14 hours ago
‘It would be class to finish my junior career at Quinta'
Ireland's John Doyle will never forget how he kickstarted his 2025 season in blistering fashion by securing impressive back-to-back victories in just 12 days at Cork Golf Club.
The 17-year-old's first came in April's wire-to-wire success at the Flogas Irish Boys Amateur, when his opening 65 thrust him to the top of the qualifying leaderboard for the Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Golf Championship, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
His four-shot win at that tournament was then backed up in emphatic style when he overhauled a five-shot deficit in the final round of the Munster Men's Stroke Play to capture his second title, carding a blistering 66 to prevail by one stroke.
'The course had firmed up a lot and the pins were tougher on the last round,' says Doyle. 'But it was as good as I have probably ever played.'
The Cork-born junior admitted to huge trepidation before his first round of the Munster Men's. 'It was the most nervous I've ever been on a first tee. It was like trying to close out a tournament. But I was three-under through three so the nerves were soon banished and I was grand after that,' says Doyle, who also won the Irish Boys title in 2023.
Doyle has just finished his penultimate year at CBS Mitchelstown School in Cork and has now committed to attending Grand Canyon University in the US in 2026.
His best round to date is an incredible 62, which he shot on his home course at Fota Island in the middle of his GCSEs.
'I went out on a Saturday and just lit it up. It was nice to go low,' he says.
He first started the game at Fota Island when he was 10, and that was where he met his current coach, Michael Collins.
Doyle has focused on golf in the past two years, but before that he played a wide range of sports, having competed in athletics, Gaelic football, hurling and football.
He turns 18 in August and has his sights set on competing in his first Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Championship in the Algarve later this year.
He says: 'It would be my last event as a junior should I make it. Please God, that would be class.'
