Amateur ace Hurley learns to cope with highs and lows

They came in busloads and carloads from West Waterford to support their 21-year-old hero who, on Friday, had captured the imagination of the golfing world by shooting a superb five under par 66 at the Irish Open.

Saturday, however, was a different affair. Having been under the radar, Gary Hurley was now the focus of considerable attention and for a young and inexperienced amateur competing in his first professional championship, it all became a little too much. He endured a wretched start and while he battled gamely to steady the ship, eventually signed for a ten over 81 that sent him to the back of the field.

To his great credit, the youngster from Aglish, outside Dungarvan, regrouped yesterday. He went out with a marker at 6.45am and three hours later was back in the clubhouse with the cheers of the already sizeable attendance ringing in his ears as he knocked in a 25 foot birdie putt on the par five 18th green to finish in 73 for a total of 292. Rather surprisingly and disappointingly, there was no amateur prize to mark the occasion.

“I travelled back and forth to Aglish with my dad Richard and I was pretty wrecked coming to the course,” Hurley explained. “And now I’m playing in the Brabazon Trophy this week and have a flight today to Newcastle. I have to go home and pack and drive up to Dublin to make it.

“I learned a lot more on Saturday than I learned any day this week. There are so many things you can do better. You learn from that whereas when you have a good round, you don’t think of the things you did badly.

“I think golf is 70% mental. You have to be able to cope with highs and you have to be able to cope with lows, making bogeys and coming back from bad breaks.”

That third round will be uppermost in his mind for some time but you also suspect he has no intention of allowing those memories unsettle him.

“Saturday was very tough,” admitted the NUI Maynooth Paddy Harrington scholarship business management student. “There were so many people following me and cheering me on it was hard to concentrate and without letting them down. Hopefully I can learn from that the next time and I can handle the situation a bit better and maybe be a bit more mature about the whole thing.”

But, Saturday aside, what did Hurley make of the experience? “It was a brilliant week and one I really enjoyed. It had everything, some big highs and some big lows. But it kind of evened itself out at the end and hopefully next time I get in a position like I was on Saturday, I can handle it a bit better. I thought I played quite well Sunday considering I was drained after Saturday and the day before so I was just delighted to be here to be playing.

“I would like to thank everyone for coming out. I was playing on my own, another experience for the week. I never played a competitive round on my own before. But it was great, off at 6.45 for the people to come out at that time is brilliant. It really means a lot. And then I holed the putt of about 25 feet on the 18th after I hadn’t really holed anything all day. That really delighted me.”

And the lesson he will take from the experience? “You can play badly and have a good round with a good mental attitude and get a good score, or you can play good with a bad mental attitude and have a bad score. It’s a big part of golf; that’s what I’ve learned over the last few years of playing and I’m trying to improve. It’s difficult but I’m getting there one step at a time.”