Caolan Rafferty is Ireland’s Grand Slam winner you don’t know

Last April, Rory McIlroy won the Masters at Augusta National to complete the career Grand Slam. Six months later, the Isle of Ireland had another slam winner: Caolan Rafferty of Dundalk, Ireland.

McIlroy, who is from Northern Ireland, became the sixth player to complete professional golf’s most prestigious Grand Slam. Rafferty, meanwhile, is the only amateur ever to complete Ireland’s “Provincial Slam” by winning the North, South, East and West of Ireland championships.

Ireland has produced a long list of legendary amateurs, including Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington, J.B. Carr, John Burke and Hugh Foley. Clarke and Foley won three of the four Provincial Slam titles before turning professional, while Lowry won two. But Rafferty is the only player to complete the “Compass of Ireland.”

“Being honest, it still hasn’t set in,” Rafferty told GOLF as he prepared to play in the Bridges Cup, a high-level mid-amateur event between U.S. and International teams. The event is hosted by 8AM Golf, GOLF’s holding company. “It’s pretty cool to have my name on that. From an individual perspective, the Provincial Slam is the biggest achievement, followed closely by playing in the Walker Cup.”

You might assume that someone who etched his name into Irish amateur golf history had spent his entire life dominating the island’s emerald fairways. That is not Rafferty’s story.

He first played left-handed because his father was left-handed. His coach later switched him to right-handed, and Rafferty continued because he loved the game. But he admits he was “rubbish” at boys’ golf. He had a temper, and his game sometimes failed to meet his expectations. At 18, he put his clubs away for a while, unsure whether he would return.

“I always wanted to play golf for the enjoyment level. It was never initially set out to be a career, and definitely not to get to maybe where I did at the current date. But it was always something I just wanted to be part of. When I got a little bit better, I thought I was Tiger Woods for a while, and I clearly wasn’t. I put a lot of pressure on myself and was getting angry on the course, and wasn’t enjoying golf. We always expect too much out of ourselves, and at that time, that was the biggest drawback for me.”

But he missed golf. So he returned, promising to enjoy it whether he was competing or simply taking an evening walk. His motto was simple: “Hit it, find it, hit it again, and if you can’t find it, drop another one and hit it. Just enjoy it. The pressure isn’t helping anyone.”

Rafferty fell back in love with the game, sparking an impressive amateur run that has now lasted 11 years. He played in the 2019 Walker Cup and 2020 Palmer Cup, teed it up in a U.S. Amateur and won the Provincial Slam.

After making the 2019 Walker Cup team, Rafferty, who was studying at Maynooth University, had to choose between pursuing professional golf and taking another path. He wanted to finish his degree; the Covid-19 pandemic shut down sport; and he saw how difficult it was for friends trying to work their way up the developmental tours.

Ultimately, Rafferty wanted to preserve his relationship with golf as it had been since he returned to the game: relaxed and driven by enjoyment.

“When you’re looking at it from the point of view that it’s going to start putting food on the table each week and it’s going to be the only way of income, that changes things. Pressure was always going to build, and I always wanted to enjoy the game. That was my biggest thing, and still to this day is now: enjoy as much as I can. We still get frustrated, and we might throw the odd club and give ourselves a good talking over. But in general, it’s definitely just been more relaxed and kind of just play the game for what the game is. Amateur golf has got so many opportunities nowadays, and with connections and different things, it opens a lot of doors.”

While deciding whether professional golf was for him, Rafferty fell in love with greenskeeping at Dundalk Golf Club. The job gave him the freedom to leave work occasionally to play tournaments for the club. He later became a club fitter for Ping. That job involves more travel than greenskeeping, so he has had to learn to balance work, family and golf.

His next opportunity comes at the Bridges Cup at Trump Turnberry from October 5–7. Rafferty will play for an International team trying to become the first to defeat the three-time defending champion Americans. He is also looking for revenge after losing at the 2019 Walker Cup.

“I owe the Americans a little one back after the Walker Cup, so I have a little bit between my teeth for this one,” Rafferty said with a chuckle. “I love that it’s such a social, relaxed gathering as well as competitive golf. Competitive team golf is very, very hard to beat, and Captain Simon Holt has us geared up and ready to go.”

More than a decade ago, Caolan Rafferty stopped loving golf. Then the game spoke to him again and sparked an impressive amateur run that will continue at the Bridges Cup—and has left his name standing alone among Irish amateur greats.

“It just shows that there is something there. You never realize how good you are yourself. Everyone can tell you how good you are, but when I sit back and look at what I’ve done and see what everyone else is doing around me, you kind of have been one of the names that people will hopefully talk about in a good way forever,” Rafferty said.