Showing posts with label 2014IrishOpen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2014IrishOpen. Show all posts

1/07/2016

Irish Open Venues - Woodbrook

Christy O'Connor Snr winner in 1975

Established in 1921, by Sir Stanley Cochrane as his private club, Woodbrook was first affiliated to the Golfing Union of Ireland in 1926. Sir Stanley had previously indulged his enthusiasm for cricket at Woodbrook, a fact that is still reflected in the pavilion-style clubhouse and the cricket bell, which tolled the start and finish of play and now hangs in the bar.

However, it is as a venue for top class international golf, that Woodbrook is justly famous. 

Woodbrook hosted the first major professional tournament in Ireland. The Hennessy Tournament in 1958. This once-off event, proved so popular amongst the Irish sporting public, that the following year it became the Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes Tournament with the then biggest prize fund 5,000 guineas. 

All the leading players arrived to play Woodbrook and International Tournament Golf in Ireland was born. In 1963 the tournament that really established Woodbrook as a major golf venue began – The Carrolls International. Carrolls brought the cream of British European and, indeed, American golfers to play the fairways of Woodbrook in the ensuing years up to 1975. Many of today’s legends of Golf played the course. 

Some, as winners, like Christy O’Connor, Senior and Junior, Bernard Gallagher, Neil Coles, Brian Huggett and Bernard Hunt. Others, as rookies on the day, like Jack Newton, Eamon D’Arcy, John O’Leary and Sam Torrance. Superstars, like Open Championship Winners, Max Faulkner, five times winner Peter Thompson, Gary Player, Tony Jacklin, Tom Watson and Ken Nagle all delighted the larger Irish galleries. Anybody who was anybody, in the history of British and European golf from 1963 to 1975, appeared at the Carrolls in Woodbrook.

The Irish Open
The Irish Open had been discontinued in 1953, having run almost continuously since 1927. Carrolls revived this great Irish Title in 1975 at Woodbrook and the modern Irish Open was born. This is now an integral part of the European PGA Tour. An all-star field, including the British Open Winner Tom Watson, played for the first Prize of £5,000 and the inaugural winner was Ireland’s Christy O’Connor Junior, nephew of the great Christy O’Connor Senior, himself a four times winner of the Carrolls International.

The Train
Trains have always played a major part in Woodbrook’s history. In olden days the Dublin-Bray train stopped at the club and in the early days of tournament golf, spectators alighted on the course. Up to 1956, when members wanted to go home, they pulled a switch in the club house bar and the next train, to pass along the way, stopped for two minutes to pick up those who were travelling to Bray or Dublin. Alas! Today, such hospitality is unavailable, but on six holes, the spectre of the DART and the railway line looms large for the wayward driver.

The Course
Although a flat course, “Woodbrook”, as Christy O’Connor, Senior put it “may look easy, but it is a very difficult course, with the constant threat of out of bounds and other hazards that can wreck your card”. In this regard the wind plays a most significant role. When it blows from the North, nine holes are affected, including three out of the last four.

When it’s from the South, the index one tenth plus the par three eleventh, and the par five – 12th, 14th and 16th, all become very difficult long holes. A crosswind from the East affects almost every hole on the course and calls for shot making of the highest calibre. With its configuration of five par threes and five par fives, Woodbrook’s layout is unusual but, in the opinion of those who have played there, it is a championship course in every meaning of the word.

Recently redesigned, with three new holes and 18 sand based greens, built to USPGA standards, Woodbrook is once more a challenge for the best.

The club has hosted 18 major international championship events, a record unlikely to be surpassed, and numerous Irish Professional and Amateur Championships through the years. The staging of the AIB Sponsored Irish Seniors Open in the club in 1998 completes a remarkable journey for many of those stars of yesterday, bringing them back to the fairways they once graced so well.

Woodbrook is unique in Irish Golf, with its heritage and tradition, ambiance and atmosphere and the quality and layout of its course. For members and visitors alike it represents a challenge to be met weekly or just occasionally, but always enjoyably.



3/09/2015

Harrington Not Down on Irish Open

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Padraig Harrington will be hoping to add a second Irish Open title to his glittering CV when he heads to Royal County Down for the Irish Open Hosted by the Rory Foundation in May.

The 43 year old returned to the winners’ enclosure last week when he triumphed at the Honda Classic on the US PGA Tour, in doing so rising from 297th to 82nd in the Official World Golf Ranking.

The impressively clinical performance at PGA National in Florida was reminiscent of Harrington’s halcyon days of 2007, when he won the Irish Open at Adare Manor Hotel and Golf Resort shortly before a period of domination in the Majors, during which he claimed back-to-back Open Championships and the US PGA Championship in little more than a year.

The popular Irishman ended a 25-year wait for a home winner at Adare Manor when he beat Welshman Bradley Dredge in a play-off, which was a fitting result after several near-misses, including when he was joint runner-up in 2001 and 2004 and tied fifth in 2005.

Harrington added another runner-up finish in 2010, and in 2012, when the tournament was played in Northern Ireland – at Royal Portrush – for the first time in its long history, he was tied seventh.

Three years on and the Irish Open is heading back north of the border, and the 14-time European Tour winner is relishing making his competitive debut at Royal County Down from May 28-31.

“The Irish Open is my fifth Major and always one of the first events on my schedule, for obvious reasons,” said Harrington, who was the European Tour Number One in 2006. “Whilst it is always a special week for me, this year will be interesting as it’ll be the first time I’ve played at Royal County Down as a professional, so I’m really looking forward to getting there and seeing how the course has been set up.

“The last time the Irish Open was played in Northern Ireland, at Royal Portrush in 2012, it was a huge success and I was glad to be in the mix on the final day. The crowds were similar to a Major and generated a great atmosphere, and I’m sure it will be well attended again at Royal County Down.

“It’s great to see Rory involved and supporting the tournament, and it looks like it’ll be one of the strongest fields the Irish Open has ever had. It’s shaping up to be a great week and I look forward to being part of it.”

Harrington will be joined at Royal County Down by a star-studded field, including tournament host and World Number One Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els, Lee Westwood, Rickie Fowler and defending champion Mikko Ilonen.

More than 80,000 spectators are expected and tens of thousands of tickets have already been sold for the event, which is supported by Tourism Northern Ireland.



12/17/2014

Irish Open Return in Fota Plans


Fota Island Resort is in the market to welcome back the Irish Open to Cork "in the not too distant future", as the city and county prepares to bid for a number of spectacular international sporting events on the back of a successful staging of the European Tour event.

Internal reviews conducted by a number of the tournament’s stakeholders have shone a positive light on the execution and impact of the 2014 Irish Open, which was supported by Fáilte Ireland and counted the Fota Island Resort and Cork’s City and County Councils among its sponsors, with the Irish Examiner as an official media partner.

In addition to the 104,000 people who attended the pro-am and four rounds in June, the television coverage reached an estimated 300 million viewers around the world, with more than 160,000 hours broadcast.

That in itself is having a knock-on effect for the region, with Fota Island Resort reporting increased bookings as a result of its staging, and Cork City Council bidding to serve as the departure point for powerboat racing’s world renowned Venture Cup endurance race to Monte Carlo.

“It’s fabulous. Even in the latter half of the year, we’ve seen a lot of Scandinavians, Germans and Dutch visiting and for next year already we’re seeing a stronger flow of UK, European and even North American bookings,” Fota Island Resort director of marketing Seamus Leahy told the Irish Examiner.

“People are telling us they saw us on the coverage or they’re asking ‘tell us a bit more’ because of it. It’s only anecdotal but booking trends were significantly stronger for the second half of this year than for the previous year and the booking trend for next year is a lot stronger than for 2014.

“The big thing for us as well has been the associations we’re making with tour operators, the people who organise golf tours. That’s where I have really seen the benefit from the Irish Open, they’re now putting Cork and Fota on their itineraries.”

Such is the short-to-medium term impact of staging an international event such as the Irish Open that Leahy said Fota would be keen to bring the tournament back to Cork.

“We hosted it in 2000 and 2001 and it has always been a useful tag to be ‘host of the Irish Open’ but its shelf life is probably three to five years in terms of real benefit so it’s good to be a recent host.

“And I’d hope that we’d have it again in the future at some stage. Our view is that it should probably be three to five years before we revisit it.

“It was a fabulous week, we had fabulous weather and a competitive field with a couple of Irish guys competing. The golf course wasn’t beaten up but it was a good test for golf and it would be hard to surpass it from a crowd and whole experience point of view. We had almost universal positivity coming back to us from the people who visited so you’d always be saying, ‘well, how do you trump that?’

“But we’ll take that challenge on again in a few years. When you create these events on your site you build the infrastructure that allow you to host and to host it further. We built and improved our car parks and we lengthened the golf course to allow us to take the event and so those things are there for the future and you wouldn’t want to leave it too long before they become obsolete. But for the most part it’s going to be hard to trump what we did last year.”

With Royal County Down hosting the tournament in 2015 and Lough Erne announced as the 2017 venue, the next staging of the Irish Open in the Republic of Ireland is set for 2016, although that may be a little soon for Fota. Leahy cautioned: “You’d never say ‘never’ but two of the next three years are signed up. We would like it back in the not distant future so we wouldn’t rule it out.”

Damien O’Mahony, the head of Cork City Council’s Tourism, Events, Arts & Marketing, praised the efforts of the European Tour and Fota Island Resort’s owners, the Kang family, and staff as well his counterparts on the county council for playing their part in staging such a successful tournament inside and outside the course. He added the event had also showcased the city and its ability to stage international events in the future.

“The way the tournament was set up by the European Tour and Fota Island in the county council’s backyard and the weather we enjoyed that week meant the coverage we got was fantastic and made Cork look to be staging a truly international standard event that will allow us to stand up in any company.

“And when people do come to Cork on foot of watching the Irish Open or last week’s MTV event in the city, I genuinely think their expectations aren’t shattered because we offer something very, very good from the food and the shopping to the people here. All of these events, we have the credential of having held them now and when we bid for future events we’ll have the references of organisations such as the European Tour to back that up. We (successfully) bid for the Fleadh Cheoil 2016 and used the experiences of those various events, including the Irish Open, in testimonials. Hopefully they concluded we must be doing something right.

“We’re looking at the Venture Cup which is a big powerboat racing event held in Monaco for a number of years as our harbour really defines Cork and we would love to get some more spectacular international events like the Irish Open.

“We can stand up there with the best with the raw materials we have to offer so we’re saying ‘you bring the television cameras and the expertise of running these events and we’ll make all the rest happen’. I think the Irish Open in Cork showed that. Of course the Irish Open has to be in Ireland but it demonstrated that in terms of accommodating events of this scale, you can do something quite spectacular in Cork.”

While the Irish Open enjoyed an international television audience, those actually attending the event were mostly residents in the Munster region, according to estimates and Declan Daly, county council’s divisional manager for South Cork, said a return to Fota for the tournament would see an even better job done to draw in ticket sales from elsewhere in the country.

"I think if we were doing things differently in the morning we might make more of an effort to promote it around the country than we did,” Daly said. “We made some effort to put billboards up around Dublin in key areas and maybe we’d go further afield if we were doing it again but the short run-in of five months from when it was decided it was coming here limited us in what we could do, but we learned as we went along.

“We’d be delighted to have other sporting events, of course. Would we get the Tour back? I suppose the issue there is really more to do with sponsors than anything else. We were told by tournament director Antonia Beggs that the support they got here was ‘unprecedented’ and I’d say they’d be well disposed to us if there was an opportunity to come back. The reality, though, is that if they did find a major title sponsor that they would be the ones calling the shots as to where it goes, as opposed to the Tour.

“Having said that, we proved we did a good job the last time and any company considering taking the plunge and bringing it back here would be very much assured of our active support.

“And because we’re maybe a little bit smaller than some other places, we have an intimacy here.

“We can get people together, working co-operatively towards an end goal. That’s what happened this year and it was very successful.”


6/24/2014

Only Sing When You're Winning


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"Commit yourself to quality from day one... it's better to do nothing at all than to do something badly.” 
Mark McCormack, IMG 


Lefty shares little about his private life off the course. In recent weeks a series of rumours did filter through about alleged insider trading deals. But were quickly scotched from the front pages with official statements from Mickelson's team. Quite correctly if there was misinformation on the loose. 

The most we really ever got to know on the personal side was about his wife Amy and her battle with serious illness some years ago. And the only reason the public became aware was that Mickelson’s schedule naturally was affected as he remained at his wife's side during key treatment times. But to this day how, who and were Phil and Amy met is not in the public domain. All we do know is that the Arizona State University graduate eased into Muirfield last summer and left as holder of the Open Championship. Bringing his major trophy haul to five. 

The only other headlines post event was that after shooting a final round 66 to net the £1,445,000 prize money Mickelson faced a tax bill of £636,069. In addition, UK tax authorities apportioned his endorsement monies for those two weeks he was in Scotland, taxing bonuses for winning the two tournaments. Leaving the US golfer very concerned as to whether the trip was actually worthwhile - beyond the beauty of the Claret Jug. 

As Mickelson chooses to live in California he is taxable on his global earnings and a matter he had spoken critically about his taxes during the same year - attracting some complaints. As opposed many other golfers who live in tax-free Florida. 

But beyond that it is not obvious whether Phil is on Twitter, Facebook or writes a blog. Nor is it a case that he feels compelled to give feature interviews. Or indeed make statements on matters relating to his personal life. Other than obviously recently where his name was becoming entangled incorrectly in a business deal. 

Rory McIlroy could take a leaf out of Lefty’s manual and take himself off the front pages. Which this week now sees the nitty-gritty of his relationship with Dublin based sports management company, Horizon Sports, catch unwanted headlines. Also dragging in the name of fellow Northern Ireland professional, Graeme McDowell into the mix. 

Something GMAC may not be all that grateful for, having just come off a great four days at The Irish Open - where he was a contender until the end. 

These headiness garnered the day after the Fota Island event are less than appealing and something Rory McIlroy's new backroom team appear oblivious to as they engage in a legal battle that will no doubt prove costly. And more worryingly, not enhancing anyone’s reputation in the end. Or indeed delivering winners. 

But for Rory news making seems at times to be addictive. Particularly having given a series of interviews post his break up with tennis player Caroline Wozniacki. explaining how he was leaving twitter, his laptop and mobile aside. Surely a contradiction for someone who wants to go silent running. Or under cover. That latent need to explain everything to the public can only be a distraction and is totally superfluous. 

It seems though to be part of the strategy of his Dublin PR team. Who it appears have a limited track record in the international sports arena. More accustomed to the corporate world. As well as crisis management. And who, it should be noted, issued a statement about the cancelled engagement and wedding of Wozzilroy on the eve of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. Just hours before McIlroy was to face the obligatory event media sessions. 

Hardly ideal timing one would have thought. 

All that being said, Rory then set the record straight and thumped the field on the final day to seize the BMW PGA trophy. Bringing his much remarked luckless run to an end on the European Tour. Nicely adding to his win Downunder in December at the Australian Open. 

Despite that fortune he travelled to Pinehurst allegedly in good fettle only to fade out of contention early on and watch Martin Kaymer set new records and add another major title to his CV. Leaving McIlroy with a return to Fota Island for the Irish Open, only to then miss the cut by a country mile. And do so in a very tame way, even if his golf bag was lost in transit from Newark Airport by United Airlines. 

Then on the Monday faced the court case headlines in the press as Mikko Ilonen departed with the Irish Open trophy. 

With so many people at his side over the years and having now created a management company of his own - after two previous breakups - it is still hard to see a change in the modus operandi. Which from the outside is of concern only in the sense that McIlroy’s playing career may yet under deliver. 

Having been well-placed two years ago to match the major winning feats of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy has now slipped through a couple of years where he has not been in the major mix. As Woods career proves, leaving all the winning to later years becomes harder when injuries start to take their toll. Already making that Nicklaus major record looks unreachable for Woods. Albeit he is returning from more knee surgery this week. 

Rory’s win at Kiawah Island is now two years ago. Two of this year's majors having already been consigned to history. With the Open Championship the next on the horizon. 

But to offer advice to McIlroy now is like megaphone diplomacy gone wrong. The added difficulty being that nobody is listening as too many vested interests appear involved to even ensure that the sole priority remains golf. 

As Mark McCormack clearly established when the big three came together in the 1960's to form what is known as International Sports Management [ISM], the objective was to take the worries away from the talent. To keep their heads and timetables clear for what they did best and ensuring they fulfilled their potential. If they did, the money would roll in. 

In the case Gary Player, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus the ISM strategy was a complete success all around. Nome more so than the sport of golf and continued for numerous athletes in the five decades since. 

With ISM they never had to worry about endorsements, paying bills or booking travel. In successful relationships the productivity off the course is an algorithm of the value delivered on the course. With all parties gaining as the trophies are collected and endorsements accumulated. The McIlroy story breaks that algorithm. 

Perhaps because the Nike deal makes everyone so financially comfortable for the next few years that the hunger or will to win becomes dulled. Or so it seems from a distance. There would be nothing more enjoyable than seeing a smiling McIlroy on the course. 

Sure, completing his necessary commitments with the media and sponsors as required. But nothing else. With all his time left to prepare for majors, which perhaps is being done already, but is not the perception given the indifferent outings at The Masters, the US Open and other events this year. 

The added information about his personal life is not of public interest. However having courted and charmed the media early McIlroy’s learning that it cannot be switched off at will. Hence anything relating to Wozniacki or indeed his previous girlfriend, Holly Sweeney, is still regarded as newsworthy. 

Tournament wins the only count that should make the news. 

At twenty five years of age Rory needs to ensure no more majors pass him by. With Tiger Woods having kept the growth of golf alive globally for many years, Rory McIlroy remains one of the few talents that could fill that void when the indomitable Woods steps back. But to help build added mystique and appeal. As the less we know about Rory day-to-day the better. The preferred management strategy should be: no news is good news. 

Or in soccer parlance, only sing if you’re winning!




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6/23/2014

Fota Irish Open Proves Crowd Buster

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The 2014 Irish Open proved to be another wonderful celebration of golf both on and off the course, with more than 100,000 fans flocking to Fota Island Resort across the week as Finland’s Mikko Ilonen was crowned champion.

Another impressive crowd of 29,387 lined the fairways during Sunday’s final round, making the total attendance figure for the four tournament days and Wednesday’s Pro-Am 104, 810 – the second time it has passed the 100,000 mark in the last three years.

With pop acts such as Imelda May and Il Divo also performing in Cork during the tournament week, it has been a festival atmosphere both inside and outside the ropes, with fans travelling from afar to join the passionate Cork crowds in supporting the international line up at Fota Island Resort.

Antonia Beggs, Championship Director of the Irish Open, said: “We are delighted at the response from both people in Cork and those from further afield who have come out to support the 2014 Irish Open.

“With Sunday’s crowd taking us past the 100,000 mark, the Irish Open has once again been one of the most popular tournaments on The European Tour, and once again demonstrates the incredible passion and appetite the Irish public has for golf.”

The baton will now be passed to Royal County Down Golf Club, which will host the 2015 Irish Open from May 28-31, as the event returns to the famous Newcastle links for the first time in 76 years.


6/22/2014

Flying Finn Wins Fota Irish Open

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Mikko Ilonen survived a final hole scare to win the Irish Open at Fota Island with a closing one-under 70.

The Finn had a two-shot teeing off at the par five final hole but drove into trees, hit his recovery up against another and could only punch his third 100 yards down the fairway.

However, a solid wedge to the green allowed the 34-year-old to two-putt for a bogey six and take his third European title with a score of 13-under - a shot better than Italian Edoardo Molinari and two in front of Swede Kristoffer Broberg and English duo Mattew Baldwin and Danny Willett.

Graeme McDowell's bid to delight his home Irish fans and score a first win on home soil ended in frustration as a cold putter denied him the chance to convert numerous birdie chances.

He managed just one all day in a round of level par 71 which left him down in tied sixth place with Swede Magnus A Carlsson.

McDowell said: "One of the worst putting.rounds as a weekend of my career as regards being in contention. I let a lot slip away yesterday and continued in the same vein today. I kind of got in that mode where I was starting to search a bit on the greens, over-reading, over-technicalising.

"I'm very disappointed. I did the tee-to-green stuff. Gave myself the opportunities coming in but just couldn't get the ball in the hole.

"Really disappointed but what a fantastic week. A great Irish Open, great fans and I'm just disappointed I couldn't do a little bit better for them." 

Ilonen had laid the foundation for victory with a new course record of 64 in the opening round and although that only lasted until Willett, aided by a hole-in-one, shot 63 on Saturday, the 34-year-old Finn took a one-shot lead into the final round.

Birdies on the second and fourth took Ilonen three clear of the field until Willett carded his second birdie of the day on the ninth, but that was as close as anyone got until Ilonen dropped his only shot of the day on the last, ironically after hitting an iron off the tee for safety.

English teenager Matt Fitzpatrick, who was the only amateur to make the cut in the US Open last week, finished in a tie for 29th in his first tournament as a professional following a closing 68.


Illonen Lead Faces GMAC Attack

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Mikko Ilonen remained in front after three rounds of the Irish Open at Fota Island Resort, but some notable names made up ground on the Finn.

England’s Danny Willett birdied the last three holes for a course record 63 to be only one behind in second, while home favourite Graeme McDowell overcame some average putting to move into third on ten under.

Ilonen remained on course to claim his fourth European Tour title with a wire-to-wire victory thanks to a birdie on the last to complete a round of 69.

And the 34 year old former British Amateur champion - who won at Open venue Hoylake in 2000 - admitted his chances would be improved by partnering Willett rather than McDowell in front of the massive home crowds on Sunday.

"It will help," said Ilonen, who lost a play-off to Sergio Garcia in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in January. "Graeme will be in front of us but it will be the same as today. I have been leading all the way and handling the pressure pretty well so far.

"I was off here and there today, especially with a couple of drives in the beginning on the par fives. All in all I kept it together nicely, I felt good on the course and pretty pleased with how I am placed."

A second hole-in-one in the space of two months helped England's Willett vault into contention for a second European Tour title.

Willett's previous ace earnt him a V40 Cross Country from the tournament sponsors in the final round of the Volvo China Open at the end of April.

And although the 26 year old did not win anything for his "slam dunk" effort on the seventh hole at Fota Island Resort - a £65,000 BMW 640 Gran Coupe was on offer on the 13th - it sparked a brilliant round which left him just one behind Ilonen on 11 under par.

"We had a perfect number, 168 yards with an eight iron but you never expect it to slam dunk," Willett said. "That was a bit of a bonus."

Fresh from finishing 45th on his US Open debut at Pinehurst last week, Willett had already birdied the fourth and added another at the eighth to reach the turn in 32.

The former English Amateur Champion's challenge was slowed by a run of four straight pars on the back nine, but he then birdied four of the last five holes to beat the previous record of 64 set by Ilonen on Thursday.

"We've been playing great for a long time but could not seem to get anything going on the greens," added Willett, whose sole Tour title to date came in the BMW International Open in 2012. "But holing a wedge yesterday (for an eagle on the second) and an eight iron today certainly helps.

"Coming from the US Open last week it was a slightly different mentality, it was quite tricky to stop playing 20 feet away from the flags and on the first day we were too cautious."

McDowell's challenge for a first Irish Open title at the 13th attempt looked to be petering out after he bogeyed the eighth and ninth to reach the turn in 37.

But the former US Open champion gave himself a talking to on the tenth and his patience paid off with birdies on the 11th, 16th and 17th to card a 69 and lie two off the lead on ten under.

"Walking down the tenth I had to have a chat with myself and stay patient, I only needed three birdies not six," said McDowell.

"It helps having been in this scenario before and it was nice to birdie two of the last three there and get myself back in this golf tournament.

"I really enjoyed the crowd interaction today, it's been a fun week and it would be nice to put the icing on the cake tomorrow with a big round.

"I'll try and give them what they want tomorrow, an Irish winner, but there's a lot of names on that leaderboard that will have some issues with that.

"It would be special on many levels. It would be a kickstarter for my season. It would be a big boost in the world rankings and Ryder Cup rankings.

"But most importantly, to win here in front of my home fans, with everything that's gone on in Irish golf lately, with the Open Championship (at Portrush) announcement, Rory (McIlroy) and his Olympic announcement this week and just generally what's been going on in Irish golf, I think it would be fun to do the business tomorrow.

"Having played in Ryder Cups and Major Championships I guess thankfully I'm experienced with this type of atmosphere and this type of crowd. But there's something a little bit special about the dynamic of the Irish fans and I'd dearly love to give them what they want tomorrow."