Dunbar aiming to atone for 2011 loss in West of Ireland

The traditional first big event on the domestic annual calendar, the Radisson sponsored West of Ireland Championship, gets underway today with the first of two stroke-play qualifying rounds leading up to the final on Tuesday next.

Last year’s winner, Walker Cup star Paul Cutler, won’t be defending as he is now a professional but seeking to go one better will be Alan Dunbar, whom he defeated in the decider, and the losing semi-finalists Gary McDermott of the host club and Muskerry’s Niall Gorey.

Dunbar, a member of the successful British & Irish Walker Cup side along with Cutler, will start as strong favourite but the chances for an upset are always strong with the majority of the country’s top amateurs all in the field.

Gorey, Dunbar and McDermott are only three of the eight members of the Irish team that lost narrowly in the Home Internationals over this course last August to have entered. The others are Eoin Arthurs, Aaron Kearney, Eddie McCormack, Richard O’Donovan and Dermot McElroy.

The younger element is also well represented by the talented Waterford duo Gary Hurley and Jack Leacy and Jack Hume from Rathsallagh while left-hander Mark Shanahan, now playing out of Castlemartyr, is one of the lowest handicaps in the field at plus 2.5.