The tournament returns to the Road to Mallorca International Schedule this year. It will take place on a links course for the first time in the event’s history at the prestigious Portmarnock Links.

McBride made only one Challenge Tour start last season but has been keeping sharp by playing on the Alps Tour. He is excited by the prospect of teeing it up in Dublin at the end of the month.

“It’s great to have a Challenge Tour event in Ireland,” he said. “I’ve played a few events now in Ireland since I turned pro. This year’s event at Portmarnock Links is only five minutes from where I live so it’s great to have it on the schedule.

“We have such a great array of golf courses in Ireland and it’s great to be able to showcase them. This one will showcase everything that people stereotypically know Ireland for.”

Portmarnock provides a real test

The Championship course at Portmarnock Links was designed by two-time Masters Champion and former World Number One Bernhard Langer. It traverses the North Dublin dunes, a natural terrain to please the most ardent of links purists.

It will provide a true test of golf to the stars of the Challenge Tour and McBride believes it is incomparable to any other course on the Road to Mallorca.

“It’s going to be different. It all depends on the conditions,” he said. “If it’s calm, it plays completely different to if there’s wind.

“Portmarnock Links is a great links, it really is. You can’t really compare it to any other course on the Challenge Tour because we don’t play anything like it. It is a proper links golf course; there’s no half-links. It’s fully on the coast, there’s hills, there’s undulations and it’s firm and fast. It’s a really good course.

“You’d love to win the Irish Challenge. You’d love to win anytime on the Challenge Tour, I wouldn’t mind if it was in Italy, France, wherever, I’d like to win one way or another. If I had to pick, I’d pick Ireland but I’m certainly not limiting it to just that.”

The Irish Challenge is the sixth event on the 2021 Road to Mallorca International Schedule. It comprises 26 tournaments in 16 countries across the world.

The top 20 players on the Road to Mallorca Rankings at the conclusion of the Challenge Tour Grand Final at T-Golf & Country Club, Mallorca, will earn full playing privileges on the European Tour in 2022.

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The event will take place over a links course for the first time in its history at the Dublin course.

The Portmarnock Links is set in the grounds of the old Jameson Estate St Marnocks. The course is a true test of golf which regularly features in lists of Ireland’s best golf courses.

The Championship course was designed by two-time Masters Champion and former World Number One Bernhard Langer. It traverses the famous North Dublin dunes, a natural terrain to please the most ardent of links purists.

Challenge Tour’s Road to Mallorca International Schedule

The visit to County Dublin forms part of the Challenge Tour’s Road to Mallorca International Schedule. The Schedule comprises 25 tournaments in 15 countries across the world. It begins with a three-week stretch in South Africa. It then returns to Europe for events in the Czech Republic and Spain, then Ireland.

The top 20 players on the Road to Mallorca Rankings at the conclusion of the Challenge Tour Grand Final at T-Golf & Country Club, Mallorca, will earn full playing privileges on the European Tour in 2022. The last player from the island of Ireland to graduate from the Challenge Tour was Cormac Sharvin.

Reaction to the announcement

Jamie Hodges, Head of Challenge Tour, said: “We are incredibly excited to be taking the Irish Challenge to Portmarnock Links in May.

“We have never hosted an Irish event on a true links course before and I know the players will relish the opportunity to compete on the Championship Course.

Conor Russell, Director of Golf at Portmarnock Links, said:

“The team here at Portmarnock Links are delighted to welcome the Irish Challenge to our magnificent Links. The course will represent a wonderful challenge for the players and will give our own home-grown talent an opportunity to shine on the bigger stage.”

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