TIM Rice (Limerick GC) emerged a two-shot winner of the one-day Pro-Am at Rathsallagh GC in Dunlavin, County Wicklow.
He carded a superb six-under par round of 66, which was two shots clear of a cluster of players who tied for second place.
Rice was PGA (Professional Golfers’ Association) Order of Merit winner last year, a season in which he won a remarkable six times.
While a PGA professional here can make a decent side income on the Ireland circuit, it’s not enough to allow for being a full-time player.
However, through Rice’s coaching sessions that at both Spawell Golf Academy in Templeogue, Dublin and at Limerick GC he has carved out a lovely career.
After topping the cicuit in 2024, a typical modest Rice told irishgolfer.ie: “I’m lucky in the sense that, because I’m teaching, I’m able to go off and play maybe more so than other people.”
“So if I see an event, I’m going there. And I love playing on the region because the level is so high now. There’s so many who have played – we’ve all at one time tried to make it – at a really high level, like Damien McGrane, David Higgins and Simon Thornton who all did very well on the (European) Tour, and some of the rest of us who maybe didn’t get quite that far, but we’re all so competitive and it’s great to have something like that in Ireland that we can look forward to.”
He continued: “It’s almost like being a boy again. You’re going out trying to beat Walker Cup players, European Tour players, and players who’ve almost all played for Ireland at some point as amateurs, so it’s a very high level of golf actually.”
“And, as Niall Kearney said, it’s only when you start playing it that you realise you’ve got to shoot seven-, eight-, maybe nine-under-par to win a Pro-Am, so it’s very good for all of us that we have to keep each other on our toes. And it’s great that we have the Elavon supported Order of Merit to measure up over the season.”
