BlogHorizon Irish Open Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

Impressive on how just a decade 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 helped bring in Dubai Duty-Free to sponsor the event. With his foundation being a part of the tournament, Rory also worked on getting more marquee players to this event. Things worked out, and the event changed sponsors to Horizon last year. The upside is that the tournament has no problems on dying and is striving as the prize fund went from 2 million euros (About $2.2 million) in 2014 to 2.5 million euros ($2.75 million) when Dubai Duty Free took over. In 2019, it grew to $7 million, and this year, with Horizon it will be $6 million, saw the purse has gone up two-fold. Another significant change for this year is that the event moves from late June/ early July to a September date right before the Ryder Cup. With this move away from the Scottish Open/British Open, more marquee players will play. They even got past champion Padraig Harrington, who is playing this week in Ireland instead of defending his Champions Tour event. But the most significant player in the field is Rory McIlroy, who didn’t play last year but is returning.

This year, the event is being played at The K Club outside Dublin. Yes, the Ryder Cup was played there 17 years ago, so there will be a lot of good vibes from not only the big Ryder Cup win for Team Europe but also returning to the site of the 2016 Irish Open won by McIlroy.

Seamus Power is out for the rest of the year:

When the 2022 season started a year ago, Irishman Seamus Power got off to a great start. Starting with a win at the Bermuda Championship, Powers was T-3rd at Mayakoba and T-5th at the RSM Classic and went into the calendar year first in the FedExCup rankings. Little did anyone know that he would play his last events 21 events with no top-tens and only seven top-20 finishes, the best being a T-13th at the John Deere Classic. The only positive thing to happen was in the par 3 tournament at the Masters when he made back-to-back aces.

Power has suffered a hip injury since the beginning of the summer and was advised to take some time off. He didn’t heed the warning and struggled, having to withdraw from the Genesis Scottish Open after something seemed to pop in the first round. Powers missed the British Open cut and struggled in his two FedExCup playoff events. His last start was 48th at the BMW Championship, and he finished 41st in the FedExCup standings after starting the year in first place. Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald may have known something as he overlooked Power with minimal talk about him. According to Brian Keogh of the Irish Independent, he got Power to confirm that he will be out for 10 to 12 weeks but doesn’t require surgery.

One last thing, Captain picks:

Yes, the Ryder Cup captains’ picks have always been controversial. The first picks came in 1979 when the European Captain picked the first wild card pick in Peter Oosterhuis. As a first-time section, Oosterhuis had an okay record, winning two and losing two matches. When Captain John Jacobs again picked Oosterhuis the following year, the results weren’t as good as Oosterhuis lost all three matches. Still, it didn’t matter as Team USA walked over the Europeans, winning 18.5 to 9.5. The first real poor Ryder Cup captain’s pick came in 1989 when Bernhard Langer lost all three of his matches, as for only the second time in Ryder Cup history, the matches were halved. The next time they played at Kiawah Island, Mark James was a captain pick and lost three of his five matches. His singles loss to Lanny Wadkins had much to do with the defeat. In 1993, European captain Bernard Gallacher picked Seve Ballesteros, whose game was declining. Ballesteros made a lot of Ryder Cup history, but this year, he lost his singles match to Jim Gallagher, Jr., as the Europeans went down to a 15 to 13 defeat. Until then, the scrutiny of captain picks went toward Team Europe, but in 1995, the tide changed. Team captain Lanny Wadkins went for experience in his two captain picks, and the big reason for the defeat was the poor play of Fred Couples and Curtis Strange. For Couples, he tied his signals match with Ian Woosnam, but for Curtis Strange, it was even more brutal as he lost all three of his matches, including losing to Nick Faldo as he lost down the stretch. The matches were tight as team Europe won 14.5 to 13.5. In 1999, European captain Mark James got a lot of heat for picking Andrew Coltart. It wasn’t a good week for Andrew as his form was way off, and James didn’t let him play in any team matches. So the only time he played was in the singles, and he was a 3 & 2 loser to Tiger Woods, and many question if Coltart was a wrong pick. In 2012, many questioned captain Davis Love III’s choice of Steve Stricker, and he proved to be a poor pick as he lost all four matches and was part of the Four-Ball lost on Saturday, which set up team Europeans come-from-behind victory. In the singles, playing in the second to last group, Striker lost by a hole to Martin Kaymer as the European Team won 14.5 to 13.5. Some will also point out another bad captain pick: in 2018, captain Jim Furyk picked Tiger Woods, which went terribly wrong as the Europeans won 17.5 to 10.5. Anytime Woods is selected, you must think it’s a sure thing. He came to France on a high after winning the Tour Championship, but after playing in four straight events, a lot for Woods, his fifth straight start in five weeks went bad as Tiger lost all four matches.

So, could this happen this year? As for Team USA captain Zach Johnson picked six players, two that will get some scrutiny will be Sam Burns and Justin Thomas. As for Thomas, he has a lot of great Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup history, but his record for 2023 is not that good. As for Sam Burns, he did win the Match Play but hasn’t played great since. Captain Johnson leaves off Cameron Young, Keegan Bradley, Lucas Glover, and Denny McCarthy. So if Thomas or Burns flounder, there wasn’t that one person left behind. But captain Luke Donald could come under some scrutiny. He elected Ludvig Aberg, Tommy Fleetwood, Nicolai Højgaard, Shane Lowry, Justin Rose, and Sepp Straka as his six Captain’s Picks. I don’t see any problem picking Aberg, Fleetwood Hojgaard, and Straka. But for Rose and especially Lowry, they have not played well during the summer, and many will wonder if Johnson made a flawed call in not taking Adrian Meronk, who not only won the Italian Open in May on the same course as the Ryder Cup is being played on. Meronk also didn’t have that bad of a summer, he was T-3rd in June at the BMW International and T-13th last week in Switzerland. Only time will tell, but throughout captain selections, there have been a couple of boners, and Captain Johnson and Donald don’t want to hold that special place in Ryder Cup history of making a lousy captain’s choice.

Course information:

• The K Club
• Straffan, Co. Kildare, Ireland
• 7,441 yards     Par 35-37–71

The K Club was the brainstorm of Michael Smurfit, who took over his father’s company that specializes in manufacturing paper-based packaging. Smurfit liked golf and loved playing it in the United States. He loved watching golf tournaments and wanted to bring big-time golf to Ireland. In 1988, he founded 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 purchased an additional 220 acres. He wanted to build the best golf course in the world, and after spending a lot of time with many different golf architects, he finally decided on Arnold Palmer to make 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 known 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 known 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 with the selection, many felt that with all of the classic Irish links courses one of them would be picked.

The course is good, but 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 its excellent conditioning and many natural hazards, water will come into play on 11 holes. The finish will be a gambler delight, with 16 and 18 being reachable par 5s 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

The key stat for the winner:

• It’s hard to gauge the keys to winning at The K Club. The last time an event was played on it seven years ago, the golf ball was a lot different, and clubs have come a long way. In trying to compare the course, The K Club seems a lot like Quail Hollow, the site of the Wells Fargo Championship. Those who hit it long have a significant advantage for that course; 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, a member says that the course is much different. The trees have grown out and become more of a hazard over rough, which is there but not as penal as a decade ago. As he said, a good driver that hits it long and reasonably straight will win since the fairways are generous. We can see that in 2016 when Rory McIlroy won. 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 much better weather than at the Ryder Cup and the 2016 Irish Open. The first three days will be cloudy skies and possible thunderstorms on Sunday. Temperatures will be very high for the area, with each day getting to 80, which is very hot for Ireland. So, I would look for a bomber to do very well this week.
• It is very important to look at our hot index of players in the field (It’s above this). You have to think that those that are playing good will do well. Also, don’t put much faith in the last two events on the European Tour. They are on different courses and fields that aren’t as good as the one playing this week. But look for that golfer who has improved in the last ten weeks.
• One last weird stat that has nothing to do with who will win or not. I would have thought that with this event being played in Ireland, you would have a lot of Irish players in the field. I find it hard to believe that only 9 players from Ireland and Northern Ireland are playing in this event.