TOUR NEWS
Erik van Rooyen, Sebastian Soderberg and home favourite Tom McKibbin are among six JMC Sport players in the field for the Amgen Irish Open which takes place at Royal County Down Golf Club from September 12-15, 2024.
Van Rooyen is a two-time PGA Tour winner after capturing the 2023 World Wide Technology Championship title to add to his maiden Barracuda Championship victory in 2021.
The South African will be competing in his fourth Irish Open, his best finish coming at the 2018 edition held at Ballyliffin GC in Donegal where he tied fourth.
“This is my first time playing in an Irish Open at Royal County Down, but I have played the course before and it is a real treat, so I’m excited to tee it up next week,” said van Rooyen. “It is going to be a good week. I am looking forward to it and I am just hoping to be in the mix come Sunday.”
Soderberg arrives in Northern Ireland after a strong season that sees the Swede inside the top 10 in the Race to Dubai standings with three runner-up finishes, tied third twice and seven top 10s in all this season.
McKibbin is no stranger to Royal County Down and the 21-year-old will hope to put local knowledge to good use on the famous old links. The Galgorm Touring Professional has been the model of consistency this year with seven top 10s to add to last year’s maiden DP World Tour win at the Porsche European Open in Germany.
The leading JMC trio are also joined by McKibbin’s compatriot Mark Power, who booked his place in the Irish Open field after securing the Christy O’Connor Jnr Memorial Trophy at the recent Irish Challenge at the K Club. The trophy was awarded to the leading player from the island of Ireland in the Challenge Tour event. He will now tee it up at RCD in the $6 million event where he made his professional debut a year ago.
“This is huge for me, and I’m delighted to receive the award and book my place at Royal County Down,” said Power at the time. ““As soon as that week was over [last year], I told myself that I needed to play in the Irish Open again and I can’t wait to tee it up at Royal County Down.”
Gavin Green from Malaysia and American Chase Hanna complete the JMC Sport sextet that will compete at RCD. Green competed in this year’s Olympics in Paris and showed good form at the British Masters at The Belfry where he tied ninth.