Leona Maguire takes top honour at Irish Golf Writers' Awards
Leona Maguire celebrates her success with Europe and the Solheim Cup.
Leona Maguire, Peter O’Keeffe, and Lauren Walsh topped the polls for the annual Irish Golf Writers’ Association awards for 2021, announced on Monday.
Maguire’s Solheim Cup heroics, winning four-and-a-half points from a possible five in Ohio during the summer to help Europe win for only a second time in the United States, and impressive debut season on the LPGA Tour earned her the Professional Player of the Year award in the annual poll of golf journalists.
The 27-year-old’s victory marks only the second time in the 45-year history of the IGWA awards that a woman has won the professional category, following Stephanie Meadow’s success in 2018, while Maguire was previously a four-time recipient of the women’s amateur award, initially picking that up twice alongside sister Lisa in 2008 and 2011, and outright in 2015 and 2017.
The Cavan golfer’s rookie season on the LPGA Tour saw the former world amateur number one secure two runner-up finishes among five top-10s, second to Lydia Ko in the Lotte Championship and to Nelly Korda in the Meijer Classic. Maguire also secured a record-equalling low round in a major – by men or women – she shot a final round 61 in the Evian Championship, en route to a sixth-placed finish.
O’Keeffe, 40, is the recipient of the Men’s Amateur of the Year award after a standout 2021 in which he won both the AIG Irish Close at Tullamore and the Flogas Irish Amateur Open at The European Club, becoming the first player since Pádraig Harrington in 1995 to do the Irish Amateur Close-Open double.
The Douglas golfer defeated Rob Moran in a play-off for the Close and then overcame Switzerland’s Nicola Gerhardsen in a three-hole aggregate play-off for the Open.
Co. Kildare’s Walsh, 21, is the IGWA’s Women’s Amateur Player of the Year for 2021 after an outstanding year for the Castlewarden golfer.
She added to her two individual victories of late 2020 as a Wake Forest University scholar in the USA with a Curtis Cup debut this year as Great Britain and Ireland were beaten by the United States in Conwy, Wales. And there was also an assured major championship debut at the AIG Women’s Open at Carnoustie in which Walsh finished in a tie for 42nd and just missed out on the silver medal as leading amateur before returning to America and helping Wake Forest to the Bryan National Intercollegiate team title.
Covid-19 restrictions have ruled out the possibility of an in-person live IGWA awards ceremony but there was one more recipient honoured on Monday as Michael McCumiskey, who retired in May after 35 years as head of the PGA in Ireland, received the Distinguished Services to Golf award.
IGWA chairman Paul Kelly paid tribute and said: “For 35 years Michael McCumiskey dedicated himself to promoting the values and benefits of the PGA to golfers and golf clubs across Ireland. During his long tenure as regional manager, he supported the career development of many professionals and built strong relationships with the entire golfing community.
“Through boom and bust Ireland's leading professionals continued to be offered opportunities to compete and that was in no small part due to the connections he nurtured during his time in post.
“It is a measure of the man and his dedication to the PGA that he put his retirement plans on hold for a year to support the organisation through the opening months of the pandemic whilst ensuring that his successor had time to bed in to post.”
Professional – Leona Maguire
Men’s Amateur – Peter O’Keeffe
Women’s Amateur – Lauren Walsh
Distinguished Services – Michael McCumiskey
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