THE IRISH OPEN abides.
At times it feels it is only our own native genius for golf that has kept this event relevant during an era in which the professional game has tilted irrevocably to the United States.
Maintaining America’s centrality to the game has emerged as a new fault line in golf’s civil war, as merger talks between the PGA Tour and LIV drag on. The European Tour -now DP World Tour – picked a side during this civil war and ended up as a vassal to the PGA Tour in return for some of their largesse. The biggest prize on the DP World Tour nowadays is a PGA Tour card, where there are fortunes to be made: 114 players on the PGA Tour earned at least a million dollars in prize money in 2024.
With that kind of cash on offer across the Atlantic, it is little wonder that the DP World Tour events struggle for sparkle.
The Irish Open, though, continues to fight its corner. Its September date is a good compromise rather than an ideal – the sweetest slot in the calendar belongs to the Scottish Open, in the week ahead of the Open Championship – and so the field is often light on recognisable names. The only non-Irish major winner in the 156-man field this week, for instance, is 2016 PGA Championship winner Jimmy Walker.
But hey, the Irish players account for eight majors between them, so when you have local talent that good and a course as majestic as Royal County Down, then you can understand how the event is sold out again this year.
Rory McIlroy hosted the tournament on its last visit to this venue nine years ago, and though Amgen have now taken over as title sponsors, Rory’s remains the headline name. He says he has enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time at home and work with coach Michael Bannon in the build-up to this week, and perhaps the experience may beguile the end to a diffident and at times difficult year.
The US Open was one of the biggest heartbreakers of his career, and McIlroy lamented after the Olympics that he had become golf’s “nearly man.” He didn’t contend at any of the events across the FedEx Cup play-offs, finishing T69 at the St Jude Classic but a more respectable T9 at the season-ending event at East Lake.
“From an outsider it probably wouldn’t maybe be as meaningful as some of the other wins that I’ve had, but for me it would be up there with one of the biggest ones I’ve ever had”, said McIlroy this week on the prospect of winning the Irish Open for a second time, having won his first at the K Club in 2016.
He is the most talented player in the field, but he has also been away from home for a long time. He has shown a trend this year of struggling with his wedge play in high winds: it’s what ended the latest challenge for the Masters and has been a recurring issue across the year, so conditions may not be in his favour this week.
Shane Lowry also finished in a tie for ninth at East Lake, but is feeling much better about his year: this was the first time he made it to the final 30 in the PGA Tour, and he genuinely contended at two of the four majors. His only tournament win, though, came with McIlroy at the Zurich Classic, so winning this week would cap the most consistent year of his career.
Padraig Harrington can be said to have paved the way for McIlroy and Lowry in many ways, and one such way was at the Irish Open: it was in 2007 that he became the first home winner of the event since John O’Leary in 1982.
At the other end of the experience scale is Tom McKibbin, who has been drawn to play with McIlroy and reigning champion Vincent Norrman across the opening two rounds. McKibbin has split with caddie David McNeilly, and is now accompanied by his friend, Ricky McCormick as he bids for a big finish to the year and a push for a PGA Tour card: he is currently 12th in those rankings, two places away from the lucrative accreditation.
Seamus Power is a PGA Tour veteran at this point, and he will seek Ryder Cup points this week as he bids to muscle onto the European team for the very first time. Other Irish names include Mark Power, Gary Hurley and Conor Purcell. Purcell is enjoying an encouraging year on the second-tier Challenge Tour: he is 11th in the overall rankings, with the top 20 earning promotion to the DP World Tour next year.
Royal County Down was this year voted as the best course in the world by Golf Digest, though it is brutally difficult if the winds pick up. It blew in 2015 and McIlroy missed the cut as only five players finished under par all week.
Robert McIntyre and Nicolai Hojgaard are among the European Ryder Cuppers in the field this week, with captain Luke Donald also teeing it up. The conditions and challenge make it difficult to predict true contenders, but South Africa’s Thriston Lawrence is enjoying an excellent year and put himself in the picture for this year’s Open Championship amid brutal conditions at Troon.
That may have steeled him for Royal County Down, which will blend beauty with brutality and showcase Irish golf to all still watching.
Thursday Selected tee times
- 7.50am: Seamus Power, Aaron Rai, Sebastian Soderberg
- 8.00am: Padraig Harrington, Nicolai Hojgaard, Thomas Detry
- 8.10am: Gary Hurley, Don Bradbury, Maximilian Kieffer
- 9.20am: Max Kennedy, Sam Bairstow, Julien Guerrier
- 9.30am: Simon Thornton, Ricardo Gouveia, Manuel Elvira
- 12.40pm: Shane Lowry, Bob MacIntyre, Ryan Fox
- 12:40pm: Mark Power, Marcus Armitage, Jannik De Bruyn
- 12:50pm: Conor Purcell, Maximilian Rottluff, Alexander Knappe
- 1pm: Rory McIlroy, Tom McKibbin, Vincent Norrman
- 2.20pm: Sean Keeling, Hurly Long, Aaron Cockerill
TV Coverage details
Thursday: RTÉ2 from 12.45pm; Sky Sports Golf from 1pm
Friday: RTÉ2 from 7:55am; Sky Sports Golf from 8am
Saturday and Sunday: RTÉ2 from 12.30pm; Sky Sports Golf from 12pm
