Donaldson Returns to Defend Irish Title

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A year ago Jamie Donaldson had not won on The European Tour, but 12 months on he arrives at Carton House as the defending Irish Open Champion.

The Welshman started last year at Royal Portrush in ideal fashion with a hole in one on the par three sixth, and his week got better and better en route to an impressive closing 66 and a four shot victory over a trio of quality players.

Since then Donaldson has also added Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship glory to his résumé after an impressive display in the desert that saw him hold off the likes of Thorbjørn Olesen and recent US Open Champion Justin Rose by a stroke.

That win saw him jump up to 29th in the Official World Golf Ranking, and having earned his place in the world’s elite top 50, he returns to Carton House as a different player and a strong contender this week on a course that is set up a little easier than seven years ago, when the event was last held at the Maynooth venue.

“It’s great to be back in Ireland,” admitted Donaldson. “It’s also great to be back at Carton House as it’s a great golf course and it is set up very well. It's favouring lower scoring than last time I came here too, so I'm slightly happier about that, as the rough is not as brutal as it was.

“Reflecting on Portrush, it was a very special week for me. To play in front of 130,000 people through the gates during the week, massive crowds on what was a tough and fantastic golf course, Portrush, and to have a hole-in-one at the start of the week was pretty amazing. It was a Cinderella story, wasn't it.”

Donaldson missed the cut the last two times the Irish Open was held on the Montgomerie Course at Carton House, but in the seven years since the defending champion has clearly matured as a player, and as such, is confident of putting up a stern defence.

He said: “My record's not that good the two times I've been here before, but I wasn't as good a golfer as I am now the last time I came here. What's important is the fact that I'm playing well now and looking forward to it.

“I can see last time I came here that I wasn't seeing the shots, now I can see them and I'm playing them, which is very important. It will be a good week.”

The defending champion gets his defence underway alongside Irishmen Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell from the first at 12.50pm on Thursday, in what promises to be one of the marquee three balls of the day.

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2013 Irish Open - Draw

Rory McIlroy will get his quest for a maiden Irish Open title underway at 7.50am from the tenth tee alongside his good friend, and Carton House resident, Shane Lowry as well as Thomas Björn, who won this event in 2006 – the last time it was held at the Maynooth venue.

Other Irish interest will also come from The 2014 Ryder Cup Captain, Paul McGinley, who tees off 20 minutes later alongside the recent Nordea Masters Champion Mikko Ilonen and the Omega Dubai Desert Classic winner Stephen Gallacher.

In the afternoon, defending champion Jamie Donaldson is sure to draw a large crowd from the tenth tee alongside his all-Irish playing partners Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell, just moments before Darren Clarke tees off with Francesco Molinari and the 2010 Irish Open Champion Ross Fisher for company.

Other notables include Brandon Stone, who marked his professional debut at last week’s BMW International Open with a tie for tenth in Munich. The young South African will tee it up alongside Jean-Baptiste Gonnet and Matthew Baldwin at 2pm from the tenth.

Welsh amateur Rhys Pugh, who received a sponsor’s invitation courtesy of his European Amateur Championship victory at Carton House last August, starts his second European Tour appearance alongside Robert Coles and Scott Henry at 9.30am from the tenth.

To see the full draw, please click here.

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Local Knowledge is Lowry Key

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Shane Lowry is hoping to put his local knowledge to good use this week as he returns home to Carton House for the Irish Open.

Lowry won this event in 2009 as an amateur at County Louth Golf Club, Baltray after overcoming Engand’s Robert Rock in a play-off in the pouring rain, and since then has added to this with a maiden professional triumph at the Portugal Masters last October.

The Irishman has also made his home at Carton House and plays the course regularly when he is not travelling, and coming off a strong showing at the BMW International Open last week, where he shot a closing round of 65 to finish in a tie for 22nd, he is clearly very confident of a strong display this week.

“It’s definitely a huge, huge week for me and I’ve been looking forward to it ever since it was announced that the tournament was going to be here last year,” admitted Lowry. “I live here, play this golf course every week when I’m home, and I’m therefore really looking forward to it and hopefully I can have a good weekend.

“The golf was going good last week after opening up with two easy rounds of 69, it felt easy, and then it felt like my arms had been chopped off and I played poorly on Saturday. All I wanted to do Sunday morning was go out and shoot a decent score and get some confidence for this week and I managed to shoot a very easy bogey free 65 which was nice, and it gives me a lot of confidence going into this week.

“Hopefully I can give myself a chance to win this week as I definitely know that if I give myself a chance on the back nine this Sunday then I can pull it off and that’s just the confidence I’ll need this weekend.”

Put this current form alongside the pressure of playing in your national open on your home course and Lowry would be forgiven for feeling under pressure, however the Irishman sees it as an advantage, and he cannot wait to get going on Thursday.

He said: “It might look like there should be more pressure on me, but I think it is an advantage if anything as I play this golf course week in, week out and I know it like the back of my hand and I’ve always said that was the main reason I won in Baltray, because I knew the golf course so well.

“I’m definitely looking forward to it. I’m excited about it. I can’t wait and I’m looking forward to having all my friends and family up to watch me as well so if you ask me if that is added pressure then I don’t think so, that pressure is more of a privilege really.

“Portrush last year was brilliant, the crowds were amazing, the golf course was great, but I think we’re going to have just as good a week this week as the weather is going to be quite nice so the crowds are going to come out and watch us and hopefully if we get an Irish challenger over the weekend then we can get an extra couple of thousand people in the gates so it should be good.”

All the evidence therefore points to Lowry having a strong week at Carton House from Thursday, but he knows he will be hard pushed to finish as top Irishman if the likes of Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy and Ryder Cup Captain Paul McGinley play their best.

“Top Irishman is tough these kinds of weeks,” said Lowry. “We have some of the best players in the world, and I think if you’re top Irishman this week then you won’t be too far off the top of the leaderboard.”

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Maybin Makes Muirfield Open

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Gareth Maybin will tee up in the British Open at Muirfield next month after two rounds in the international final qualifying at Sunningdale.

The 32-year-old former World Cup player, who completed a scholarship at the University of South Alabama before turning professional in 2005, posted a 36-hole total of 136 over the Old and New courses with rounds of 67 and 69.

That put the Northern Irishman from Donagh, Co Fermanagh in a tie for third place behind American Brooks Koepka and England's Oliver Fisher.

In a tense situation, Maybin kept his nerve over the closing holes on the New Course, finishing with two birdies and four pars.

Michael Hoey – with whom Maybin played for Ireland in the 2007 World Cup in China, missed out after recording 140 with scores of 71 and 69 to put him outside the top 20.

Meanwhile, Dubliner Neil O'Briain took a step towards booking a place in The Open Championship by making final qualifying in Scotland next week, when he topped the six going through from yesterday's regional qualifier over the Island course.

The former Waterford College graduate, now attached to the Old Conna Club was third in the 2011 Irish PGA Club Pros Championship and yesterday fired a 70 – one below the standard scratch score – to finish well clear of his rivals.

Bushfort-based David Jones and Derry's 35-year-old Michael McGeady, the 2008 Swalec Welsh Challenge Tour event winner, both went through with scores of 73.

Local man David Ramaluk, Brendon McConnell and Killarney's Daniel Sugrue also overcame the regional qualifying hurdle.

However, Royal Portrush amateur Matthew McAlpine, who qualified for the match play stages of the British Amateur Championship in Kent last week, fell by the wayside with a 77.

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Clarke Savours Castle Stuart Return

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Darren Clarke will reach a notable milestone when he competes in this year’s Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Castle Stuart Golf Links near Inverness.

The Northern Irishman clocks up his 20th appearance in the tournament, from July 11-14, as he seeks to recapture the spirit which helped inspire him to Major Championship glory at the age of 42 at Royal St.George’s back in 2011.

Remarkably, Clarke will be teeing up professionally in Scotland, the Home of Golf, for the 53rd time in total, encompassing 20 Scottish Opens, 12 Open Championships, 12 Alfred Dunhill Links Championships, six Alfred Dunhill Cups and three Johnnie Walker Championships.

Clarke, a winner of 14 titles on The European Tour in a glittering professional career spanning more than two decades, returns to Inverness for the 2013 Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open knowing that the stunning links provides the perfect stage from which to launch another Open Championship challenge.

Two years ago, the five-time Ryder Cup player from Portrush fired rounds of 69, 67 and 75 to finish down the field in the rain-shortened event, but the opportunity to re-acquaint himself with the eccentricities of links golf was a powerful launch pad for the following week in Kent.

Clarke, who made his Scottish Open debut at Gleneagles in 1992, has come agonisingly close to winning the title on a number of occasions, most notably in 2003, 2005 and 2010 when only one player finished ahead of him on each occasion.

Seven times in the top ten, Clarke was tied second in 2003 behind Ernie Els and occupied the same position two years later, when Tim Clark captured the title. In 2010 he finished runner-up on his own, three shots behind the champion Edoardo Molinari, who also returns to Scotland for this year’s championship with his eye on a second crown.

Clarke went on to play the golf of his life in the 2011 Open Championship, savouring the finest moment of his distinguished career by claiming the Claret Jug by three strokes from Americans Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson.

He said: “I am looking forward enormously to getting back to Castle Stuart. I grew up on links courses in Northern Ireland and have always had a special affinity with that style of golf. Of course, it eventually paid off when I finally won The Open at Royal St. George’s two years ago. 

“It was a moment I will never forget, but I also appreciate the importance of playing the previous week at Castle Stuart. It’s the ideal way to prepare for Muirfield this year, but I would love nothing better than to head into The Open with the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open title under my belt.

“I’ve been very close in the past, as my record proves, and I have always enjoyed playing in the event down the years. There is always a high quality field and it’s just the sort of intense competition I need to get into the right physical and mental shape to tackle The Open.” 

A world class field is assembling at Castle Stuart, which hosts the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open for the third consecutive year before the tournament moves to Royal Aberdeen in 2014.

Major Champions Clarke, Mickelson, Padraig Harrington and Paul Lawrie are joined by defending champion Jeev Milkha Singh, new BMW PGA champion Matteo Manassero and a host of other European Tour winners and Ryder Cup players on the banks of the Moray Firth.

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