GOLF IRISH OPEN:TO THE Chinese, three is the perfect number. To the ancient Celts, it held a mystical importance. To the Jews, it is the number of truth.
And yesterday, as it became the title sponsor to the Irish Open at Baltray on May 14th-17th, the mobile network 3 demonstrated hope in this time of doom and gloom by committing to a three-year deal with a purse this year of €3 million, keeping a perfect symmetry.
Indeed, as company chief executive Robert Finnegan put it, his intention is to turn a tournament he referred to as “a sleeping giant” into one of the PGA European Tour’s flagship championships.
And if the mid-May date was not exactly the new sponsor’s first choice, the upbeat nature of the launch in Dublin’s Westbury Hotel provided great optimism not only for the tournament but also for a sector of industry here that has been badly hit by the global credit crunch.
Even Martin Cullen, the Minister for Sport, who’d had that fright the other day when the door fell off his helicopter, could feel safe that, finally, there was some good news coming his way.
“It’s a great day for Irish sport and for tourism,” he said. “Ireland doesn’t have much in terms of natural resources, but we do have some jewels and golf is one of them.”
George O’Grady, the European Tour’s executive director, insisted his team would “step up to the plate to make it work”.
The date in the calendar – immediately after the Players in Sawgrass on the US Tour and immediately before the PGA at Wentworth – was booked before 3 came on board, and the tournament’s positioning in the calendar is one area that will be open for review once this year’s event is over.
It is believed 3 would like a date closer to mid-summer, but the two preferred dates are currently held by the French Open and the Scottish Open and, as O’Grady put it, “we do not break contracts”.
So, any new date will be for another day’s talking, and O’Grady observed that “any time you got a date is good – despite the credit crunch, there are too many tournaments to fit in (to the schedule).”
But plans are afoot to make the journey a little less gruelling for those players competing at Sawgrass, as “some friends” will make a private jet available for players to make the trip across the Atlantic for the Irish Open.
Needless to say, O’Grady added that two of the players most in demand these days are Irish – Pádraig Harrington and Rory McIlroy – both of whom will play at Sawgrass, and their presence was one any tournament director in any country would love to have.
“3 want the very best players playing, (but) your triple major winner Pádraig is one of the three biggest draws in golf, behind Tiger Woods but alongside Phil Mickelson, and this is a date that suits him,” said O’Grady.
Significantly, Harrington, McIlroy and Graeme McDowell have been working the locker-rooms in recent months encouraging the stars to make the trip to the Irish Open, which has the added attraction of being staged on a links course. When the event was last staged there, in 2004, Australia’s Brett Rumford won.
This year’s prize fund of €3 million is up €500,000 on last year’s at Adare Manor.
This May date does have its attractions: for one, it will be the first time many of the top players, among them Harrington and McIlroy, will play on European soil this season.
