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You’ve grown up watching all the Irish lads play, then suddenly you’re just playing practice rounds side-by-side with them.
I was quite young when I was introduced to golf. My dad was a professional himself and the Head Pro at Portmarnock for 26 years, so ever since I was a kid, he was trying to put a golf club in my hand. Growing up at Portmarnock, we had so many Irish Opens that I was just earwigging with the pros all the time, so I was fortunate to see all the greats come through the door.
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I was always interested in playing golf, then at the age of 13, I got more serious about wanting to do well in the game. Which was tough, because in secondary school, you’re weighing up what you want to do with your life. Sport had always just played such a huge role in my life; I dabbled in everything growing up. Tennis was huge; both my brothers are tennis coaches, so I was lucky that I had a bit of a choice of what to play, and that kind of sporty family just gets the best out of you as everyone’s pushing each other on. Then, having dad so involved in the game when I was growing up just made me want to try to beat him.
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In my amateur ranks, I saw a steady progression most years. I went through all the Golf Ireland programmes, different teams, all the age groups and dabbled with a bit of college golf in the States. I ended up playing in the Walker Cup in 2019 and then turned pro, right in time for COVID! That was tricky for everyone, and I think the most difficult thing for my career was I didn’t have a set place to play, and I was jumping from Tour to Tour, trying to play whenever I could get a chance.
Conor Purcell – Harry Grimshaw
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2024 was my standout year. It was a funny year in the sense that, consistently, I wasn’t as good as I was the previous year, but my better golf was much better. I think the Challenge Tour, now HotelPlanner Tour, really rewarded high finishes. So it was a huge goal of mine to try to get my first win. Then to actually do it at Galgorm was just amazing with all my family and friends to see it happen and celebrate with me. I went through a bit of a tricky patch after the first win because you have that expectation that you should be up near the top of the leaderboard every single week. Obviously, that’s not the reality of golf. But I managed to get myself together and notch up that second win in China, and finish high up on the Road to Mallorca rankings.
Conor Purcell – Getty Images
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It’s funny, though, because I probably had some of my worst moments as a pro last year, as well as some of my best. A tale of two halves. I had a stretch of events where I had never missed that many cuts in a row either. That’s just golf, it’s never the same year to year, week to week, it’s all different, it’s all part of it. You just need to learn how to deal with all the different things that come along with it.
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A couple of the Irish guys reached out when I secured my DP World Tour card. It’s always nice to be recognised for having done well, but it’s almost a surreal feeling when you’ve grown up watching all the Irish lads play, then suddenly you’re just playing practice rounds side-by-side with them. That makes it nice to have people to look up to who’ve done so well in the game and know that it can be done.
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It’s really good for me personally to be out here on Tour, but as much as I’m selfish about it, I’d love to have loads of the Irish lads out here with me. It’s hopefully going to be a long career for me, and you want to have good times when you’re out on the road as well. So, I’m looking to get the best out of myself, and I really hope a couple of the lads can join me in the next couple of years, and we can all have a good run at it.
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You never know, the Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in 2027 would be a dream. It’s obviously down the road, but I don’t really pitch my goals too far ahead. I’m really trying to get to a place where I’m just focusing on every week as it comes and see what that brings.
Main Image: Harry Grimshaw
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