Mullin set to skipper Irish FootGolf team at the upcoming World Cup

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

ATHENRY FC player and top-ranking Irish FootGolf player Gary Mullin is to compete in his second World Cup in Morocco next month and, this time round, he has been handed the honour of captaining Ireland’s 14-man team.

It has been three years since Talking Sport touched based with the former Salthill Devon and NUI Galway soccer player but Mullin, a native of Shrule, notes his interest in the sport has in no way diminished in the interim. “It has only grown if anything,” says Mullin.

Now, to get the opportunity to captain his country on the world stage, the 30-year-old, who would have been an automatic choice anyway given his solid display at the last World Cup, can barely contain his excitement.

“The way we did it was all the players who had played three or more events this year voted on who they would like to be the captain. I was chuffed when they voted me in to lead them to the World Cup. It is a huge honour. No matter what sport it is in, it is a huge honour to be able to say you are captaining your country.”

In 2015, Mullin tackled the emerging sport and by the end of the following year, as Ireland’s top-ranking player, he travelled to Buenos Aires in Argentina for his first World Cup. Out of the 250 players competing, Mullin notably finished in 14th place.

“So, that was a pretty good one. I actually went into the last round in 11th place but I lost a few places on the final day. Still, it was brilliant to be going out in the third last group of the day with some of the best in the world. So, it was a good one for me.”

This year, Mullin has not got to play as much as he would have liked, having taken up the role as tour director. The tour consists of eight events, along with an Open Day at the start of the season and the big one, the Irish Open itself, which he describes as their “flagship event”.

“So, out of those events on the tour, basically, your best six results determined your final placing in the overall rankings and that determined most of the players who would qualify for the World Cup.

“We also had a match-play competition in September and the winner of that qualified automatically and then we had a captain’s pick and a committee pick as well. The aim of those was to include players who weren’t necessarily based in Ireland and mightn’t have been able to play as many competitions over here.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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