{"id":43906,"date":"2025-09-04T20:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T20:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/43906\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T20:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T20:49:08","slug":"schoolboy-john-doyle-got-off-to-flyer-before-heavens-rained-on-his-debut-parade-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/43906\/","title":{"rendered":"Schoolboy John Doyle got off to flyer before heavens rained on his debut parade \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, who doesn\u2019t text Brooks Koepka\u2019s<\/a> caddie Ricky Elliott to ask if the five-time major winner would mind playing a practice round in the K Club before the Irish Open.<\/p>\n

Irish amateur John Doyle might be behind the rest of the field in lived years, having just gone into sixth year in his hometown of Mitchelstown, Co Cork<\/a>, but he already understands that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got in touch with Ricky Elliott on Sunday because my college coach, in LSU (Louisiana State University, where he goes next year), he coached Brooks\u2019 brother and he has connections with Elliott,\u201d said Doyle. \u201cHe gave me the number and I said, \u2018why not?\u2019. Might as well give it a shot and text him. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a sound guy. He\u2019s a legend. He\u2019s very laid-back. He\u2019s nice. I was nervous hitting shots and whatever. It was a good way of settling in.\u201d <\/p>\n

Doyle\u2019s two-over first-round score in his debut Irish Open puts him equal with a clutch of professionals, including three-time Major winner P\u00e1draig Harrington<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Doyle got off to a blistering start with birdie, birdie on his first two holes, which were 10 and 11 as he played the back nine first. A difficult second nine during the worst of the heavy showers, which swept across the course in violent squalls, pushed him down the leaderboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot very pleased. I had a poor back nine,\u201d said the 18-year-old. \u201cHit it very wayward off the tee on the back, I thought. Didn\u2019t really feel like I got too much out of it. <\/p>\n

\u201cKept on hitting it into the rough, like a yard or two in. It\u2019s silage \u2013 like, the rough is silage. You\u2019re not getting anything out of it really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doyle carded three consecutive bogeys on his 14th, 15th, and 16th holes in a birdie-free back nine, during which time the players were called from the course due to the threat of lightning.<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t materialise, but the torrential rain that fell during the short stoppage made for some sodden areas around the course. <\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn Doyle on the 17th at the K Club on Thursday. Photograph: Bryan Keane\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually happy enough with the finish after the restart,\u201d he said. \u201cJust chilled out, chatted away to people. I was a bit p***ed off, whatever. <\/p>\n

\u201cTried to snap out of it a bit and talk to people and not stay in my own funk. Try and go again tomorrow, hit the ball a bit straighter. Everything else is really good, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0P\u00e1draig Harrington rules himself out of the Presidency: \u2018I have a lot of opinions, so not having your own opinions is not great\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Doyle, who is four years younger than Shane Lowry<\/a> was when he won the Irish Open in 2009, has had a phenomenal year with wins at the Irish Boys\u2019 Amateur Open Championship and Munster Men\u2019s Amateur Open Championship.<\/p>\n

He finished runner-up in both the St Andrews Links and Carris Trophy, as well as representing Ireland at the European Amateur Team Championships in Killarney and Men\u2019s & Women\u2019s Home Internationals in England. <\/p>\n

More recently, he was part of the GB&I team in the Jacques L\u00e9glise Trophy and has been selected to represent Europe in the Junior Ryder Cup.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Rory McIlroy unhappy at being put on the clock at Irish OpenOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, the bigger names around him on the leaderboard didn\u2019t soften the sense that shots were left on the course.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just like to do my best for what I think I can do. I think I could have shot a few better today, but that\u2019s life,\u201d said Doyle. \u201cTry and do that tomorrow. It was a lovely start (two consecutive birdies). I was very nervous and actually dealt with it quite well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just really enjoyed the whole round. It\u2019s such a great experience getting to play. I was delighted.\u201d<\/p>\n

In stark contrast to the Cork schoolboy, Thursday morning marked a remarkable 30th consecutive start in the Irish Open for Harrington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, who doesn\u2019t text Brooks Koepka\u2019s caddie Ricky Elliott to ask if the five-time major winner would mind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,19,17,30561,33074,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-43906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-irish-open","12":"tag-k-club","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}