West of Ireland Amateur Golf Championship


County Sligo is host to the first big amateur competiton of the season, where no lesser figures than 2011 US Open and US PGA 2012 winner Rory McIlroy and three times Major winner Padraig Harrington cut their teeth as young up-and-coming players.

Harrington won his first senior title in 1994 at Rosses Point, while the new superstar of the game McIlroy was the youngest ever winner of the West in 2005 at the tender age of 15 and made it a double by holding onto the title the following year.

The first West was played in 1923 when L.P. Vernon defeated B.H. Cook 3/2 . In the early years the Championship was decided over 36 holes. Originally held in July, it now opens the Irish competitive calendar at Easter each year.

New Format for West for 2013
A new qualifying structure has been put in place for the The West of Ireland Amateur Open Championship, and will remain as a trial for this year and next.

          117 entrants will earn a place in the field under existing qualifying conditions for the traditional first day of the event on                              Good Friday (29th March).                                        

             A new qualifying round for the next 81 entrants in handicap order will take place on the preceding Wednesday, with the                  top three players gaining a place in the starting field proper.

For more details, contact Enda Lonergan in the GUI Connacht Branch, guicb1@eircom.net or call 094 9028141.


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