Irish Open place at stake for winner of Irish Amateur Championship

Cormac Sharvin Flogas Brand Ambassador, with John Rooney M.D. Flogas (centre) and Pat Finn CEO GUI at the sponsorship announcement of the Flogas Irish Amateur Open Championship, Royal Dublin Golf Club

The Golfing Union of Ireland (GUI) yesterday announced a new three-year sponsorship deal with Flogas for Ireland’s blue riband amateur championship.

The Flogas Irish Amateur Open Championship boasts a stellar international field and features a roll of honour that includes major champions such as Padraig Harrington and South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen.

The Flogas deal begins with this year’s tournament at Royal Dublin and continues into 2017 and 2018, when the Irish Amateur Open Championship will be staged at the world famous links at Royal County Down.

Pat Finn, CEO of the Golfing Union of Ireland, welcomed the announcement, saying: “We are delighted to welcome Flogas on board as the new sponsor of Ireland’s leading amateur golf Championship.

“The Irish Amateur Open Championship has gone from strength to strength since its re-introduction in 1995 and the support of Flogas will help the GUI to build on that success.”

John Rooney, Managing Director for Flogas Ireland said: “We are excited to come on board as title sponsor for this great Championship.

“Flogas has a long and rich tradition of supplying golf clubs and their members with LPG or Natural Gas requirements, so it felt right that we should invest something back in this great game.

“We operate on an all-Ireland basis, just like the Golfing Union of Ireland, and we are the only energy company that can offer all the benefits of gas to our commercial customers, whether they are on or off the Natural Gas grid.”

Flogas also recently announced their sponsorship of touring professional Cormac Sharvin, a former Ireland international who was runner-up at last year’s Irish Amateur Open. The Flogas PGA Pro-Am, now in its second year, is supported by Flogas and run by the PGA in Ireland. This year’s event is set for the Lough Erne Golf Resort on 30 May.

Meanwhile, two Swedish players dominated the top of the leaderboard on the opening day of the Irish Girls Open Stroke Play Championship at Roganstown GC.

Sarah Kjelker leads after shooting a 69 (-2) and Pi-lillebi Hermansson is in second place a shot behind following a one under par round of 70.

Kjelker started with 11 straight pars and reached one under on the par three 12th before giving a shot back at the 14th but bounced back with two birdies on 15 and 18 to finish with the best round of the day.

Lurgan’s Annabel Wilson is the best placed of the home contingent after carding a level par 71.

Valerie Clancy from Killarney was on course to card an impressive round until the par four 16th when an unfortunate triple bogey set her back but nevertheless a 75 was a good start to the tournament.

Fellow Irish internationals Elisa Corcoran (Grange), Niamh McSherry (Lurgan) and Mairead Martin (Killarney) carded rounds in the 70’s with 74 (+3), 78 (+7) and 78 (+7) respectively.