Terrific year for amateurs

Many of those who excel in the amateur game are drawn to a life on tour as professionals. That point was reaffirmed by the fact that two members of Ireland's six-man team which won the European Championships at Western Gailes in Scotland were, by season's end, in the paid ranks.

Rory McIlroy and Richard Kilpatrick could yet be plying their trade on the European Tour next season.

McIlroy has already won his card, having earned sufficient money as an affiliate member in the four tournaments he played at the tail-end of the campaign, while Kilpatrick has negotiated the first stage of the European Tour qualifying school and next week competes in the second stage with the aim of getting to the final qualifying school later this month.

The Irish team, captained by Michael Burns, produced a fine performance in Scotland in July to capture the European Championship for a fifth time and a first since the success at Murhof in Austria in 1987. In ending that 20-year drought, Ireland beat a strong France team in the final, with Jonathan Caldwell playing an inspirational role that enabled him to earn a Walker Cup cap alongside Rory McIlroy at Royal County Down in September.

Unfortunately for McIlroy, in his amateur swan song, and Caldwell, that Walker Cup was to end in disappointment as the United States claimed a narrow victory.

But the European team success provided much compensation, as the team of McIlroy, Caldwell, Kilpatrick, Irish champion Shane Lowry, Simon Ward and Gareth Shaw negotiated the strokeplay qualifying (finishing comfortably in third, behind Scotland and England) for a place in the top flight.

Then, in the matchplay phase, Ireland accounted for Sweden 6-1 in the first round, defeated England 4-3 in the semi-final and then beat France by 4½ to 2½ in the final.

For Lowry, 2007 proved to be a year to remember. Apart from playing an important part on the European Championship success, the Esker Hills clubman was unbeaten in the Home Internationals (in which Ireland finished runners-up to England), and claimed the Irish Close title with victory in the final over Niall Turner. Lowry also reached the final of the North of Ireland, where he was beaten by Shaw.

In the other domestic majors, Galway's Joe Lyons beat the highly-rated Ulster teenager Paul Cutler in the final of the West of Ireland; Kilpatrick was a runaway winner of the East of Ireland, beating Ward by eight shots, while Darren Crowe defeated Lyons by one hole in the final of the South of Ireland.