BlogIrish Open Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

Amazing on how just three years ago this event had one foot in the grave.  It was close to being gone, they couldn’t get any Irish sponsorship and it was hard just finding a course to have the event on.  That was until Rory McIlroy got involved and help bringing in Dubai Duty Free to sponsor the event.  With his foundation being a part of the tournament, Rory is also working on getting more marquee players to this event.  The upside is now the tournament has no problems in dying and is striving as the prize fund has doubled to four milllion pounds (About $4.36 million).  In 2011 first place paid around $360,000 while this year first place will pay $730,000.

This year the event is being played at The K Club, which is outside of Dublin.  Yes the Ryder Cup was played there ten years ago, but hopefully the future of this event will be if it can be played at Portmarnock which was the home of this event in the 70s and last played on the famous links in 2003.  If they could play on some great seaside courses, McIlroy could talk other marquee names like Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler to come over, once that happens it would put this event on the map.  Oh for those wondering, a big reason to play at The K Club this week is it’s celebration of its 25th anniversary.

Course information:

• The K Club
• Straffan, Co. Kildare, Ireland
• 7,350 yards     Par 35-37–71

The K Club was the brain storm of Michael Smurfit, who took over his father’s company that specialises in manufacturing paper-based packaging.  Smurfit liked golf and loved playing it in the United States.  He also loved watching golf tournaments and wanted to bring big time golf to Ireland.  In 1988 he found a small resort outside of Dublin called the Straffan House which James Bond creator Ian Fleming loved to vacation at.  Smurfit bought the 330 acre resort and bought an additional 220 acres.  He wanted to build the best golf course in the world and after spending a lot of time with a lot of different golf architects and finally decided on Arnold Palmer to build his dream.

Palmer built two courses, but the one that holds his name, the Palmer Ryder Cup course is the championship venue.  The course is good and always in pristine condition.  It’s one of the best parkland courses in Ireland, opening in July 1991.  The course became well know and in 1995 became the home of the European Open, a partnership that lasted to 2007.  Another good thing happened and that was in 1998 when the European Tour made it know that they wanted to take the 2005 (at the time before the 9/11 year postponement) Ryder Cup to Ireland and a combination of the course being so good along with Smufit’s deep pockets landed them the Ryder Cup.  Many expressed disappointment on the selection, many felt that with all of the classic Irish links courses one of them would be picked.

The course is good but frankly many hope that the future of the Irish Open is on courses like Portrush, Royal County Down, Portmarnock, Royal Dublin, Ballybunion or The European Club.

As for The K Club it will give a good challenge, with it’s great conditioning and so many natural hazards, water will come in play on 11 holes.  The finish will be a gamblers delight with 16 and 18 being reachable par 4s guarded by water and the challenging par 4 17th, with water all along the left side.  The greens are rather large and have some undulation to them and will roll pretty fast for a course in Ireland.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the Irish Open

Key stat for the winner:

• Hard to guage what the keys are to winning at The K Club.  The last time an event was played on it the golf ball was a lot different and clubs have come a long way.  In trying to compare what course is like The K Club it seems a lot like Quail Hollow, the site of the Wells Fargo Championship.  For that course those that hit it long have a big advantage and I can see that happening this week, those that hit it long will do well.
• The course does have rough that will protect it, but in a talk with a low handicap member says that the course is much different.  The trees have grown out and have become more of a hazard over rough, which is there but not as penal as it was a decade ago.  As he said a good driver, that it’s it long and reasonably straight will win since the fairways are generous.  He also said that the weather conditions will play an important role.  In looking at the forecast one thing will happen, the players will see a lot of it.  Probably not as much as the rain that hit the Ryder Cup in 2006, but you better be a good rain player to do well.  This also helps those that fly the ball farther, with wet fairways it means no role and those that hit it short will have to be sharp with long irons and woods to score well.  So I would look for a bomber to do very well this week.
• Last but not least look at our hot index of players in the field (It’s up above this).  You have to think that those that are playing good will do well.  Also don’t put much credence in the last two events on the European Tour, they are on courses totally different and fields that aren’t as good as the one playing this week.  But look for that golfer that has shown solid improvements in the last ten weeks.
• One last weird stat that has nothing to do with who is going to win or not.  I would of thought that with this event being played in Ireland, you would have a lot of Irish players in the field.  Find it hard to believe that only 21 players from Ireland and Northern Ireland are playing in this event.