Hoey bides his time as Augusta awaits

Michael Hoey competed last weekend in the Dunhill Links Championship where, off a handicap of plus-three, he was conceding three strokes to the professionals. But the British Amateur champion is in effect kicking his heels right while waiting to join paid ranks.

It is a measure of the enormous appeal of the US Masters that Hoey is prepared to postpone that move until next April. By then, he will have become the third Irish amateur to have competed at Augusta National, following in the footsteps of Joe Carr and Garth McGimpsey.

It will be recalled that Sergio Garcia took a similar route into tournament golf when he, too, decided to use the Masters exemption which he earned as British Amateur champion of 1998. As it happened, Garcia completed a notable Spanish double in 1999 by winning the amateur medal while Jose-Maria Olazabal captured the Masters for a second time.

Portrush was home to Hoey for the first three months of his life, before the family moved to their current residence in east Belfast. And it must have been something in the Portrush air which ordained that this latest arrival into a formidable golfing clan would be destined for the game's big stages.

The most famous golfing product of Portrush, Fred Daly, was often overshadowed in domestic events, even at his formidable peak. When it came to the big occasion, however, Daly had few peers, as he proved by winning the British Open of 1947, as well as three PGA Matchplay titles.

So it has been with Hoey. An undistinguished performance as runner-up to Michael McDermott in the West of Ireland Championship last Easter was followed two months later by triumph at Prestwick. And in a team context, moderate form for Ireland in the European Amateur Championship in Sweden in July contrasted sharply with wonderful exploits in the Walker Cup a month later.

After Hoey had delivered crucial wins, morning and afternoon on the second day at Sea Island in Georgia, skipper Peter McEvoy said of him: "Michael's a flair player with a way about him that is just inspirational. If I had to pick any player who was the central hub of the team, it would be him."

His Walker Cup form certainly came as no surprise to those who watched him respond to a sponsor's invitation to the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond, prior to the British Open. With remarkably consistent rounds of 71, 71, 71 and 64 he finished in a share of 11th place, which would have earned him a cheque for around £38,000, had he been playing for cash.

Indeed that sum alone would have been sufficient to bring him right into the European Order of Merit at 138th place at the time.

On arrival back in Belfast from Prestwick, only a matter of hours after he had won the title, he delivered the trophy to his club, Shandon Park, where the captain, Billy Bell, accepted it on behalf of the members. "It's nice to be able to give something back, after all the help I've received at Shandon over the years," he said.

Victory at Prestwick, where the Amateur was staged as part of their 150th birthday celebrations, was secured through a one-hole victory over Ian Campbell of Wales in the 36-hole final. In the process, on the ancient turf which had given birth to the British Open, he emulated Jimmy Bruen at Royal Birkdale in 1946, Max McCreadie at Portmarnock in 1949, Joe Carr at Hoylake (1953), St Andrews (1958) and Royal Portrush (1960) and McGimpsey at Royal Dornoch in 1985 as Irish champions.

Looking towards next April, he said: "I played Augusta in May 1999 when I was a student at Clemson. And though we were off the back tees and I shot something in the mid-70s, it was only a bit of fun. This will be different. I wonder if I'll get to play with Tiger Woods, like Miko Ilonen (last year's Amateur champion) did this year? They'd never put Tiger with the Amateur champion two years in a row, would they?"

For a player of his talent, anything is possible.