Golf Archive
Arthur Pierse.
One of the Great Sportsmen to have left Rockwell
1972 West of Ireland amateur champion beating Joe Carr on the 17th.
1974 East of Ireland championship, runner - up to Hugh Smyth.
1975 Leading Amateur at the Carrolls Irish Open.
1976 Capped at Muirfield in September, for Home Internationals.
1977 Qualified for the British Open.
1979 Reached Semi-Final of West of Ireland. In June won the East of Ireland, shooting 4 under 288.
1980 Won the West of Ireland, beating Philip Walton 3+2 in the final.
1981 June, qualified for the British Amateur Championship at Royal Porthcrawl and reached the final, only losing 2+1 to Welshman Duncan Evans, having led for most of it.
1982 Selected on the 4 man Great Britain and Ireland Team to contest the Eisenhower Trophy in Lausanne, Switzerland. Won West of Ireland again.
Reached last 16 of the British Amateur Championship went unbeaten for Great Britain and 1 in the St Andrew’s Trophy. Claimed 6 out of 6 points for Ireland in Home Interntional.
1983 Invited to play Walker Cup, performed admirably while infected with a virus and had to spend 3 days in bed after the Hoylake experience.
Qualified for the British Amateur Championship without a practice round and reached the last 16. Part of the winning Irish Team in the Europeans at Chantilly.
1987 He took the field apart in the North of Ireland Amateur Championship at Royal Portrush, disposing of Darren Clarke after just an amazing 11 holes in the semi final and beating Roy Hanna in the final. Member yet again of the Irish Team that claimed, the Home International series for the first time at Lahinch.
1989 Runner – Up to Darren Clarke in East of Ireland at Baltray.
2001 Qualified for the U.S Senior Open, finished a very creditable 55th and was the 3rd leading amateur. In July, he claimed the ‘leading amateur’ title at the Senior British Open. He went onto win this title for three successive years.
2003-05 In the A.I.B Irish Senior’s Open he finished leading amateur on each occasion and in 2004 in Adare Manor was the leading Irish player, both amateur and professional.
2007 He led the field from post to pillar in the British Open Seniors Amateur Championship in Nairn in Scotland. 4 weeks later in the U.S Open Seniors Amateur Championship Arthur was the only non-American to come through 36 holes of qualifying. He went on to make the last 8, a remarkable feat when one considers that 5 of the 8 quarter-finalists were re-instated amateurs, each having played on the PGA Tour.