UU student represents Ireland at golf tournament

A University of Ulster student is to represent Ireland at the universities world championships golf tournament in Thailand next month.

Twenty-two-year-old Banbridge man Connor Doran is one of the four-man Irish Universities team that will take on the world's best university golfers at the Nakhon Ratchasima course.

Connor, who plays off a plus-1 handicap, has an impressive list of representative honours behind him including the Ulster Youth and Boys team, the Irish Youth and Senior teams, and European Boys team.

Earlier this year he played on the UU team which entered the Barton Shield – the premier club competition – for the first time and which was beaten in one of the Ulster regional finals by a team which, ironically, included two previous UU students, now both Irish internationals.

Connor, who receives a R&A bursary for his golf at UU, has been playing since he was 12 and spent a year in America on a golf scholarship. His father Aidan has been captain of the Ulster Youth team for the past three years.

Connor will be accompanied to the tournament by Ray Robinson, a staff member at the University of Ulster who is the Irish team manager, a position he has held since 1990.

Ray, who is a well known administrator in Ulster golf, is a past captain and past president of Castlerock club.

He said: “The Irish team has always done well in the universities world championships. Graeme McDowell, who now plays on the international professional circuit, won the individual gold medal and the Irish team won the team gold medal when the championship was staged at Castlerock. Then two years ago one of the Irish players again struck gold in the individual championship and the team finished runners up.”

Next month's tournament runs from August 2 to August 5.

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