Laois man Ronan McCormack has become a sensation in the world of emerging new sport, footgolf.
Football and golf are two of the most popular sports – both globally and in Ireland – with new sport footgolf merging the skills of the two games.
Footgolf is gaining popularity, with Mountmellick man McCormack taking the new sport by storm.
McCormack won the 2024 FootGolf Irish Open recently, setting an abundance of records in the process.
The Mountmellick native made history, becoming the first amateur to ever win the Irish Open, with his winning score of 18 under par the best score ever recorded at the championship.
His historic win at Highfield Golf and Country Cub, Kildare makes him only the third Irish player to win the Irish Open and secures his place as the new number-one-ranked footgolfer in the county.
The sport of footgolf was created in the Netherlands in 2008, based loosely on a training game popularised at Tottenham Hotspur.
Governing body FIFG (Federation for International FootGolf) run a World Tour, a World Cup, a World Club Trophy, as well as regional continental tours.
The FGAI (FootGolf Association of Ireland) have run the game here since 2014 and operat the Irish FootGolf Tour each year.
McCormack plays with FootGolf Kildare, making his Irish Open win all the more special as it was played at his home venue of Highfield Golf and Country Cub.
What started as a way to pass the morning with friends during Easter 2023 has now blossomed into a whole new adventure for McCormack just 18 months later.
As a teenager, he moved up the ranks from Mountmellick United to a place on the Tullamore Town side, competing in the U-17 and U-21 Leinster Development League.
But at 36, his love of competition returned when he began playing footgolf.
“I went out last Easter with a few lads to play a round in Edenderry. I shot three over par,” McCormack told LaoisToday.
“I kept it up for a few weeks and met a fella who said I should go and play in a tournament; I was surprised he even played it competitively.
“Then he told me he played for Ireland and I just started laughing – I thought he was having me on.
“But I ended up going to the Avril Duggan Memorial Tournament, came fifth, and was bitten by the bug ever since.”
McCormack joined Kildare FootGolf after that and put his name down for the FGAI Irish Tour as an amateur.
“I played in four tournaments last year, but came nowhere in any of them, I was finishing 6th and 7th in the Amateur section,” McCormack said.
“But the more I played I started loving in and I got really into it. This year then, I started the Tour from scratch and I won an amateur event halfway through the year.
“After that, I went to a matchplay tournament in Kilkenny and the two captains of the Ireland team were in my group – I beat both of them and actually knocked one of them out.
“I lost my first game 5-1, and I just didn’t care after that, I expected just I’d get murdered in the rest of the group.”
But not only did McCormack beat the two Ireland captains, he also went on to finish in third place overall.
“A few days after that I got a phone call from both the captains asking would I go play in the Four Nations over in England,” McCormack said.
“It was an amazing experience, but it was disappointing because we lost to England and then Scotland; we beat Wales once, but we played them again in the 3rd/4th Playoff and we lost.”
While it was a poor result for the team, it was another step in the right direction for McCormack personally.
The Mountmellick man was one of only three Irish players who went unbeaten throughout the championship, winning three three games and sharing one to finish with 3.5 points overall.
McCormack followed that up in September when he won the FGAI Irish Open at his home club in Carbury, north Kildare.
“It was a great achievement to be honest – I didn’t expect that at all,” McCormack said.
“I played the Irish Open last year, and I went there this year just to prove to myself that I could shoot under par – I wasn’t thinking about winning it or anything.”
McCormack finished three shots clear of Mick Eardley in second and four points cear of Vinny McGuire in third, both from Scotland.
He shot a phenomenal 12 under par on day two to hold a four-shot lead heading into the last round.
A slight wobble on the 16th did not unnerve him and he recovered well from an errant tee shot on 17 to save his par.
The daunting par five 18th hole saw many spectators gathering to witness the finale as McCormack remained calm and earned himself the title of Irish Open Champion 2024.
Following the victory, a spokesperson from the FGAI said: “Ronan McCormack only took up the sport just over a year ago and this past weekend he has shown himself to be the equal of some of the world’s best players.”
As the new Irish number one, McCormack is hoping to be invited to the FootGolf Masters which will take place next year in Ashbury Manor in Devon, England – the same course where he made his Irish debut.
The Masters is one of the sport’s most prestigious events and boasts a stacked field, consisting of the top 100 players in the world as well as the champion of each country in Europe.
Before then. McCormack will be back in action on the Irish Tour in March 2025, this time competing as a pro.
