Kevin Phelan: The Waterford amateur who played in two US Opens

Phelan played the US Opens in 2010 at Pebble Beach and 2013 at Merion

Kevin Phelan in action at the 2014 Irish Open. Pic: Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE

This week always holds a special significance for Kevin Phelan, the only Irish amateur to have qualified for the US Open twice.

Now 35, he is based in Bangkok where he coaches golfers through an online platform, about 10,000km away from home in Waterford.

He spent much of his teenage years in Florida and was a latecomer to the game, eventually pitching up in a collegiate system alongside future Major winners Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.

Phelan went on to play in his first US Open at Pebble Beach in 2010 when Graeme McDowell was victorious.

“It was great, I enjoyed every minute,” said Phelan.  “I did way too much practice because I was so excited to be there. A friend of a friend set up a practice round on the Sunday before with Trevor Immelman, where there was no one on the course.

“Then I played with Padraig Harrington. I played nine holes with him, played with Jim Furyk and Retief Goosen, all these amazing players. I was annoying them with loads of questions.  

“They all had great time for me. Harrington and Furyk both had similar advice. They took some time during the round to remind me that I’ve qualified and earned my place.

“Harrington was very strong on, when it’s your time to play the shot, that’s your time, you don’t need to rush, play your shots and your game. The Irish are great taking care of the younger players.

“But by the time I got to Thursday I was fairly worn out and at that point the golf course was too hard for me. I was trying to go out and make birdies and it’s not a good strategy, not at all.

“I still enjoyed it, my last nine holes on the Friday I played really well, and that was nice to have. But the week as a whole, I just loved it. Learned a lot about patience and managing a golf course.  

“I never played a course that was anywhere near that difficult. The greens were tiny, firm and very slopey, so there was a lot to take away from that.”  

Phelan grew up in Waterford and attended St Mary’s National School in the hurling stronghold of Ballygunner.

That school helped the local club to every Waterford Senior Hurling Championship title since 2014, five Munster titles in that period and All-Irelands in 2022 and 2026.

“I went to Ballygunner where hurling is everything,” said Phelan.

“I played a little bit in school, but I never really got into it. I used to play casually with my friends, tapping the ball around, but if there was sun out I was running to the golf course.

“The two of Mahonys were in the school, and Pauric was the same year as my brother. They would have been very good. Brian O'Sullivan was around as well, and hurling was all anyone talked about.” 

His father John is a former Ireland international squash player who represented his country at junior and senior level, and also became a professional before the family relocated to USA.

Sport was in the blood and Phelan’s younger brother Brian went on to play Division 1 college golf with Jacksonville University.

Kevin Phelan played out of Waterford Castle when he was junior but it wasn’t until he moved Stateside that his considerable potential was realised.

“I wasn’t that good at golf before going to Florida,” said Phelan.  “I think I was a 19 handicap when we moved. It took a while to settle in, to understand that it’s sunny pretty much every day, you don’t have to run to the golf course as soon as it’s sunny.

“But that was all I was doing, playing golf and loads of junior tournaments. We were in Jacksonville, there’s a lot of golfers around there, a lot of junior golfers.

“Even at the local golf club, there were five or six other guys around the same age, same level, just playing all the time, playing with school teams.”  

Phelan joined The Champions Club at Julington Creek and later attended University of North Florida, where they got to play on the The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, home to The Players Championship.

It was a strong team and they got to the national championships in three of his four years there, where he came up against some future stars of the game.

“Spieth just had a knack for winning tournaments. If it was close, he would just pull something out of the bag and then Patrick Rodgers probably had the most complete game,” said Phelan.

The Waterford native was playing most of his golf in USA until he qualified for the US Open in his first year in college.

He wanted to represent Ireland and later that year he was picked to play in his first Home Internationals. After that he spent his summer back in Ireland playing on the amateur circuit, where he also played Interpros for Munster.

And three years after his first appearance in the US Open, he returned for Merion in 2013.

“I was really ready to play in that one,” said Phelan.  “I felt very good about what I was doing and I was working closely with Mark McCumber on my game. I was single-minded and ready to compete.  

“I played the Palmer Cup the week before and played well. I played with another Waterford man, Gary Hurley. I was ready for that week, ready for the course being difficult.  

“The practice was pretty chaotic. There was a lot of rain and I wouldn’t have practiced how I had in Pebble Beach anyway, but even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t have been able to. I only got 18 holes of practice in.

“But I was lucky, I got a very good local caddy, Jim, and leaned on him, especially with tee shots during the tournament, because I had only played each hole once in practice.  

“There’s a lot of semi-blind tee shots, you can see further up the hole, but a lot of the time you can’t see the landing area, so I trusted Jim and he pointed me in the right direction.” 

Phelan performed better on the big stage, he opened with a 71, which was two shots better than Harrington on day one, and made the cut finishing T62.

It completed a memorable chapter in his life, he turned professional in September 2013 and earned his European Tour card for the following year.

He went on to feature on the Challenge Tour, Asian Tour and Asian Development Tour but now he has stepped away from the competitive ranks.

“I've just started a golf coaching business. It’s mostly online coaching on Skillest,” said Phelan.   

“When I was in college I studied psychology, that’s something I've been interested in for a long time, and all aspects of golf. I see it from a player’s point of view but a lot of it depends on what the player is looking for. Some just want technical stuff and that’s fine. 

“Where I see the fastest improvement is regular interaction with technical stuff, but also with what’s happening on the golf course, and most people have tendencies, so trying to work on both sides of it and on their technique.

“I try and get players to give me as much information as they can so I can get some context, but it depends on the level. With a better player, it’s usually in the more behavioural side where the improvements are going to happen fastest. With amateur players, a lot of the time there’s technical stuff that can be tightened and they can see improvements pretty quick.  

“It depends on the level, if it’s a higher handicapper, I would tend to go on technique first, if it’s a scratch golfer or a plus handicap, then I would want to know what’s going on in competition.”