On 2nd December 2022, Golf Ireland released its 2023 schedule with a few noteworthy changes. All this builds the expectation that 2023 will be an exciting year for golf players and fans of the sport. After an impressive 2022 Golf calendar, the year ended with the Irish Golf Writers’ Association Awards, where top players like Rory McIlroy, Hugh Foley, Beth Coulter and Jimmy Kinsella received awards for their outstanding performance.
What most people didn’t expect is that there was a rise in golf betting in 2022. As golf tournaments became more popular, many people became interested and even placed bets on their highly-ranked players. Top Irish betting sites offer common markets like the tournament winner and head-to-head matchups and exciting prop bets like hole-in-one, albatross and over/under on the winning score.
Since the year is just beginning and the first championship starts in March, there’s plenty of time to learn about the different bets you can place in golf. But before anything else, why should you look forward to the 2023 golf schedule?
Mark Wehrly, Golf Ireland’s Championships Director, said, “The aim of the restructuring of our championships programme is to create a broader appeal for our events and to make them attractive, living up to the commitments in our strategic plan to deliver a streamlined, inclusive and equitable calendar.”
“The restructuring will also see us deliver our competitions in a smarter way and add value and opportunities for our players, who are at the centre of everything we do.”
Following a strategic plan and a high-performance review by Golf Ireland, there will be many changes this year. The AIG Irish Men’s Amateur Close Championship will now have 72 holes of stroke play for two years on a trial basis. On the other hand, the AIG Irish Women’s Close Championship will have a streamlined format with two turns of stroke play. The 16 top players will qualify for the match play rounds in the championship.
The Men’s Championship will happen from 18-20 August at the Malone Golf Club, while Connemara will host the Women’s event from 22-25 June.
An innovative and major highlight of the 2023 calendar is the introduction of a new tournament for women and girls. This will be the Golf Ireland Women’s Championship Series which borrows a lot from the success of the Rose Ladies Series in the UK. The Series will have four regional championships, which will be played one day each and make a complete 54-hole play season.
The championship will only consider players who are over 18 years and aims to attract top female golfers in their 20s, 30s and 40s. As for young girls, Golf Ireland will set up four Regional Girl’s Championships, two of which will be played in conjunction with the Boy’s Regional Championship during the summer season.
In 2022, the first-ever Irish Open for Players with Disabilities was held and was a great success. This time around, the championship will be a flagship event for the European Disabled Golf Association held at Roganstown on the 27th and 28th of June and will give players a chance to get even more points in the World Rankings. The entries for the event are already open, so you can easily check and register on the European Disabled Golf Association website.
The popular Golf Ireland’s Senior men’s championship has been improved with a new Seniors and Veterans’ Stroke Play Championship, which will be hosted at Powerscourt from the 16th to 18th of August. In regard to this, Golf Ireland will also bring back the Veteran Men’s Category with two 18-hole tournaments starting at the regional level in Leinster and Munster.
Amateur championships started by Golf Ireland will again take place in May, with the Flogas Irish Men’s Amateur Open happening on 11-14 May at the Island Golf Club. The next week, the Flogas Irish Women’s and Girls’ Amateur Open Championship will be hosted at Woodbrook from the 19th to the 21st of May.
In line with Director Mark Wehrly’s remarks on “creating a broader appeal for the events”, Golf Ireland will launch a programme for inter-club events, which will run all through the season. In the end, there will be an All-Ireland Final Series held at different venues, including Castleroy on 29-30 August for the Underage Series, Dun Laoghaire from 7th to 10th September, Knightsbrook on 14-17 September and lastly, Westport from 21st to 24th September.
Even though the first championships start around March and April, entries for all tournaments will be open by late January for all willing to participate to register.