Brackaville to host a key event on the road to World Cup

BRACKAVILLE Footgolf will host round five of the National Tour tomorrow when the best players in Ireland descend upon Tyrone desperate to improve their chances of qualifying for next year’s World Cup in Florida.

With only a limited number of places up for grabs on the Irish team, players will be desperate to improve their ranking positions at Brackaville.

Among those is one of the event’s organisers and player, Dungannon’s Tiarnan Magee, who is currently ninth in the standings.

However, with only six of the nine events counting, along with the Irish Open, he knows with two dropped scores after the first four rounds, he would be sitting joint top of the rankings. But the importance of a good performance at his local course isn’t lost on the former Derrychara United and Lisbellaw United player who knows, that with only the Irish Open and events at Navan and Cork to play – he’s getting married so misses the Kilkenny tournament on August 7th – he can’t afford any more poor performances.

“I’m looking forward to it [Brackaville] but it’s quite important for me to have a good tournament.” he acknowledged. “I’ve had two good tournaments and two not so good, so it is important to get another good one on the board.

“I’m sitting in ninth at the minute, so I’d like to be a bit further up and be a bit more comfortable.

“I think I’ll qualify, but last year I finished third [in the end of year standings] so I’m kind of holding myself to a higher standard now and I’m not really content with fifth or sixth, I want to be up there.”

Achieving their higher ranking positions this year isn’t as easy as it has been in the past, however. Along with the carrot of a trip to Orlando next year, there is also the increased competition after the two Irish Footgolf associations – the Irish Footgolf Association and the Footgolf Union of Ireland – joined forces to form the Footgolf Association of Ireland, which has all players battling under one organisation.

“It’s a once in a lifetime trip,” Magee beamed. “Even without Footgolf, anyone might only be able to go over to the likes of Disneyland once in their lifetime and to be able to combine that with Footgolf would be unreal!

“And with the two Footgolf organisations in Ireland joining forces, the level of competition is a lot higher, so places on the plane are going to be harder to come by!”

If anyone is looking to register to play in the tournament tomorrow, the can do so by making contact through the Footgolf Association of Ireland Facebook page.

The action is set to get underway around 10am at Brackaville.