Course Overview. Galgorm Castle is a short, parkland course that’s hosted 8 events on the Challenge Tour since 2013 as well as last year’s Irish Open.
Listed as a 7,005 par 70, Galgorm features just 2 par-5s – both on the back 9 – and two short par-4s within the first 4 holes. Greens are excellent quality and annually overseeded with Creeping Bentgrass to help keep them smooth and true. Massereene is a shorter track at around 6,600 yards and should offer better scoring opportunities to the professionals on the days that it’s used.
To give us more of an idea of what to expect in terms of scoring, winners from the Challenge Tour events here have generally been able to compile a reasonable winning score of between -11 and -19:
- 2020: Tyler Koivisto, -13
- 2019: Jack Senior, -11
- 2018: Calum Hill, -19
- 2017: Robin Sciot-Siegrist, -6
- 2016: Ryan Fox, -19
- 2015: Clement Sordet, -17
- 2014: Joakim Lagergren, -13
- 2013: Daan Huizing, -13
Robin Sciot-Siegrist’s victory in 2017 was achieved in the hybrid ‘Shootout Sunday’ format, so his -6 winning score should be taken in context.
John Catlin won here at -10 in last year’s Irish Open, although that was in fairly tough conditions and only 22 players finished under par that week.
Tournament Stats. We’ve published some key statistics for this week’s event that will help to shape a view on players who traditionally play well on this course.
As previously noted, Galgorm hosted the 2020 Irish Open as well as the Challenge Tour’s Northern Ireland Open from 2013: Current Form | Course Form | First Round Leader Stats | Combined Course Stats.
Predictor Model. Our published Predictor Model is available here. As always you can build your own model using the variables available.
Course Winners. 2020 (Irish Open): John Catlin (-10), 40/1; 2020 (ISPS World Invitational): Tyler Koivisto, -13; 2019 (Northern Ireland Open): Jack Senior, -11; 2018: Calum Hill, -19; 2017: Robin Sciot-Siegrist, -6; 2016: Ryan Fox, -19; 2015: Clement Sordet, -17; 2014: Joakim Lagergren, -13; 2013: Daan Huizing, -13.
Weather Forecast. The latest weather forecast for the area is here.
After enjoying some baking temperatures (for Northern Ireland) in recent days, the weather pattern has returned to something like normal this week and for the tournament days we’ll see more typical conditions. Temperatures will peak in the low-60s Fahrenheit with north-westerly winds of between 10-15mph. It should be largely dry though after the threat of showers passes on Thursday,
Tournament Trends & Key Factors. Looking at the Irish Open last year gives us some idea of that kind of skill-sets that this week’s test may demand:
- 1st: John Catlin, 279 yards (55th), 62.5% fairways (6th), 72.2% greens in regulation (6th), 80% scrambling (2nd), 1.78 putts per GIR (22nd).
- 2nd: Aaron Rai, 288 yards (39th), 57.1% fairways (16th), 62.5% greens in regulation (27th), 74.1% scrambling (5th), 1.71 putts per GIR (7th).
- 3rd: Maverick Antcliff, 289 yards (36th), 57.1% fairways (16th), 73.6% greens in regulation (4th), 52.6% scrambling (51st), 1.75 putts per GIR (19th).
- 3rd: Jazz Janewattananond, 291 yards (33rd), 53.6% fairways (32nd), 63.9% greens in regulation (18th), 65.4% scrambling (14th), 1.69 putts per GIR (6th).
- 5th: Joakim Lagergren, 304 yards (6th), 60.7% fairways (10th), 51.4% greens in regulation (64th), 77.1% scrambling (4th), 1.71 putts per GIR (9th).
- 5th: Oscar Lengden, 295 yards (23rd), 60.7% fairways (10th), 68.1% greens in regulation (9th), 52.2% scrambling (54th), 1.69 putts per GIR (4th).
Conditions were quite tricky when Galgorm hosted last year’s Irish Open and with John Catlin and Aaron Rai battling it out for the win, it’s fair to say that accuracy prevailed over power. The rough was quite tricky in late September and conditions a little colder than we should expect this week, although a tidy all-round game should still go a long way, as it did back then.
From a Strokes Gained perspective, the long game aspects were more prominent amongst the leading players last year, although Aaron Rai did have an unusually good week on the greens given that his strength is typically far more from tee to green:
- 1st: John Catlin: T: 23rd; A: 8th; T2G: 4th; ATG: 14th; P: 17th
- 2nd: Aaron Rai: T: 20th; A: 18th; T2G: 18th; ATG: 31st; P: 2nd
- 3rd: Maverick Antcliff: T: 31st; A: 6th; T2G: 5th; ATG: 12th; P: 26th
- 3rd: Jazz Janewattananond: T: 26th; A: 21st; T2G: 16th; ATG: 8th; P: 12th
- 5th: Joakim Lagergren: T: 6th; A: 30th; T2G: 15th; ATG: 25th; P: 18th
- 5th: Oscar Lengden: T: 5th; A: 27th; T2G: 8th; ATG: 7th; P: 28th
Key: T: SG Off the Tee; A; SG Approach; T2G: SG Tee to Green; ATG: SG Around the Green; P: SG Putting.
Incoming Form: John Catlin arrived in sparkling form when Galgorm Castle hosted the Irish Open last year, having won the Andalucia Masters on his penultimate start before finishing 8th at Vilamoura.
Of the mixed bag of incoming form from the previous course winners on the Challenge Tour, what is noticeable is that this layout provided an early career breakthrough on 4 occasions. Tyler Koivisto is the most pronounced of the bunch, winning on his debut, but Calum Hill, Clement Sordet and Daan Huizing all had very few starts to their names when proving victorious here:
- 2020 (Irish Open): John Catlin: 2/MC/MC/MC/8/43/51/6/MC/25/1/8
- 2020: Tyler Koivisto: Challenge Tour Debut
- 2019: Jack Senior: 58/MC/MC/33/MC/MC/MC/10/34/MC/11/42
- 2018: Calum Hill: 61/47/26/MC/MC
- 2017: Robin Sciot-Siegrist: 15/MC/5/MC/MC/38/MC/8/18/15/44/40
- 2016: Ryan Fox: 4/11/MC/63/63/46/MC/NC/7/2/4/18
- 2015: Clement Sordet: 20/2/MC/26/MC
- 2014: Joakim Lagergren: MC/57/MC/MC/70/19/35/MC/62/38/MC/81
- 2013: Daan Huizing: WD/MC/MC/61/46/2/5/19/4/5/18
Course Form: Despite not telling us much at all, I’ve included the course history of the winners here at Galgorm Castle since it was first used on the Challenge Tour. 7 of the 9 winners were making their competitive debuts around this track which suggests it’s one that players can get to grips with very quickly:
- 2020 (Irish Open): John Catlin: Debut
- 2020: Tyler Koivisto: Debut
- 2019: Jack Senior: 47/60/WD/52/MC/43
- 2018: Calum Hill: Debut
- 2017: Robin Sciot-Siegrist: 42
- 2016: Ryan Fox: Debut
- 2015: Clement Sordet: Debut
- 2014: Joakim Lagergren: Debut
- 2013: Daan Huizing: Debut
My selections are as follows: