GOLF/WEST OF IRELAND:McELROY SHOOTS 61. Sound familiar? It should. Back in 2005 Rory McIlroy followed up his feat of becoming the youngest winner of the West of Ireland Championship at the age of 15 by carding an almost sacrilegious, 11 under par, course record 61 on the Dunluce links in the North of Ireland qualifying rounds at Royal Portrush.
He was followed every step of the way by a bespectacled 12-year-old from Ballymena who last week became the latest Irish amateur to card a 61 in competition, Dermot McElroy.
Six years later, the 17-year-old Irish Boys champion has proved himself to be a slow-burning and quietly consistent winner since he took up the game as an eight-year- old under the watchful eye of Ballymena club professional Ken Revie.
But the 10-under-par 61 that destroyed the course record at Copt Heath in the final round of last week’s Peter McEvoy Trophy for under-18s has catapulted the quiet-spoken Co Antrim lad to the forefront of the betting for this weekend’s West of Ireland championship at Rosses Point.
Despite losing to Michael McGinley in the second round on his debut in last year’s West, McElroy is the 7 to 1 clear favourite with the punters ahead of Walker Cup prospects such as Lytham Trophy holder Paul Cutler or Alan Dunbar, the Irish Amateur Open champion and the man who beat the Ballymena boy in the final of last year’s “North”.
Given his talent, McElroy is bound to draw comparisons with his famous, near namesake. But while that is patently unfair, the Walker Cup selectors will be keeping a close eye on his progress as they prepare to pick the side to face the United States at Royal Aberdeen in September.
You see, the men from the RA are keen not to make the same mistake twice.
Despite his 61 at Portrush in July 2005, McIlroy failed to make the Walker Cup side that lost by a point in Chicago later that year, leaving a red-faced chairman of selectors to confess: “We bottled out. Us not picking him is probably the low point of my career as a selector.”
Ironically, that man was Peter McEvoy, the great Copt Heath amateur.
McElroy didn’t win the McEvoy Trophy but after three successive 73s, his bogey free 61 catapulted him into solo fourth place, just a week after he came third in the battle for individual honours at senior level in the prestigious European Nations Cup at Sotogrande.
Not overly long – he averages around 270 yards from the tee – McElroy’s precision iron play and razor sharp short game has made him a formidable opponent. In fact, he won both his singles for the Irish Boys team in the 12-8 Cardigan Cup win over Wales at Rosslare this week.
Defending West of Ireland champion Rory Leonard saw McElroy up close for the first time in Sotogrande and said he was “impressed” by the youngster who was the top under-18 player in a top class international field.
According to Ballymena pro Revie, that talent was evident from the start.
“The very first time I saw Dermot was at age seven,” Revie recalled. “I was doing a bit of coaching for kids from local primary schools. Dermot had missed the first week and when he turned up on the second week, I was doing bunker play.
“So I just threw a ball into the bottom of the bunker and told him to go and hit it. The practice bunker at Ballymena is quite deep while he couldn’t have been much more than two feet tall at the time, or so it seemed. Anyway he hit that first ball out and straight onto the green.
“Needless to say, I was quite impressed. So I threw another ball in, said ‘do that again’ and whack, he hit that one onto the green as well. Let’s say it was pretty clear he had a natural aptitude for the game and he has built on it ever since.”
