Last year, Niall Kearney produced a course-record-setting 64 on day two of the 114th Irish PGA Championship at Palmerstown House Estate to take a share of the lead and though he’d take a couple of strokes more in round three, he ran out a comfortable six-stroke winner and claimed a hat-trick of Irish PGA titles.
Now representing the Eddie Doyle Golf Academy where Kearney is in the third year of his PGA Qualifications, the proud Royal Dublin clubman has his eyes on title number four at Monkstown next week and continuing to chase down fellow Royal Dublin man Christy O’Connor Snr and Harry Bradshaw’s haul of 10 titles.
And the signs are good. Kearney is a four-time winner on the Irish Region in 2025 – two solo wins and two shared) but his most recent tournament start saw him claim the PGA Open Series’ Midland Open in England in the most impressive of fashions, recording a closing round of 60 (bogey-free with two eagles and seven birdies) to run out a three-stroke victor over a 156-man field that included most of the leading PGA Professionals in the UK.
“Yeah, [it’s a] totally different venue this year,” he said. “Monkstown - Cian McNamara [Monkstown Head Professional] is a very good friend of mine but I've only been at the club once. I've never played the golf course. I'm looking forward to playing it, but it's going to be massively competitive.
“I think the Irish region has been hugely competitive this year. There's a lot of really good players – a handful of them with tour experience too - so there's much more strength in depth compared to previous years.
“And obviously, going into the Irish PGA Championship now, it's going to be really exciting because there’s certainly nothing you can take for granted; you're going to have to go and play bloody well.”
And that strength in depth and the cutthroat nature of the one-day Pro-Ams proved beneficial when it came to the final round of the Midland Open when he had to chase down a six-stroke deficit to the tournament leader and found himself on level terms after five holes having made a birdie and two eagles.
“The one-day Pro-Ams are very much a sprint,” he declared. “You know teeing off that you’re going to have to shoot four-, five-, six-under and maybe that still won’t be enough, so that pushes you to be more aggressive early on and if it comes off, it comes off, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.
“And I think that’s a good mindset to be in. Maybe the top players on tour have that mindset from the get-go, but I think I would’ve been guilty of starting four-day events a little slow.”
Two years ago, Kearney began his studies to become a fully certified PGA Professional, going down the Tournament Assistant path which allowed him to play full-time as opposed to working in a pro shop, but as a father of three-year-old twin girls in addition to studying, teaching and playing, it's a hectic lifestyle.
"It's a little tough as it always seems like I have four or five balls in the air at the same time," he admits. "And they all need to be given adequate attention, so it's trying to find the energy for everything that's the biggest challenge because if you're going to do it, you want to do it right.
"But I still have that burning desire to play and compete, so any free time I get away from it all, I try to spend practicing down at Royal Dublin. But I guess that's the benefit of not actually being on tour at the moment as it would be an even bigger challenge to be able to balance time with the kids, with my studies, and with giving lessons at the studio which has gotten hugely busy as well."
Kearney's exploits both at home and abroad this year have proven that he's still more than capable of competing at an extremely high level, the only thing needed is that little bit of luck and that's something that he's long overdue having been cruelly denied a full DP World Tour card in 2021.
In just 15 tournament starts, he finished 133rd in the Race to Dubai rankings - just outside the mark which would've seen him gain full membership for 2022 - after making nine cuts and accruing a top-five finish, a top-10, and two further top 12-finishes. But the cruelty lay in the fact that his membership category in 2021 meant that he had to watch the final seven ranking events from the sidelines, seeing invitation request after invitation request fall on deaf ears.
"One more start, one more paycheque probably would have done it," he laments, "and if I'd have kept the card, then who knows, it could've been the springboard because I'd have been able to plan my schedule the following year to suit me best. But that's all speculation, so I'm striving to get back there and I'll go back to Q-School again this year and give it my best.
"I feel that, right now, my game is a little better than it has been over the past 10 or 12 years, so I'm going to keep going for it. Like I said, that fire still burns."
With lower category status on the Asian Tour, which ramps up in the autumn and winter months, that delicate balance will likely be tested further as he'll make occasional trips to the far east along with preparing for Q-School, giving lessons, furthering his studies and being a father.
But for now, his main golfing focus is on Monkstown, on the Irish PGA Championship, and on hopefully closing the gap to Des Smyth, Pádraig Harrington, Harry Bradshaw, and of course, Christy O'Connor Snr.
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