crowned Irish Youths champion Kelan McDonagh of Athlone and NUI/Maynooth and Headfort’s Rory McNamara, another member of the younger school.

Murray and Aaron O’Callaghan of Douglas, beaten in the semi-final last year by eventual winner Kearney, look a good bet for last eight action from the fourth quarter, favoured as they are by the withdrawal of the highly-rated Paul O’Kane from Moyola Park.

Feargal Rafferty of Dungannon is the other notable absentee from tomorrow’s draw.