Timmy Rice has experienced some heat in Toledo, where he is on a golfing scholarship to the state university, but it was nothing compared to that exerted on him in Edinburgh over the weekend. However, 10 years on from a similar success in the event by Paul McGinley, the 21-year-old Limerick player confirmed his huge potential by surviving "a nightmare last round" to lift the Scottish Youths' Open Strokeplay Championship at the Bruntsfield links.
"I lost a ball off the first tee and had dropped seven shots in the opening seven holes," recalled Rice on arrival in Headfort yesterday where the non-stop cycle of golf continues this week. "To say I was kind of nervous would be an understatement," he said. But Rice steadied the ship and, eventually, beat Scotland's Stephen O'Hara at the first sudden-death hole to follow in some famous footsteps, among them those of McGinley, Raymond Russell and Andrew Oldcorn, as winner of the championship.
Rice is one of the new breed of young amateurs who seem to do nothing but play golf. "It's been non-stop since March," admitted Rice. "I played 11 straight college tournaments in the States up to the end of March and, since returning home, we've had the East of Ireland, the Leinster Youths, the Irish Close, the Scottish Youths and now the Irish Youths all following each other. And next week we're off to the European Youths in Belgium. It is never-ending, but I consider myself blessed to be playing golf."
Indeed, Rice will seek to claim a notable double when he competes in the Irish Youths at Headfort - on Thursday and Friday - where his adversaries will include Irish Amateur strokeplay champion Michael Hoey and his Toledo team-mate Ricky Elliott, who pipped him for the Leinster Youths title two weeks ago. Prior to that, he will play on the Irish team tomorrow in their annual match with Wales. "That's my immediate priority," he said. Rice is joined on the team by Elliott (Royal Portrush), Hoey (Shandon Park), Colm Moriarty (Athlone), Alan Murray (Greystones) and Alan Thomas (Tramore).
The win in Scotland, though, is the biggest so far of Rice's amateur career. He carried a fivestroke lead into the final round of the 72-hole tournament, but that vanished after his dreadful start and Rice was forced to dig deep to stop the rot. Eventually, it all came down to a play-off, and his opponent was in trouble off the tee. "He messed up from the start, never had a chance to even make bogey and I was on the green in two," said Rice. Rice, who is studying finance in Toledo University, has a strong golfing background. His father, Billy, was a Munster interprovincial and played on the amateur circuit for 30 years. Last year, he won an Irish seniors international cap.
It would be quite an achievement if Timmy Rice could follow up his victory in an international championship by claiming the Irish Youths at Headfort later in the week when a cosmopolitan flavour is added by the inclusion of a German and Welsh players.
