BlogIrish Open Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

This event is still around thanks to the European Tour, which has propped it up for almost a decade.  This year is a bit different since Rory McIlroy has worked very hard to get more players to play.  This is the 72nd time it’s being played and returns to Northern Ireland for the first time since 2012 and to Royal County Down for the fourth time. 1939 was the last time the Irish Open was held on Royal County Down, which many say is the purest links course in the world.  Front nine is along the sea with the first 16 holes played in dunes, this is a driving course in which most of the fairway areas are blind from the tee.  So look for a combination of a player that does well on links courses, who has a solid tee to green game.  Also must be mentally tough to keep his ball in play and be able to play under any conditions the elements throw at him.

Just like Cypress Point, which has 17 great holes and a bad finish, Royal County Down has the same reputation as 17 and 18 haven’t been very good finishing holes.  In a way it’s a shame that they don’t flip the nines, the front nine would be a great finishing nine and would be very scenic on television.  The club has worked hard to make 17 and 18 better holes, so we will just have to wait and see what the players think.

McIlroy has done a good job in getting friends to play.  Rickie Fowler, who played in the Walker Cup held at Royal County Down in 2007 has made the trip.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the BMW PGA Championship.

Key stat for the winner:

• Frankly it’s a guess since there hasn’t been a European Tour event on the course since 1939.  Now the course did hold the Senior British Open in 2000, ’01 & ’02 and the winners had one thing in common.  All of them (Christy O’Connor, Jr., Ian Stanley and Noboru Sugai) were great shotmakers and terrible putters, which makes sense.
• The greens at Royal County Down have very little undulations and since it’s by the sea, the greens won’t be as fast as last year’s site, Fota Island.
• The course is short, could it be overpowered?  At 7,186 this course is short as there are only three par 4s over 450 yards.
• So can a long hitter like Rory have his way with the course?  Probably not.  Remember most of the tee shots are blind with deep bunkers lining the fairway.  These bunkers aren’t like the one’s in America that players can still get on the green, if you hit it in one of Royal County Downs fairway bunkers, your looking to just get it back into the fairway.  Also just like Colonial, ten of the long holes are dogleg, so long hitters could hit it through the fairways.  So you aren’t going to get a long hitter overpower it.  Now as I say this, one thing to keep in mind is that there are three par 5s that are very easy to reach in two so a player like Rory  could play them in 10 under par.  Also the par 4, 16th will be driveable, so right there is four holes that long hitters will have a field day on.
• Rough is up and will play a factor for those that don’t hit it in the fairway.  The course will also play fast and firm, so at 7,168 it will play a lot shorter.  Still the guy that hits fairways and greens will be on top.
• Guess what will play a big factor this week?  The weather.  In looking at the long range forecast the players will not see the sun as each day will be cloudy, wet and windy.  Sunday is suppose to bring the worst, rain and wind up to 30 mph so it will take a different type of player to do well.