Tee time for Anna in Amgen Irish Open Pro-Am

As the attention of the global sporting media focuses on the southwest of Ireland one of Westmeath's brightest sporting stars will be representing the maroon and white.

Anna Jones will compete with many of Ireland’s biggest sporting names as they swap their usual playing fields for the fairways. Stars from GAA, rugby and boxing will join up with Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka at the Amgen Irish Open Pro-Am at Doonbeg, Clare.

“I'm at the first tee box on the 18th green,” Anna told the Westmeath Examiner today (Wednesday September 9) as she prepared for her afternoon round.

“It's incredible. I'm very lucky to be a part of this,” she said.

There is a stellar sporting line-up that includes former Ireland and Munster scrum-half Conor Murray, Limerick hurler Gearóid Hegarty, former Galway hurler Joe Canning, former Clare hurler Podge Collins and retired boxer Michael Conlan.

“I play my golf in Mullingar and the GPA were looking for a couple of players to enter. I was lucky enough to get in on the ladies football side of things. Apparently I'm one of the lower handicapped around for that,” Anna says of her involvement.

“The Irish Open reached out to the GPA for players that also play golf. I was just contacted by them to see if I was interested and obviously I was very interested,” she said.

The 2026 Amgen Irish Open starts today, September 9, and runs up to Sunday 13 at Trump International Golf Links Ireland in Doonbeg, Clare.

The All-Ireland winners from football, hurling, ladies football and camogie will make special appearances at the tournament, bringing the Liam McCarthy, O’Duffy and Brendan Martin Cups to the main stage as they meet supporters and take part in live question-and-answer sessions.

“I just came down yesterday evening to Lahinch and then came over this morning,” Anna outlined, “I'm back to work tomorrow. I was very fortunate that my boss gave me the day off to come down at short notice.”

The premier Irish golfing event is embracing our native sports this year. GAA fans will also have the chance to meet some of this year’s All-Ireland champions when the heroes of the 2026 Championships take to the main stage at the island of Ireland’s national open.

The Amgen Irish Open Pro-Am is the curtain raiser to the main feature: “It's a one day event,” Anna explained. “I've just arrived and registered. I'm out at 2.20pm. I'll be playing alongside Ryan O'Donoghue (Mayo footballer) and Cliona O'Callaghan (Cork camogie). The pro is Michael Hollick, who I'm playing alongside.”

The approach of Anna's tee time is not fazing the senior Westmeath footballer, nor is the presence of other high profile athletes: “There's a good few out already; Ram, McElroy, Hatton. He'll be the chief of the leaderboard for today's event anyway. I met Bundee Aki on my way in. So there's plenty of famous faces around.”