By Niall McCoy
WITH the Ryder Cup dominating the sports news cycle over the last few days, one former Kilclief dual player allowed his mind wander to where his own golfing career could go over the coming years.
Downpatrick man Cormac Sharvin has already covered a lot of ground in his career. As an amateur, he won three points from three in the 2015 Walker Cup as Great Britain and Ireland defeated an American team that would contain a certain Bryson DeChambeau.
He has been a regular on the European Tour since turning professional the following year and is currently ranked just outside the top 150 on the continent.
Although the player feels that he is in a slight dip at present, the 2021 season has been his most successful in terms of prize money, and he is hoping for a strong finish as events in Scotland, Spain and Portugal round off the season.
In 2019, he was the top home finisher in the Irish Open at Lahinch after finishing in a tie for 15th. Padraig Harrington, Europe’s captain at last weekend’s Ryder Cup, spoke glowingly about his performance after the event.
Ten years earlier his good friend Shane Lowry, on a day when Sharvin’s native Down lost to Fermanagh in the Ulster Championship, came from nowhere to win the Irish Open as an amateur and shot to stardom as a result.
Now aged 29, Sharvin is hoping for his own breakout win to elevate his career further, but it has been a pretty impressive ride already for a young man who swapped the hurl for the golf club.
Those skills picked up on the GAA pitch have helped him on that journey.
“I was an okay hurler. I wasn’t great. I was probably a better footballer,” Sharvin told Gaelic Life.
“It’s totally transferrable, the hand-eye coordination, the fact that it’s a reaction sport, which golf kind of can be as well I guess.
“I developed lots of skills from playing both football and hurling that I probably didn’t really notice.
“I played really up until u-16s and that’s when I started getting serious about golf, although I still dabbled in it.
“I was playing both sports definitely up to minor anyway.”
In fact, if it wasn’t for a hefty clash in a challenge match with the Kilclief footballers, Sharvin may have found a hazard placed in front of his golf path.
“I was 17, 18 and getting a bit fed up with the golf like a typical teenager and I went back and did a full pre-season with our seniors,” he said. “I don’t think I did the Sunday sessions but I did the midweek training sessions.
“I got myself into good shape, I had maybe been carrying a bit of weight at the time and this helped me.
“We had a friendly before the start of the season, literally my first game at senior and I think I was at left half-forward or something.
“The ball was thrown in, our midfielder won it and the ball was hit to me. I turned my man and the defender shouldered me and I went up in the air and landed on my ankle and did my Achilles’ – so my senior career lasted all of 10 seconds.”
It’s often said that athletes can prepare themselves for the physical battle of overcoming long-term injuries like that, but it’s the mental toil that can often be most challenging.
Sharvin must have developed those skills while recuperating otherwise he would not be able to compete at an elite sport that places so much emphasis on the individual rather than the team.
Today he tees off at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrew’s, one of the most famous golf courses in the world. Some day he hopes he may play here in an Open, but more short-term goals involve trying to move inside the top 115 in the European rankings to guarantee more playing rights for 2022.
“I’ve been struggling over the last few months with my game, which has been difficult.
“That’s the process of getting better I guess. You’re going to go through spells when you don’t feel like you are playing great.
“Golf is one of those sports that when it’s good it’s great, but when it’s bad it’s really bad.
“I love every minute of it. I couldn’t see myself doing anything different, but I think some people just don’t actually understand the difficulty of the game and the travel and all that.
“Any elite sport is going to be difficult but I enjoy the test of trying to get better.
“There may be periods when you don’t play your best but you’re always trying to get back to that level and hopefully I can kick on.
“I want to have a long career and that’s the biggest goal for me. I’d like to win. It would be great to win a few times over a long career.
“If I was putting a number on it, I’d love to get into the top 100 in the world and maybe get into a few majors.
“I’m 29 now and I’ve had a decent career in the sport but hopefully I can push on.”
And supporting him every step of the way will be those coaches and players in Kilclief who had a big influence on a sportsperson doing county Down, Ulster and Ireland proud.
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