Irish Open GC Championship 2026

The Irish Golf Croquet Championship took place over the 11-13th September at Carrickmines. This edition of the Irish GC Championships was considered the highest quality field in recent memory with many of the players coming from overseas from countries such as the USA, England and Spain coupled with the top Irish Talent. The tournament began as expected on Friday and Saturday morning with the 8 top seeds qualifying from their blocks in the singles to the quarter final. The doubles had the top 4 seeds also qualifying from their block to the doubles semi-final.

Saturday afternoon was a bit less predictable with top Association Croquet player Andrew Johnston advancing to the semi-finals to play Simon Williams after a magnificent performance in the quarter finals full of long clearances and angled hoops. The two other competitors advancing to the semi-finals were the 19 year old young Spaniard Eduardo Nunez who showed jaw dropping power on the lawns living up to his nickname as the “Spanish Bull” and Irelands own Robert O’Donoghue who was impressive in a 2-1 Quarter final win over Charlie Von Schmeider. The doubles semi-finals also took place on Saturday afternoon where an unlikely pairing of Taiwan’s Pei Wang and The Spanish Bull advanced to the final to play the pairing of Clair Whyms & Karen Davidson-Perrin who had shown just how formidable they were after defeating the American duo of Alex & Mary Galasso.

Sunday Morning was the beginning of the ‘big clash’ semi-finals of Rob vs Eduardo and Simon vs Andrew. Both games were very tactical affairs with so much quality shown thus providing the spectators with something to remember for some time.

Sunday was broken up with a tournament BBQ in which players enjoyed an expertly cooked BBQ and a few cold alcoholic beverages before the three finals took place.

The final session on Sunday saw Andrew Doyle of West Cork defeat Huw Spiers in the Singles Plate final. The doubles final produced somewhat of an upset when Clair and Karen defeated Eduardo and Pei 6-3 which allowed both Clair and Karen to win the prestigious Maggie Perpetual Trophy for the second time. Congratulations to both Ladies.

The Singles final was won 7-3 7-6 by Irelands Andrew Johnston. Although Andy got off to an extremely hot start winning a comfortable game 1 and taking early control of game 2, the young Spaniard wasn’t going away and nearly won game 2 to force a decider. In the end Andy won on Hoop 13 of game 2 to claim his second Irish Golf Croquet Championship, over a decade since winning his first.

Huge thanks to Simon Williams for preparing the lawns to such a high quality for the three days play and to Mark Stephens who did a magnificent job on his managerial debut.

2026 Golf Croquet Irish Open Overseas Competitors