Kevin Phelan is looking forward to returning to his home country as the European Challenge Tour arrives back at Mount Wolseley Hotel, Spa and Golf Resort for this week’s Volopa Irish Challenge.
The Waterford man will tee it up in the event for the first time, having missed last year’s inaugural edition while playing on the European Tour.
The 25 year old has had a solid but unspectacular season on the Challenge Tour so far, missing just two cuts in 13 events but not yet cracking the top 20 over the weekend, and he hopes playing in front of home fans can inspire a performance to improve his Road to Oman Ranking from its current position of 74th.
“It looks like it will be an exciting week,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it – it’s only just over an hour away from where I’m from, and it’s a really good course.
“I played it a couple of weeks ago for the first time and the pros have talked me round it a couple of times so I’m quite comfortable with it.
“I’ve been playing well for a while and just not really getting anything out of it so I’ll try to take advantage a bit more and hopefully I’m not too far away from good golf.
“It’s great playing in front of the Irish fans, it’s always brilliant. I’ve played a few Irish Opens, and Galgorm this year as well had great crowds, and even amateur events in Ireland get great crowds, so it’s something you grow up playing with but it’s always nice.
“There’s no real added pressure with friends and family there for me. I’m just hoping I do well, so are they, so that’s about the end of it.”
