Irish connection

Before it adopted a strokes format in 1958, the USPGA Championship had been the leading matchplay event in the professional game for more than 40 years. And two Irish-born players, the O'Hare brothers from Greenore, contributed to its early development. Indeed one of them had the distinction of beating the great Walter Hagen, a fivetime winner of the trophy.

Pat and Peter O'Hare, who were known in America as O'Hara, played in the USPGA for the first time in 1920 at the Flossmor club in Chicago, where Jock Hutchison emerged victorious. As it happened, Pat lost in the first round but Peter reached the quarter-finals, beating Irish-American Pat Doyle one-up and Alex Cunningham by 2 and 1.

The brothers played again the following year at the Inwood CC in New York where both lost in the first round, Pat on the 39th to defending champion Hutchison and Peter by one up to Charles Clarke. Pat never played again but Peter was to make one more, notable appearance. Incidentally, the total purse by that stage remained at $2,580 of which $500 went to the winner: it was only in 1931 that the top prize became $1,000. Given such a handsome reward, it can be taken that Hagen, who had won the title in 1921, 1924, 1925, 1926 and 1927, was extremely keen to enhance his record that year. But in a shock result, he lost by 4 and 3 to Peter in the opening round at Wannamoisett CC, Rhode Island, having been three holes down at lunchtime. Peter then lost in the second round by two holes to the eventual winner, 20-year-old Tom Creavy from New York.

That was the last appearance by an Irish-born player in the matchplay stage of the USPGA. Indeed there wouldn't be another challenger from this country until 1991 when David Feherty shared seventh place behind John Daly at Crooked Stick, Indiana.