A new professional tour is to be launched in these islands, with five events taking place in Ireland next year. Offering a bright, new future for the country's young professionals, the Euro Tour will carry an initial, prize budget of close on £800,000.
It is an Anglo-Irish venture in which Dubliner Dara O'Neill will have a key role. After emigrating to the US in 1989, he launched the Coastal Carolina Development Tour and eventually made it the biggest of its kind, anywhere in the world.
With appearances by such familiar current names as Stewart Cink, Tommy Tolles, Steve Stricker and Clarence Rose, O'Neill's operation came to the attention of the US company, TearDrop Golf, who bought it from him two years ago. The deal involved 100,000 shares in the TearDrop company, plus 25,000 share options.
The 32-year-old former Killiney golf club member then remained with the tour as its national director and had control of a $3.5 million budget for 70 tournaments coast to coast in the US last year. Indeed Ireland's Francis Howley took the $15,000 first prize in the El Diablo event in Florida last February.
"I have since decided to come home to Ireland with my wife Deborah and four-year-old son Gary," he said yesterday. "The simple fact was that TearDrop wanted me to move from my base in Raleigh, North Carolina to Chicago, which didn't suit me."
He went on: "I have formed a partnership with English entrepreneur Peter Little and our first move has been to buy out the existing Futures Tour in the UK," he said. "Now we are ready to launch the Euro Tour which we intend to build into the biggest development tour in the world.
"It will be launched officially in London in October and 15 events are scheduled for next year - five in Ireland and 10 in Britain. Sponsorship deals are being set up and our plan is that a percentage of the profits will go to Co-Operation Ireland in which I am keenly interested."
A measure of the success of O'Neill's former US operation is that the Golf Channel have contracted to do 16, 30-minute highlight programmes from the TearDrop Tour this year. And he believes the same prominence can be achieved in Europe.
"Obviously the PGA Challenge Tour fills an important role, but players starting out find it very expensive," he said. "We plan to provide an affordable outlet while helping players in all aspects of tour life, just like they currently receive in the US." And the cost? "Entry fees to tournaments will vary from £175 to £300, but as the name of our tour suggests, we will be working in Euros," he replied.
O'Neill concluded: "This will not be a mop-up tour for those players who aren't good enough to make the grade. Rather will it be an important stepping stone towards the full European Tour. Our 10-year objective is to have a 20-event tour with a total budget of 3 million. Centred largely in Britain and Ireland." "
Before leaving Ireland, O'Neill worked as an assistant professional with Paddy O'Boyle in Killiney golf club, Leonard Owens in Royal Dublin and Hugh Jackson in Donabate. He retained his professional status in the US but has now applied to the Royal and Ancient for reinstatement as an amateur.
