Late-summer date likely to draw very strong field

IRISH OPEN:IN SECURING a prime late-summer date on the European Tour for next year's 3 Irish Open which will be held over the Killeen course at Killarney on July 29th-August 1st, a bank holiday weekend in Ireland, the tour's chief executive George O'Grady yesterday admitted to what he called "robust negotiations" with the title sponsors who had made a change in date a "key priority".

“We believe in this championship,” remarked O’Grady, explaining: “We moved four (other) tournaments to get at this stage . . . . we’d very complicated negotiations with people to persuade them it was in their interest to go somewhere else (on the tour schedule). But it’s one example of the commitment the European Tour has to the Irish Open and to the belief we have in the partners, to treat the tournament in the way we want it to be treated.”

The switch from a date in May, as it was this year at Baltray where Shane Lowry claimed a victory straight out of the pages of fiction, to this new plum date in late July – crucially, two weeks ahead of the WGC Bridgestone Invitational and three before the US PGA championship – should certainly entice a very strong field to the tournament which will again have a purse of €3 million.

While O’Grady acknowledged 3’s “ideal date” would be the week before the British Open, a slot held by the Scottish Open, Robert Finnegan, the mobile network’s chief executive, said it was “a very good date for us. We engaged with the tour, and the tour engaged with us, and we eventually came to a date we are very, very happy with.”

The critical aspect of the date in terms of attracting players is that players, especially European-based ones, should be able to plan to include it on their schedules. Traditionally, many of the top players like to take the week after a major off, but next year’s Irish Open will take place two weeks after the British Open at St Andrews and will also give players heading to the Bridgestone and the US PGA breathing space.

The new date for the Irish Open was occupied by the Czech Open this year, while the Buick Open – which was played for the last time this year, when it was won by Tiger Woods – had that slot on the US Tour.

While it may still prove difficult to get American players to play in the Irish Open, O’Grady, for one, is convinced the date and venue – which last played host to the tournament in 1992 when Nick Faldo won back-to-back titles – would prove attractive to all of the leading Europeans and other worldwide players.

“There’s a lot of competition to get the top players. The field (in Baltray) was nothing to apologise for, in my opinion. You’d two of the top draws in the world, who happen to be Irish (Pádraig Harrington and Rory McIlroy) . . . Pádraig Harrington has a choice. You can say he has to play in the Irish Open, hmmm, yes, perhaps. But the fact is he wants to. And Lee Westwood didn’t play in the Players Championship (the previous week) and came to play here . . . . we are in a time of the year now that could make it very attractive for a world player to come here as well. We’ll be trying our very best.

“We’re totally and utterly committed to the Irish Open and have spent a lot of time talking to the leading players . . . . Nick Faldo was at the height of his powers when he won (at Killarney), it’s a real shot-makers course.”

At a time when a number of tournaments around the world were reducing prize money, Finnegan – “We believe 3 is good for the Irish Open and the Irish Open is good for 3,” he said – said prize money would remain at €3 million but pointed out that the fact there was no withholding tax in Ireland, as there is in many countries, was a further attraction to players.

As Redmond O’Donoghue, the chairman of Fáilte Ireland, put it in recognising the boost it would give to the region, “Killarney is the spiritual home of Irish tourism and there is something very wonderful about taking the Irish Open there. It enhances the premiership status of the Irish Open.”