Sixteen of Ireland’s top golfers - including Leona Maguire, Stephanie Meadow and Cormac Sharvin - will receive a total of €272,700 in funding through the Team Ireland Golf Scheme this year.
The funding has gone up from €221,000 in 2020, allowing additional golfers to benefit. Thirty starts on the European Challenge Tour have also been secured for Irish golfers.
Fifteen of the golfers will receive €17,500 each, with Olivia Mehaffey getting €10,200. The funding is calculated on pro rata rate based on a seven-month period.
"I'm delighted to be representing Team Ireland again this year," said Meadow. "Their continued support of myself and my peers is invaluable.
"Many players from other countries do not have the backing from organisations like Team Ireland and every year I'm reminded of how lucky I am and the other players are to have it."
Maguire echoed those sentiments, adding: "I'm so grateful for the continued support of Team Ireland. I am very proud to represent Ireland as I play my golf across the world".
The 16 players who will receive funds are: Sharvin, Meadow, Maguire, Robin Dawson, Gavin Moynihan, Jonathan Caldwell, David Carey, Ronan Mullarney, Paul McBride, John-Ross Galbraith, Stuart Grehan, Conor Purcell, Conor O'Rourke, James Sugrue, Jonathan Yates and Olivia Mehaffey.
Sugrue, Yates and Mehaffey are the three new players who've been added to the scheme this year.
Sugrue won the Amateur Championship in 2019 and competed in US Masters and US Open in 2020 and Caldwell finished eighth on the Alps Tour Order of Merit in 2020, while Mehaffey is turning professional in the coming weeks, having been the leading Irish female amateur golfer for a number of years.
She was part of the Irish team that won bronze medal in World Team Amateur Championships in Mexico in 2016.
