Irish Open Preview
Charlie Mulqueen looks forward to the
Open F
2011 Irish Open, supported by Fáilte Ireland, and recaps the thrilling tournament in 2010.
season
Above: Ross Fisher was the deserved winner of an epic contest in 2010.
or much of the past decade or so, time seemed to be running out for the Irish Open, one of the country’s fl agship sporting events. Long term sponsors Murphys
withdrew in 2000 to be replaced for four years by Nissan Ireland who in turn gave way to Tom Kane of Adare Manor in 2007 and ‘08. It was then that 3, the mobile phone giant, came on the scene. The 2009 event at Baltray was bedevilled by awful weather just as
many of its predecessors had been and was only salvaged by Shane Lowry’s magnifi cent achievement in becoming the fi rst amateur champion. Even with such a heavyweight sponsor on side, the event still
needed something to restore the championship to its former glories and so the announcement that Killarney would again be the host venue raised expectation that this could be the beginning of the long road back. The August week-end was chosen as a new and much more amenable date than mid-May and a really determined effort was made by all concerned to ensure its success. The beautifully located host club earned rave notices for presenting
their beautifully located golf course in pristine condition, the weather, for once, behaved quite well and most especially on the opening day when the television pictures beamed all around the world showed off the entire scene in the most favourable manner. The entry for the Irish Open in more recent years hadn’t been all that the sponsors and the European Tour would have wished for but that was not the case on this occasion, largely because all the top home players turned up led by three times major champion Padraig Harrington, US Open winner Graeme McDowell, young Rory McIlroy who had shot the lights out in destroying a high-class fi eld in the Quail Hollow Championship, one of the major events on the US PGA Tour and, of course, defending champion Shane Lowry.
72| 73 However, there were many other outstanding players in the fi eld, all
with their sights set on the handsome 3 million prize fund and the Ryder Cup and Race to Dubai points on offer. Conditions over the opening two days bordered on the benign and with little rough to trouble the players, the scoring was exceptional. England’s David Howell helped himself to an eight under par 64 to lead after round one but subsequently disappeared from the scene and it was his compatriot Ross Fisher who grabbed the limelight on the Friday and through the week-end. It’s a rarity indeed when a player walks off a golf course after
shooting a round of 61 and is more than a little disappointed. However, that’s the situation 29 year-old Fisher found himself in after his ten under par course record moved him to twelve under par and into a three shot lead over Francesco Molinari. The irony was that Fisher looked to have a great chance of becoming the fi rst player on the European Tour to break 60 when getting to ten under after 14 with the long 16th and other birdie chances still to come but he had to settle for par from there home. Fisher failed to reproduce that level of magic on the Saturday and
actually opened the door for his closest rivals including Padraig Harrington. However, to his great credit, the man from the racing haven of Ascot returned to his impressive best on Sunday with a highly admirable 65 and it was to prove too much for the fast fi nishing Harrington. The fact that Padraig shot a smashing seven under par 64 to fi nish 2nd on his own delighted a modern-day record crowd of 26,673 and added to the enjoyment and excitement of the fi nal day. The 39 year-old Dubliner certainly gave the fans plenty to cheer
about and there were occasions when he defi ed all logic to make par, such as at the 12th where his ball was literally buried in a bunker but he somehow got it out to seven feet or so and sank the putt! At the par
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