Kinsale’s John Murphy has been selected to represent Great Britain and Ireland for the first time to play the Continent of Europe in the 2018 St Andrews Links Trophy at Linna Golf, Finland, this month.
Murphy followed a victory in the St Andrews Links Trophy in June with a quarter-final finish at the Amateur Open, a run of form that handed him his Irish senior debut in Germany last week.
“I’m still in shock that everything is happening so quickly, I never thought this was going to happen this soon, but I’m really excited and can’t wait to go over and try to keep learning from these experiences,” said Murphy.
I’d also like to thank everyone for the unbelievable support I’ve been getting. I appreciate every bit of it. My family have been key to getting me where I am. My parents came over with Ian Stafford to the European Team Championships last week and having three of them there for support was incredible.
The 20-year old will be the youngest golfer on the nine-man team, with Irish Amateur Open champion and Amateur Open runner-up Robin Dawson (Tramore) and Portmarnock’s Conor Purcell completing the Irish representation to play in Finland.
England’s Matthew Jordan, who played for GB&I in the 2017 Walker Cup at Los Angeles Country Club and who captured the Lytham Trophy with a nine-shot victory in May, is the highest ranked member of the team at number five in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
He is joined in the team by Todd Clements, David Hague, Gian-Marco Petrozzi, Nick Poppleton, and Mitch Waite, who combined to finish runners-up to Finland in last week’s European Amateur Team Championship in Germany.
Clements, Hague, and Petrozzi also featured for England in their victorious 2018 European Nations Cup team, with Clements winning the stroke play event.
Poppleton won the Brabazon Trophy while Petrozzi was the leading player in last week’s European Amateur Team Championship strokeplay qualifying rounds.
Waite forced his way into contention after top five finishes in the Hampshire Salver, Lytham Trophy and the European Amateur Championship and was also a semi-finalist in last month’s Amateur Championship.