Nine lives: how Ireland's newest golf world champion stole Lowry's Doonbeg thunder

Athenry's Cillian Hirst with newly minted Amgen Irish Open champion Shane Lowry at Doonbeg.

While the crowds in Doonbeg were treated to a sensational spectacle from Shane Lowry on Sunday as the Clara man romped home to seal a record Irish Open victory, many were also witnesses to one of Ireland’s newest world champions.

Young Galway golfer Cillian Hirst, the winner of the U9 Boys World Golf Championship at Pinehurst in July, saw his dreams come true as he teed off alongside Lowry in a Beat the Pro competition on the 7th hole at Doonbeg on Friday.

A junior member at Athenry Golf Club, the nine-year-old enjoyed the chance to play in front of thousands of spectators as well as being broadcast around the golfing globe, but the Maree native is no stranger to the big stage having been crowned U9 World Champion in North Carolina just a few months ago.

Pinehurst Golf Resort in North Carolina has a rich legacy of hosting major tournaments down through the years including four US Open Championships, the US PGA Championship, the US Women’s Open and most notably the Ryder Cup in April 1951 when a Team USA side led by Ben Hogan and Sam Snead comfortably overcame their European counterparts.

That tournament saw Antrim’s Fred Daly the sole competitor from an Irish perspective, but 75 years on, Pinehurst welcomed a new Irish hero as Galway’s Cillian Hirst was crowned the U9 Boys World Golf Champion after he finished on 16-under-par to beat off a field of over 100 golfers from all over the world and become the first Irish champion at this age level since Rory McIlroy, the current Men’s World Number Two in the Official Golf Rankings.

“I remember on the last hole, I knew I had a good lead, and I had to chip onto the green from just near the bunker” Hirst told the Irish Examiner. “My stance was in the sand but the ball wasn’t, it was above it. I chipped it to six or seven feet and then made the putt for a birdie. It felt great.” 

That birdie sealed a six-shot victory for the young golfer from Maree as he overcame two former European Open champions in Nihaal Cheema of India and Rinto Otake of Japan, both of whom finished on 10-under at the three-day event. 

The Galway homecoming for Cillian Hirst after his World U9 victory in North Carolina.

Hirst, a member of Athenry Golf Club who plays under the tutelage of club professional Sean Whelan, recalls waking up on that final day without any real sense of nerves or pressure as he went about his business on the same course where Bryson DeChambeau finished one shot ahead of Rory McIlroy to win the US Open Championship just two years previously.

“I had a good sleep on Saturday, then woke up to have some breakfast - cereal, some pancakes, a muffin I think. American breakfasts are a bit different. I was playing with Nihaal and Rinto - we know each other but when you are on the golf course you don’t really talk as much.” 

Impressive stuff for a nine-year-old who appears completely unfazed by his newfound stardom. which saw hundreds of his friends, family, schoolmates, neighbours and beyond all gather at Maree Community Centre to celebrate the young golfer’s return - all of which the Maree native seems to take in his stride as he recalls coming home to a hero’s welcome in Galway on his return from the US as World Champion.

“We met the family at the Community Centre and then we went beeping from Oranmore into Maree. I think it was the Maree crossroads where I saw the first bonfire. There was a sea of people then at the community centre, around the new line, I think maybe three or four hundred from the school, the hurling team, it was mad.” 

Even more remarkable is the fact that, not only did Hirst take up golfing just a few years ago, but also that neither of his parents Steph and Joe hail from a golfing background, with his father crediting Cillian’s early exposure to hurling as one of the key factors in how quickly he adapted to life on the golf course in Athenry.

“I had a hurling grip when I started, I’d always be switching it around. When I started doing lessons, I spent months with my coach to fix it, but every time he looked away I’d do it again,” he explained. 

Cillian Hirst and his coach Sean Whelan.

His dad added: “Myself and Steph aren't golfers, but there's massive hurling in Steph's family originally being from Kinvara, so there'd be a huge hurling element there. Cillian would have had a hurl in his hand from maybe six months and would have been quite an avid hurler from a young age. His sister Leanne would have been playing camogie and Cillian would often be playing with them at a young age, playing in goals for them, so he always had that good hand-eye coordination.” 

Like many, it was Covid-19 that was largely a cause for golf entering the family, during which a visit to the local driving range was one of the catalysts for Cillian’s golfing journey as a chance encounter with the local golf pro led to him coming under the stewardship of Sean Whelan in Athenry just months later. 

Joe recalls the first time it became clear that his son possessed a very rare and raw talent for golf.

“I was going down to Cregboy Driving Range and I’d bring Cillian with me, I'd say he got his first set of golf clubs from Santa at around three or four, we were down hitting a few balls and Michael Mulryan, the golf pro down there, saw Cillian and said that he had a lovely swing and lovely technique. So he started doing group lessons or individual lessons with Michael and then later with Sean Whelan, and it’s just grown from there.” 

Sitting in the clubhouse at Athenry Golf Club where Whelan has been a professional golf coach for almost 10 years, it’s hard not to detect the excitement and anticipation of such a prodigious young talent, but equally the combined effort and focus to keep him grounded are a collective priority of Steph, Joe and Whelan since the latter pair met unexpectedly during a somewhat regrettable encounter at the golf club a few years earlier.

“The shop here was broken into” Whelan says. “Joe was on duty and was one of the first guards on the scene, and later we got talking about Cillian and he asked if he could bring him up. You could see it straight away, he was well able to hit the ball, he gets it fairly quickly, doesn’t struggle with the movements. He’s very natural, obviously he is gifted but he also takes instruction very well.”

A first golf competition would follow as he finished second in an event at Joe’s native Strandhill, and soon Hirst was competing at provincial and national level before invites to play in Italy and Scotland followed, also winning the European Championship at Musselburgh Golf Club in Edinburgh back in May of this year. 

It becomes clear that the work done at grassroots level in Athenry has played a huge role in Hirst’s rapid rise to prominence with Whelan citing the work done at junior level by Pat Coen, Paul O’Malley, Marie Anne Shivnan and Karina McDonnell as being key in young golfer development at the club. 

While a life of jet-setting around the golfing globe may lie in wait for the young Galway golfer, a return to his roots in Oranmore will always be welcome at the Hirst household in Maree, where golf appears to have taken over for the foreseeable future much to the bemusement of Cillian’s mom Stephanie.

“I came home one evening and there was a hole in the floor up in his bedroom. His uncle Pádraig came up while I was at work and drilled a hole through the floor for Cillian to practice his putting. It’s still there now!” 

Practice of course makes perfect, and as prodigious as this young talent may be, it’s clear that Cillian is in capable hands as he continues to cultivate his craft. 

While at just nine years old he may have the world at his feet when it comes to a career and life in golf, those feet remain firmly grounded as he returns home to Maree back to normal life and of course back to school along with every other nine-year-old in the country.