European Tour - Irish Open

First topic message reminder :

The much anticipated return of the Irish Open to Northern Ireland and to the Royal Portrush is finally upon us. It was 65 years ago (1947) when the event was staged there last time, with Harry Bradshaw from Delgany, Co. Wicklow, being the winner. The Dunluce Course is widely acknowledged as one of the best links courses in the world (redesigned by Harry Colt in 1929) and as many players have commented in the last couple of days, the course should be in great condition for the event...

Spoiler:

The last couple of years the Open was held on a parkland course in Killarney, a place which has been particularly good to the English golfers who have won each of the four editions organised there in the ‘modern’ era (i.e. since 1975… there was no Irish Open as such between 1953-1975). In contrast, English golfers haven’t been so successful when the event has been organised on a typical links course (Mark James the last winner in 1980 at Portmarnock). With all the great successes of Irish golfers over the past 5 years, there are obviously very high expectations that one of them should win the event this year. Would be great for one of the Portrush boys to get it, of course, but considering DC’s health and form of late, probably the only realistic option in that category remains McDowell. Don’t know what to make of Rory’s chances though, not sure if he is ready to contend again, especially considering that the weather prospects are not very good. You can’t overlook the fact that he holds the course record here (61). He posted on twitter a short clip with the scorecard and some images from that record setting round in 2005 (weather was very good then…) and interestingly enough he added… “Think my course record might be in jeopardy though!”

http://social.rorymcilroy.com/videos/192209

Then there is Padraig Harrington, who often mentions the Royal Portrush as being his favourite course, and with his newly found form he cannot be ruled out by any means… But as much as I would love to see an Irish winner here come Sunday, I also have a feeling that all the added focus and pressure on the local star players, could well influence the proceedings and the outcome by the end of the week…

Rather disappointing in the end to see that quite a few of the top European players are not coming, but having said that, the strength of the field should be close to the highs achieved over the past decade or so…

Spoiler:

For quite a number of years now, John Daly has been the star US attraction at the Irish Open. And he will be here again, but he’s been certainly upstaged this year by Keegan Bradley, who won quite a few fans over here since he announced his intention to play in the event. And fair play to him, he really seems to be very excited to be here, flying over a couple of days ago together with McDowell and taking time to do at least some of the compulsory Co. Antrim sightseeing (Giant’s Causeway, Bushmills Distillery, etc.). Liked one of his tweets about the local weather... You know the weather gets bad here when it's 50 blowing 20 sprinkling and the people keep saying "hope the weather holds out like this all week"
...as well as this picture of him looking rather lost, but happy, in the middle of the famous 'Big Bertha' bunker on the 17th...

Spoiler:

The European Tour has already announced that Friday, Saturday and Sunday are a complete sell out, which we’re told is an unprecedented achievement for a regular ET event. With over 100,000 visitors expected to ‘flood’ the course over the next few days (a limit of 27,000 per day will be imposed), and with some very typical Irish weather forecasted (rain on Thu & Fri and then wind picking up as well on Sat & Sun), this is not going to be just a very tough test of golf, but also a tough test for the organisers who will be extremely keen to show the world (and especially the R&A) that the Royal Portrush is well capable to host a top event like this, and maybe more…


P.S. Unfortunately couldn’t travel to the event this year, but luckily this should be well covered live on National TV channels over here from Thursday to Sunday (especially now that THE famous handshake is out of the way…). With all the Euro footy, Wimbledon and the Euro Athletics on the box as well, should be very little time left for any work this week I’m afraid… Bring it on!

golfermartin wrote:

princedracula wrote:Gagli is not in the Open and I doubt he has any chance left to get there at this point, but I'm sure a win here will be just as sweet...

Wind seems to be picking up a little, so the pace of scoring may slow down later in the day. Looks like Bradley will struggle to make the cut, and others like Matteo and Willett really need to get it going over the next holes to have a chance...

Surely if he won that would qualify him?

GM,
Below is the exemption that includes the irish open. Not sure if a Gagli win here would qualify him for here, it might.............

First 2 European Tour members and any European Tour members tying for 2nd place, not otherwise exempt, in a cumulative money list taken from the 7 official European Tour events leading up to and including the 2012 Irish Open.(The BMW PGA Championship, ISPS Handa Wales Open,Nordea Masters, The US Open Championship, The St Omer Open, the BMW International Open and the Irish Open). Blank entries will be made on behalf of players qualifying in this category.

Bourdy seems to be on fire

Another American star gets (presumably) a thumping appearance fee to play in Europe and mails it in. Really poor by Keegan Bradley - the European Tour would do far better to add these appearance fees to prizemoney, investing in their own Tour and not providing goodies to their competitors.

As JC mentioned as well, the last avenue for making it into the Open is that mini-money list. This is not official, but I've been keeping a rough estimate of that list since Wentworth and it looks like this prior to the Irish Open (only top two will qualify):

T Jaidee 435,307
R Sterne 357,777
-----------------
D Willett 357,630
Pt Lawrie 276,851
P McGinley 209,388
M Siem 198,655
C Wood 170,711
...
G Bourdy 33,811
L Gagli 6,485

With the top prize this week being ~€333,330 you can see why Gagli is basically out of it (unless he gets some bonus euros for Italy qualifying in the Euro final).

Disappointing for D. Willett though who was in a very good position to still make it, but he is now out of it (same goes for Peter Lawrie, although he still has a theoretical chance if he gets a spectacular round this afternoon), ...

kwinigolfer wrote:Another American star gets (presumably) a thumping appearance fee to play in Europe and mails it in. Really poor by Keegan Bradley - the European Tour would do far better to add these appearance fees to prizemoney, investing in their own Tour and not providing goodies to their competitors.

Do you really think Bradley got paid to come over? It had never entered my head.........i thought it was a boyhood dream!! Naieve of me............

pd,
I also searched high and low for an official list but couldn't find a thing.
Shame, as publicising it could only add to the attention to The Open AND the European Tour.
The PGA Tour version is published weekly in the Tour stats.

General point even with the weather pretty rough it looks like the winner could be 20 plus under par.Few years on and Portrush gets the Open.Would you be Ok with that or would they to alter the course significantly?

Dyna - I was wondering that. I guess the setup would be markedly different for the big one but do the scores thus far imply something more than a setup change may be required?

I've never been but one of the guys I know (off scratch) said it was "bloody hard" and one of the best places he'd played.

Perhaps they could get Trump in to sort it out (thats a joke, really, really! )

Roller_Coaster wrote:Dyna - I was wondering that. I guess the setup would be markedly different for the big one but do the scores thus far imply something more than a setup change may be required?

I've never been but one of the guys I know (off scratch) said it was "bloody hard" and one of the best places he'd played.

Perhaps they could get Trump in to sort it out (thats a joke, really, really! )

Roller, don't let Mac hear you say that, he's reported people to the moderators for far less

Verily, 'twas a joke and I shall continue to caveat it as such up to the hilt!

Dyna's point was the real purpose. Can they (or do they need to) reasonably tweak tees, pins and rough to a level commensurate to the levels required for The Open whilst retaining a fair test should it be fair or foul, or would it need more "structrural" work?

If the open ever were to go there I'd say the most obvious way of toughening up the par would be to make the 9th & the 10th par 4's, they're only 475 & 478 yards respectively (very short for par 5's by today's standards) and 2 of the par 4's (4th & 18th) are longer. Would also imagine that they'd tighten things up a wee bit as some of the fairways do look fairly generous.

The biggest problem with this course hosting the open is that they can only get 30,000 spectators a day in, much less than the other courses used on the rota can, and from what I can see there isn't enough room for the rest of the corporate stuff, tented village, etc that is at the open each year. Add onto that other infrastrucure problems (road links, hotel rooms, etc) and I'd say an open at royal portrush won't happen anytime soon, even though the course itself is undoubtedly good enough to host it.

Go Harri, goooo!!! Nice birdie start...

On the issue of appearence fees for Keegs, not sure, i'd like to think he didn't get any... there may have been something of a hidden fee though, with his management stablemate Daniel Miernicki receiving an unexpected invite, to the dismay of some of the local lads who were hoping for a last minute chance of a lifetime to play in an event like this... But that's all speculation, who knows... Anyway, a bit of a waste of invitations to be fair looking at Miernicki's performance, and same goes for another strange one that went to the Norwegian Borsheim... No complaints about Frittelli's invite, he had once again a very decent go, just a pitty it looks he may just miss out the weekend action...

Looks like 2 under will be the cut now.
Its certainly had a good press and with time a lot of the infrastructure issues can be sorted.fair point about the shortish par 5s though.See what happens on the weekend

2 unders under pressure i believe...............

Up to Harri to push on and get to -10 or better................

Kwin - Do you really think he mailed it in, or just didn't have it this weekend? Tough accusation I think. (Do you think Luke mailed it in at Olympic?)

What a fantastic course and great to see all the fan support. I've been fortunate to golf in Ireland 3 times and never had anything but great experiences.

Sr,
I am assuming Bradley received an appearance fee; one would almost feel he must have done to commit to such a ridiculously crowded schedule.
My impression is that American golfers play much better in The Open Championship, when there are no overt appearance fees, than when they get the $100K, or whatever it is, just for showing up.

Last time I checked, the USGA doesn't hand out incentives for turning up. Luke Donald played abysmally in San Francisco, highly predictable as I wrote in advance. No excuse, just not good enough on that sort of course.


Wasted weekend in the quest for Ryder Cup points for Colsaerts and F'dez.

John Cregan wrote:Up to Harri to push on and get to -10 or better................

John, I'm impressed with your "prediction" skills... Padraig finished on -10, one behind Fozzy with Grégory "Birdie" leading on -12. Looks like there may be a few still out there who might cause a few changes at the top.

Kwin - Like Luke at Olympic, I also think Bradley not good enough for that course. Maybe he'll hit Dublin this weekend.

Re Keegan Bradley:

Why would any Top US-PGA Pro go to Europe to play for purses that are 20-30% of the US-PGA purses?

Because they are getting paid appearance money.

I also think Bradley not good enough for that course.

He had a bad week. Luke, Rory had a bad week in San Francisco.

So, if anyone knows if a player simply "mailed it in" rather than just played poorly, they have far keener insight than I do!

But are appearance fees working for the ET? I have no idea - but were I a ET bigwig I would be very encouraged by the attendance this weekend.

I think its just that the Northern Irish Paddy's (no need to complain to the mods Mac) have been without an Irish open for such a long time and they have a lot of players in form, rather than any appearance fees paid to anyone. It's also a really famous course that people are delighted to see being played.

Did someone rat you out super? Hope the mods weren't too hard on you

I'm gonna put my cards on the table and say Harrington for the win.

I've never seen a tournament with so many marshal's involved. Why does it take 2 or 3 marshals to indicate the direction of a drive?
If they got rid of half the marshals they could get another 1000 spectators on the course.

4putt wrote:I've never seen a tournament with so many marshal's involved. Why does it take 2 or 3 marshals to indicate the direction of a drive?
If they got rid of half the marshals they could get another 1000 spectators on the course.

They need the Marshals as forecaddies.

If there were no forecaddies, I don't think they would be able to complete 4 rounds.

Portrush looks to be visually stunning but I can't think of too many other courses I would want to play everyday.

IMO, long rough is the primary reason for slow play. Shortly before I quit playing golf, in an austerity move, my club started to mow the rough less frequently, much to my protests. Three Hour rounds were turning into 3.5 hour rounds because of lost balls in the rough.

Grass on the golf course is meant to be mowed. if you want an un-kept area, it should be a "dry hazard". Grass should be mowed to 5 cm or less.

Nice pairing of a couple of the Irish "heavyweights" this morning at 10.13.
Clarke looks like he's gained 2 stone in his 4 weeks "rest".....................

incontinentia wrote:Did someone rat you out super? Hope the mods weren't too hard on you

I'm gonna put my cards on the table and say Harrington for the win.

I just made a comment about lucky charms and Mac went running to the mods like the little clipe that he is.
No comment from the mods though, seems Mac was just trying to be Mary Whitehouse, but failing again.

Seems quite scoreable so far- Craig Lee 4 under after 3holes! Several others a few under on the first 9.

John Cregan wrote:Nice pairing of a couple of the Irish "heavyweights" this morning at 10.13.
Clarke looks like he's gained 2 stone in his 4 weeks "rest".....................

He also gained a birdie and an eagle in the first couple of holes, now T10... That's unheard of since last year's Open...

Thor really smote the course today, 6 under 66 the lowest round so far. Craig Lee 6 under after 16 aswell. Is it a really easy course or why is scoring so good?

edit: good in the morning, not so good later

They just said on RTE that Stephanie Meadow has won the ladies British Amateur! This means that now this little town, Portrush, holds the British Amateur for both men (Dunbar) and women (Meadow), the Open (Clarke), and the runner up and former winner of US Open! Amazing stuff...!

...and now another cup comes Europe's way!

Team Europe dramatically overturned today at RCD in NI a 4 shot deficit into a 3 shot victory, defeating Team US by 13.5-10.5 to capture the Palmer Cup !!!

Go get the win Padraig!

Let's hope Padraig gets the job done today... everyone around here is talking about it, just hope there's not too much pressure building up on him... Paul Lawrie is showing (albeit very late) that a low score is possible out there today, so this is still open to quite a few folks down to the T11s or so...

What was wrong with Lawrie yesterday? Very inconsistent all of a sudden.
Poor again this week from Luiten.

But this may be the day we discover that Padraig is truly back.

Scoring looks good so far...........looks like there will be a surge from the -7's and -8's...............not convinced McIlroy will hole enough putts....................good luck Padraig.......................

Lundberg -4 after 3!!!! -10 overall............................

Is there a prize for the top irish (both flavours) finisher? It is all that is needed to top of the most jingoistic event I have seen this year, and that includes the jubilee.

"jingoistic"?

Don't know about that but, from 3,000 miles away this looks like a terrific event, a great advertisement for Golf and Ireland, regardless of who wins. Pity the Wales Open is not supported one half as well.

Ok, maybe jingoism lite, but it just seems every story has to be reported through an irish lens.

But it does look like a good event, does anyone know how long it is contracted to be held at portrush for?

McLaren wrote:Ok, maybe jingoism lite, but it just seems every story has to be reported through an irish lens.

But it does look like a good event, does anyone know how long it is contracted to be held at portrush for?

Carton House Co. Kildare next year.................

Are Donaldson and Snedeker brothers?

Awful chip from C-Bello, one of the worst in the history of golf.

I think with this kind of support the R&A should take the hit and move The Open to Royal Portrush.
Drop Turnberry as they would probably prefer a European tour event.

In the end it's been a great and very well deserved win for Donaldson! Makes you wonder even more how he managed not to win anything so far... Very curious to see the final attendance count for the whole week, amazing crowds and support. Hard to see any reasons at the moment for the R&A not to bring the Open here in the future.......

Difficult to remember more enthusiastic crowds anywhere outside Major Championships. Just imagine the reception an Irish winner would have received. Makes the one-man-and-a-dog routine that Finchem favours for the WGC MatchPlay, for instance, look even more indefensible.

Congrats to Donaldson for winning in such style.

(Cabrero-Bello making an appearance in the Ryder Cup qualifying places - cameo, or the real thing?)

Time for Northern Ireland to host its very own tournament?

Kwini

I hope they can get a permanent event at portrush - god knows why it is back to some nondescript parkland track again next year - as most of the european tour is unbelievably dull. The selection criteria for hosting a euro tour event seems to include the course having to be no more interesting than a tiger woods press conference.

Can't understand the fuss made about Portrush - looked very dull to me and far to easy for a major event. The yanks wouldn't stand for an open on a course where the winning score was as low as this week - why should we?

Who cares about par? -8 on a par-70 set-up, which is what the USGA contrives most years would work surely?

Spot on Kwini, i never understand what people think par actually represents other than a one dimensional look at how to play a hole.

Without the tricked up set up -15 to -20 would win on most US open courses. And it would probably be a hell of a lot more exciting to watch as well.

Further slowride, can I just confirm that an irishman is complaining about low scores to win big events. Even hinting it is an unacceptable state of affairs. I wonder what US open winner (-16) and irish hero Rory Mcilroy would make of that?

Mac,

exactly right, par is a one dimensional number relating to how to play a hole.

Par does have significant worth though, in helping spectators determine who is winning an event. It would be very hard to work out who is ahead if the only means of comparison was (for example)

Arnold Palmer - 260 shots after 68 holes
Jack Nicklaus - 277 shots after 72 holes

The USGA seems to take personal insult if someone scores well below par. It seems stupid to me. If they are so bothered about setting up a course so it's hard, why not go the whole hog and really make it really hard. Build a course specifically for the US Open of 8500 yards, with at least four par 5s of 700 yards or more (long enough that nobody could get on in two), plenty of 500 yard par 4s, and maybe a couple of par 3s. Par could be 75, which would make the arithmetic easy, and any player breaking 300 would have a good chance of winning. Make the fairways fairly wide, and then some graded rough, so that if you are further than 30 yards offline, you are up to your chest in thick, heavy, wet rough.

That would be more entertaining than watching people crawl round Olympic (real par 73) trying to match an artificial par.

george,

"Build a course specifically for the US Open of 8500 yard"

I believe both chambers bay (2015) and Erin Hills(2017) can be stretched to that length. We can only hope they are not.

I don't know if I'm on my own but I loved the coverage of this year's US Open and I thought the course looked great. I probably wouldn't like it if every week's golf was as difficult as that but that's what the US Open is all about. I enjoyed it far more than last year at Congressional despite Rory's great win.

I also hope that Lytham plays far more difficult than Portrush was this week. Maybe I'm in a minority but the last thing I want to see in the final round of a Major is half the field shooting 66 and 30 footers being holed seemingly every couple of minutes.