Belfast boy Michael Hoey dreams of matching Sergio Garcia in the US Masters at Augusta.

The 22-year-old British Amateur champion has is heart set on becoming only the second European to win the silver cup that is awarded to the top amateur making the cut.

"I'm not over here just to make up the numbers," said a focused Hoey. "I'm trying to stay as relaxed as I can, listen to whatever advice I get, and then my aim is to try to be low amateur."

"Sergio Garcia was the first European to do it a few years ago and I'd love to do the same. Just being here is like a dream come true and the perfect way to end to my amateur career. But my aim is the low amateur prize."

Garcia took the honour in 1999 as compatriot Jose Maria Olazabal won his second green jacket on an emotional day for the Spanish.

Then he turned pro and made an immediate impact, finishing second to Tiger Woods in the US PGA Championship at Medinah a few months later.

Now Shandon Park's Hoey is daring to dream of an Irish double come Sunday evening.

He said: "It's great to have people around that you know. My family is here and some friends which is great but I've also had great advice from Padraig
Harrington and he showed me around on Monday and we played a couple of practice rounds.

"It would be amazing if the two of us were up there in the Butler Cabin on the last day to get the green jacket and the low amateur prize like Garcia and Olazabal."

Between them, former Irish amateur greats Joe Carr and Garth McGimpsey played in the Masters five times. But neither managed to finish as top amateur.

McGimpsey played in 1985 and 1986 but missed the cut both times while Carr played all four rounds in 1967 and 1968 but missed the halfway cut the following year.

Competition for the amateur prize will be fierce as ever this year as Hoey battles against U.S. Amateur champion Bubba Dickerson, runner-up Robert Hamilton, U.S. Public Links Amateur champion Chez Reavie and the highly experienced U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Tim Jackson.

But Hoey goes into battle with a psychological advantage of having beaten Dickerson by 4 and 2 in the Georgia Cup, the annual match between the US and British Amateur champions, at the Golf Club of Georgia last week.

And he feels that the experience might help him during the tournament at Augusta, although he is not expecting too much.

"It was good preparation for here," he admitted. "The greens at the Golf Club of Georgia were pretty quick although not as sloping as Augusta. I came here on Sunday and played 16 holes on my own and then I played with Padraig.

"The greens are firm, the ball is bouncing on. They're even fiercer than I had been led to believe. I believed they couldn't be as bad as everybody said but they really are sloping so you've got to get the pace right.

"I've been in Georgia for the past few weeks practising" he said. "I played pretty well to beat Bubba Dickerson in the Georgia Cup match. I won the first three holes because he three-putted them. It was good but you don't hear much about the Georgia Cup in Ireland even though it's pretty big over here.

"About 500 people were watching and the Golf Channel cameras were there so it will be going out some time in June and on about 30 different occasions.

"But Padraig's been advising me just to enjoy the Masters experience and not to try and read too much into it. He's been telling not to put too much emphasis on it because, one I'm not going to be very competitive and two, the course is very tricky, tricked up and I haven't had that much experience.

"It's not thinking negatively but you shouldn't let it determine your professional career because it's just one tournament.

"I've been here twice before and shot in the mid 70s in May 1991 when I was studying at Clemson University and then I had a round of 68 in practice before Christmas, but conditions are totally different now."

Hoey has impressed in the five professional events he has played so far ­ making the cut in three of them.

Last year he missed the cut at the Open at Lytham but then shot three rounds of 70 and a closing 64 to finish 11th in the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.

This season he made the cut in the Bells' South African Open, finished 12th in the Dubai Desert Classic and had a hole in one in the second round of the dunhill championship.

And he is now so focused on doing well at Augusta that he even skipped the famous drive up Magnolia Drive to the entrance to the clubhouse.

He said: "I actually didn't drive in Magnolia Drive, I came in the back way. I've been here twice previously so I've seen what it's like, although it is, of course, a lot different in tournament week.

"I'm loving it here. I'm staying the Crow's Nest and it's very comfortable and I'll be there all week. It's bigger than I thought and you have your own room. It's amazing to think of all the great players who stayed here, like Olazabal, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ben Crenshaw."

Hoey was one of the first players to play the newly lengthened Augusta.

With 285 yards added to it length this year, he knows that distance off the tee will be a priority.

But the ability to draw the ball ­ or move the ball from right to left for the right-hander ­ is just as important if you are to give yourself a chance of hitting the correct side of the green in regulation.

"Driving would be one of my strengths. But I've been working on trying to work the ball off the tee. I haven't played that many courses where you need to work the ball that much off the tee but there are probably about seven tee shots at Augusta that you need to really hook like the second, the ninth, the tenth and the thirteenth, if you want to give yourself a good
shot in."

As always the greens are going to cause problems.

He said: "If you're struggling with your putting you're going have a hard time. A lot of times your asking how you're going to three-putt. They are really hard and incredibly fast right now and if you miss the green on the wrong side your dead.

"I've been told that it's better to miss on other side and chip and putt than to be putting from the wrong side of the pin."

"I'm trying to be relaxed around the professional scene and having played a few tournaments I'm getting more used to it," he said. "I'm trying to progress all the time but it's going to be difficult this week because I don't really know the course. But I'll listen to Padraig and see what he has to say about the greens and so on. I would like to make the cut and win the low amateur. That's my aim."

But could an amateur actually win at Augusta? No amateur has ever won the Masters but table talk the traditional Wednesday night amateur dinner makes all amateurs feel they have a chance.

"It's a huge pep talk," Woods said, recalling his two trips to Augusta as an
amateur. "Every amateur who is alive and can be at the tournament is there. They get you all fired up about the fact no amateur has ever won."

Frank Stranahan came within two strokes of Jimmy Demaret in 1947 and Billy Joe Patton missed the 1954 playoff between Sam Snead and Ben Hogan by a shot.

In 1956 Ken Venturi had a four-stroke lead over Cary Middlecoff going into the final round but shot an 80 as Jack Burke Jnr. wound up winning by a stroke after starting the last round nine strokes behind.

Hoey has no ambitions to win the tournament, but up in the Crow's Nest he might let his dreams and the ghost of the greatest amateur of all- Bobby Jones - get the better of him.

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© Brian Keogh 2002

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