Irish going up in the world
Alex Gleeson (Castle) and John Ross Galbraith (Whitehead) lining up their putts on the 9th green in the CityNorth Hotel sponsored East of Ireland Championship at County Louth Golf Club (01/06/2015). Picture by Pat Cashman
John-Ross Galbraith, Alex Gleeson, Stuart Grehan and Dermot McElroy all made big moves in the latest World Amateur Golf Ranking while Leona Maguire remained No 1 in the women's standings.
Whitehead star Galbraith moved up 164 places to 575th thanks to his third place finish in the St Andrews Links Trophy where Cormac Sharvin failed to build on a brilliant start but still rose two spots to be Ireland's top ranked player at 28th in the world.
Leona Maguire
Sharvin's fellow Walker Cup hopefuls Jack Hume, Gary Hurley, Gavin Moynihan and Paul Dunne also moved up.
Men's ranking | Women's ranking
The top 50 in the world on June 24 qualify for the US Amateur at Olympia Fields near Chicago from August 17-23 (see entry form) which means that No 26 Sharvin and No 38 Hurley are set to play with Hume (62nd), Dunne (65th) and Moynihan (84th) all close to the mark heading into next week's British Amateur Championship at Carnoustie and Panmure.
Hurley is missing that event to play in the Palmer Cup in the US but the West Waterford man looks comfortably set to make the US Amateur in any case..
In the women's game, world No 1 Leona Maguire is comfortably out in front of the rest of the world and keen to extend the gap with victory in this week's Ladies' British Amateur at Portstewart where 114th ranked Olivia Mehaffey is looking to break into the world's Top 100.