Lahinch plays host to the South of Ireland Amateur Open that gets underway tomorrow with ten golfers from Galway clubs involved on the opening day.
Caelan Coleman of Galway Bay will be the first Galway Golfer on the course teeing off at 7.30am.
He will be followed by Colm Hughes of Galway at 8am, Athenry’s Cathal Penney at 9.50, Padraic McGrath of Galway Bay at 10.50, David Kitt of Athenry at 11.20, Joe Lyons of Galway at 12 Noon, Luke O’Neill of Connemara and Rory Gallagher of Galway Bay at 1.10pm, Conor Stapleton of Connemara at 2.50 and Tom Cafferkey of Ballinasloe at 3.30pm.
Reigning champion Colm Campbell (Pictured) has spent over a decade competing at the top tier of Irish amateur golf and the reigning Pierse Motors Volkswagen South of Ireland Amateur Open Champion knows the experience gained will be vital to see the famous trophy make its return to Warrenpoint.
Lahinch Golf Club plays host to the oldest regional golf championship in Ireland with two rounds of stroke play and six of match play scheduled over five days of competition as 150 golfers tee it up on the Clare coast.
The 37-year-old has faced this test on numerous occasions, making appearances at the South of Ireland Championship since 2015 which culminated in a hard-fought victory over Peter O’Keeffe (Douglas) in the wind and rain of last year’s final.
“I was absolutely delighted because not only was it one I was looking to win, I’ve been travelling to the South for so long, but it was my first match play victory as well and it was also my first match play final, so I was absolutely delighted,” said Campbell.
“I thrive on match play. I just have that mindset that when I go out on the golf course me versus another person and I’ll just do whatever I can to win and sometimes it’s not pretty, but it doesn’t matter it’s not how, it’s how many and you just try and get the job done. It’s a nice feeling whenever you get one over on the opponent.”
Campbell gets his opening round underway at 1pm on Wednesday afternoon alongside Colum Kenny (Portmarnock) and Aodhagan Brady (County Sligo).
The father of two welcomed his second child, Emily, into the world this summer and while Campbell now plays on a more part-time basis, the support of wife Ciara, eldest daughter Sophia and finding a work life balance has changed his golfing outlook.
“I’m very fortunate that I’ve got a very understanding wife that gets golf and is very supportive of me so I’m very lucky,” said Campbell.
“The reason for me still being able to compete at the level we’re competing at is that I am a little bit more chilled and more relaxed and I’m enjoying when I get my time away to play golf because you’re leaving the workload behind you and you are not thinking of that. It definitely frees you up a little bit more.”
Campbell knows what it takes to win in Lahinch and while returning to the southwest as defending champion comes with its own pressure, the Warrenpoint golfer is looking forward to giving it another good run.
“I know not to get too carried away with myself. Obviously going back as defending champion the expectations are, let’s see can you retain it that’s going to be a tough task, I know that myself but I feed off what I done last year and my game is in decent shape” said Campbell.
“Just looking forward to going back and to get to the latter stages of the event you need to play well but you also need a wee bit of luck on your side and a few things to go your way.
“Expectations are we’ll go down give it a go, see what happens, and hopefully we’ll be close come Sunday.”
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