Joe Lyons has officially entered his travel golf season. It just so happens that it falls opposite the travel season for most players in his part of the world.
Lyons, co-founder of Lyons Links, which operates luxury golf and sightseeing tours in Ireland and the United Kingdom, lives a life that revolves around the game. Now in the offseason, Lyons, 52, of Galway, Ireland, will play for the Team Ireland at this week’s International Senior Invitational at Cartersville (Georgia) Country Club.
The tournament, in its second year of a three-year run at Cartersville, features 30 three-man teams competing in a three-count-two format. Several states across the U.S. will be represented by a team as will England, Scotland, Germany, Canada and, of course, Ireland.
A team and an individual champion will be crowned after 54 holes, and Lyons happens to be the returning individual champion.
Lyons has been a golfer since he was 9 years old and pours energy into both his own game and his work in golf. From April to September, he sprinkles tournaments into his schedule around the obligations that come with being a golf tour director amid the peak golf travel season.
“I am lucky enough to have an exceptional team around me that makes sure our clients are looked after during those months and allows me to compete in a select number of men’s amateur and seniors events during the summer in Europe,” he wrote by email.
Lyons’ resume is robust. Notably, he has won the Irish Senior Men’s Amateur Close Championship each of the past two years and in February, won the Spanish International Seniors Championship.
“Strangest experience this year was winning the Spanish Seniors Amateur and being prevented from bringing the trophy home on the plane as it was not in line with the airline’s ‘baggage policy,’” Lyons wrote.
Luckily, he noted, he had no such issue bringing home the trophy he won at this event a year ago for lowest individual and it now sits in a place of pride at his home.
Lyons’ golf life spans many arenas, from competitive senior golf to top-notch golf tourism, but he also continues to fly the flag for fiftysomethings by remaining competitive among a younger generation of golfers. Scroll the results of this year’s Amateur Championship at Ballyliffin in Ireland and there, in the top half of the 288-man field, you will find Lyons’ name. He fired rounds of 76-75 but missed the match-play cut.
When asked what goals remain for his game, Lyons, who is ranked among the top-20 players age 50 and over, listed winning the U.S. Senior Amateur or British Senior Amateur Championship when the time comes (he won’t be eligible for either until he turns 55). He also noted he would love to win low amateur at the Senior Open Championship.
With such lofty sights, Lyons is among good company at the International Senior Invitational. The field includes three past U.S. Senior Amateur champions: Doug Hanzel (2013), Bob Royak (2019) and Rusty Strawn (2022).
Kevin VandenBerg, the top-ranked player in Golfweek’s National Senior Amateur Rankings, is also in the field, and so is Mike McCoy, the 2013 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion who captained the 2023 U.S. Walker Cup team.
