Open has clout even without a stellar line-up
TO rephrase Eamon Dunphy’s contentious view of Michel Platini, it’s been a good Dubai Duty Free Irish Open this week, if not a great one.
The plusses were reflected by the presence of superstar Rory McIlroy and Open champion Shane Lowry, along´with the welcome return of spectators and some decent mid-summer weather.
Dubai Duty Free loyally backed the event for the seventh year in a row and are now the longest sponsors after Carroll’s (1975-1993) and Murphy’s (1994-2002), with an option to extend their contract for 2022.
The Jack Nicklaus-designed Mount Juliet came across well on the TV – the greens ran fast and true and if the patchy rough earned mixed reviews, the rank-and-file European Tour pros made hay in the sunshine.
And therein lies the Irish Open conundrum, for this was a field that only looked good on the surface.
Take away McIlroy, Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, Pádraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell, and the entry list was akin to Championship standard than Premier League.
Only four players inside the world’s top 50 teed up in Kilkenny, which was not dissimilar to the three out of 50 at Fota Island in 2014 after which a concerned McIlroy set about reviving the event off his own bat.
Between 2015 and 2019, when Lahinch partied like never before and Jon Rahm ruled the waves, the Irish Open was back where it aches to be – a sparkling jewel in the crown of European golf.
Golf’s global stars were rolled out for the red-carpet treatment, among them Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia, Rickie Fowler, Hideki Matsuyama and Justin Rose as the tournament carried elite €7m Rolex Series status and offered a winner’s cheque of €1m.
In contrast the names dotting the leaderboard yesterday were the relatively little-known, Johannes Veerman (world rank 350), Rikard Karlberg (611), Francesco Laporta (309) and Dale Whitnell (333).
Even Lucas Herbert, the leader by one on 15 under par in the chase for the €460,000 first prize, is as much remembered for a two-shot penalty for improving his lie in a bunker in the 2019 Dubai Desert Classic, as he is for his feats as the world number 91.
In fairness, this week has been a big step-up from last year at Galgorm where the weather was cold and the field was weak. To the credit of Lowry and Harrington they turned up, but not many others of note did.
In terms of its career graph since it was revived in 1975, the Irish Open has had its dips, notably in 2011 when Simon Dyson won in Killarney, but mostly it’s been a shiny success story, dappled by big-game hunters.
It’s honours list is hugely impressive, Ballesteros, Langer, Woosnam, Olazabal, Faldo, Monty, Garcia, as well as a couple of American major winners, Ben Crenshaw and Hubert Green.
Since its revival in 1975, it has been a constant fixture on the European Tour schedule.
As a brand, the Irish Open carries considerable clout, not just because of its list of great champions but also due to its direct association with Ireland’s major winners.
This small island has produced five golfers who have won 10 majors between them since 2007.
Of the quintet, Harrington, Lowry, McIlroy have all won their national open, while McDowell hasn’t given up the ghost yet.
It gives the Irish Open skin in the deal as talk of a strategic alliance between the mega-powerful PGA Tour and the European Tour gathers momentum.
With the mega-rich Premier Golf League bubbling away in the background, the two Tours either side of the Atlantic are aware of the benefits of working together to ensure they can keep the world’s best golfers inside the tent.
With 40 PGA Tour events, only the European Tour’s finest worth saving would survive, should the partnership come to pass. One of them would almost certainly be the Irish Open, due to its gilt-edged prestige.
It’s one of the reasons why it’s vital to keep the show on the road, whether that’s in chilly Galgorm in front of a farmer and his cows, or in Mount Juliet with frumpy rough and a field of mostly yeomen professionals.
Come 2023, or perhaps sooner, the shape of golf’s two main tours may undergo a radical shake-up.
There is a long game being played here, far longer than the 7,200-yard lay-out of Mount Juliet where Herbert today seeks a pillar-to-post success.
‘ENTRY LIST WAS AKIN TO CHAMPIONSHIP NOT PREMIER LEAGUE’