Irish Open: Seán Keeling a shining light on day one at Royal County Down

In the gathering gloom, the giant scoreboard by the 18th providing a translucent brightness, Seán Keeling shone a light of his own, as a putter which had been trustworthy without delivering just reward finally behaved and the 17-year-old Dubliner rolled in a 15-footer for birdie in an opening round of one-under-par 70 on his debut appearance in the Amgen Irish Open.
That putt was met with a loud roar from the sandhills around greenside, from those – family and friends and fellow-Roganstown members – who had followed him from start-to-finish and saw the new Texas Tech student deliver a display of maturity and patience that defied his young age.
Only two players in the entire first round managed to go bogey-free. Italy’s Felippo Celi was one. Keeling was the other.
After a start which saw him forced to take a penalty drop from an unplayable lie on the par-5 first hole, from which he managed to save par, Keeling was almost Faldo-esque in reeling off par after par, 17 in all, before finally rolling in the birdie putt in near darkness on the final green.
Keeling – an Irish amateur international who opted not to do his final Leaving Certificate year at Belvedere College and instead went to Texas Tech after doing a Student Aptitude Test (SATs), the same college the produced Ryder Cup star Ludvig Aberg – was the epitome of patience in navigating his way around the famed links, demonstrating the shot-making that had seen him perform so well in last year’s Junior Ryder Cup in Rome where he was an integral part of the winning Europe team.
Here, it was for himself.
With his cousin Pádraig Ó Dochartaigh on his bag, Keeling went about the task with an impressive approach that saw him join Rory McIlroy – a golfing hero of his – as the only Irish players to dip under par in the first round.
On Monday, Keeling played a practice round with Pádraig Harrington, along with fellow-amateur Max Kennedy and Challenge Tour player Conor Purcell (who each opened with 72s).
Any words of advice that resonated from Harrington? “Yes. One thing stuck with me was just be patient and be resilient. You’re going to have ups-and-downs in this game, so it’s just how you come back from that. And one thing he said as well was, ‘consistency is over-rated’ and you’re just better off winning than just making cuts or finishing top-10s. That you’re remembered for your wins.”
Keeling has that confidence of youth but also a maturity garnered from his own successes – Irish Boys’ champion, Scottish Boys’ Open champion and club wins with Roganstown in the Senior Cup and Fred Daly Cup – to make the most of this appearance in the Irish Open, earned through a mini-order of merit at leading amateur championships this past summer.
He needed permission from Texas Tech to make the return home to play in the Irish Open. That was a no-brainer decision, a chance to compete in the same field as his boyhood hero McIlroy. And other Irish players who he had looked up to.
Keeling’s belief? “Just to be the best I can be every day and see where that takes me,” he replied, with a target “to make the cut, to try and get a good run on the weekend and you never know. Why not give myself a chance to win?”
Just two years old when an amateur by the name of Shane Lowry accomplished that feat in Baltray in 2009, Keeling obviously wasn’t there. But he said: “I know what happened. Anything is possible. I’ve got to believe in myself.”