Lowry and McIlroy Progress

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Shane Lowry made a winning start to the WGC-Cadillac Match Play event in San Francisco last night with win against Graeme McDowell, while Rory McIIroy beat Jason Duffner.

Offaly man Lowry edged past McDowell winning by one hole in his opening group match.

World no.1 McIlroy, meanwhile, had a far easier time of it against former PGA champion Duffner as saw off the American 5&4 at Harding Park in San Francisco.

"I felt like tee to green I played pretty well," McIlroy told Sky Sports 4. "I didn't hole many putts and felt that the green speeds were pretty inconsistent, but did what I needed to do and we move on to tomorrow."

Masters champion Jordan Spieth defeated Finland's Mikko Ilonen 4&2 but defending champion Jason Day, Justin Rose, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson, and Adam Scott all suffered defeats.

That would usually mean heading for the airport and a flight home, but the traditional straight knockout format has been replaced by a round-robin phase with the 64 players divided into 16 groups of four.

"I don't feel very hopeful right now but I have a shot, so I guess that's a good thing," Rose said after losing to Australia's Marc Leishman, just three days after winning the Zurich Classic in his first appearance since finishing second in the Masters.

Leishman, who did not play at Augusta National as his wife recovered from a life-threatening illness, won the opening hole with a birdie and was never behind in the match before sealing a 3&2 win.

Poulter also lost the opening hole to a birdie from former US Open champion Webb Simpson, but ultimately paid the price for carding four bogeys in six holes from the third as Simpson gained a measure of revenge for losing to the Englishman in the 'Miracle at Medinah' in 2012.

"I've drawn him in the last two Ryder Cups and what a match player he is," Simpson told Sky Sports 4. "He is always tough and even being three or four up I knew I couldn't let up and I'm happy to get by for sure."

Poulter later wrote on Twitter: "Truly disgusting putting today, it was actually farcical. Spent 3 hours on the putting green this afternoon. We will see if it helped."

Stenson thought he had halved his match with John Senden when the Australian birdied the 18th, only to be told extra holes would be played to determine the result, with Senden securing victory with a birdie on the 19th.

Day lost 4&3 to American Charley Hoffman, while compatriot Scott declined to speak to reporters after being beaten 5&4 by Italy's Francesco Molinari, the same scoreline by which Charl Schwartzel beat last year's runner-up Victor Dubuisson.

In the all-European group 10, Sergio Garcia recovered from two down to beat Tommy Fleetwood by two holes, while Jamie Donaldson edged out Austria's Bernd Wiesberger on the 18th.

"He (Fleetwood) played well all day then hit a couple of iffy shots in the last five holes and I was able to take advantage," Garcia told Sky Sports 4.

Lee Westwood continued his good form after winning in Jakarta on Sunday, beating Matt Every on the 18th, while Danny Willett enjoyed a successful debut in the event with a 3&2 win over Ryan Moore.

In the same group, compatriot Andy Sullivan was left to rue several missed chances as he lost 2&1 to American Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed.

Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson enjoyed a comfortable 5&4 win over Miguel Angel Jimenez, while Scotland's Stephen Gallacher suffered the biggest defeat of the day, losing 7&6 to former champion Hunter Mahan.

Gallacher, who lost both his Ryder Cup matches at Gleneagles, was an approximate three over par and has now lost 11 of his last 12 singles contests in match play.

"It was a combo of me playing well and putting the pressure on him and he did not have his best stuff today," said Mahan, who beat McIlroy to win the title in 2012 and reached the final again the following year.

Gallacher's fellow Scot Marc Warren had more success, enjoying a 2&1 win over world number 12 JB Holmes after seeing an early three-hole lead wiped out by the 15th.

"I kept telling myself a player of that calibre is going to come back at you and he did," Warren said. "It was just about whether I could counter him and I was really calm and composed."

Shot of the day had come from American Ben Martin, who fired a hole-in-one on the 17th to take the lead over Matt Kuchar before sealing victory on the last.

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Phelan Hopes for Lucky Madeira

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Kevin Phelan is hoping he will be touched by the luck of the Irish at the Madeira Islands Open – BPI – Portugal and, after making a new friend in the shape of Ryder Cup Captain Darren Clarke, the 24 year old is in buoyant mood.

The former amateur star earned the best European Tour finish of his career three weeks ago at the Joburg Open, where he shared second place with three others, two shots behind winner Anny Sullivan of England.

That result has given the former Walker Cup player a timely shot in the arm after he missed out on retaining his European Tour card last season, and suddenly the man who impressed at the US Open Championship in 2013 as an amateur is finding friends in high places.

“I met Clarkey (Darren Clarke) in Turkey and had dinner with him at a pro-am there and he’s been very helpful,” said the Waterford native. “There were a couple of young lads from ISM there and he was really helpful and nice with us, giving us advice, so he’s been good.

“He has such a wide knowledge base, he’s been playing for a really long time now and been very successfully all that time so he’s a great lad to know.

“He helped me with my yardage book in Joburg and he’s been really willing to help. It definitely helped me on one of the holes, on one of the par fives where he told me to get past pin high on the green - that was really good to know.

“He gave me a good bit of general advice, that whenever I learn something from certain players, to write it down and take note of everything and that way you can look back on it down the road so I’ve started doing that and that could be very helpful in future.

“He’s the perfect fit for the Ryder Cup captaincy, he’s obviously very willing to help and he has such a good record, individually and in Ryder Cups, he’s been on plenty of winning teams so he knows what he’s doing.”

Given that the world is celebrating his home nation this week, Phelan is hoping that he can follow in the footsteps Northern Irishman Michael Hoey and Ireland’s Des Smyth by etching his name on the trophy this week, and he feels the Clube de Golf do Santo da Serra course suits his eye.

“The course is good,” he said. “It’s firm again, like it was last. It was really windy during practice but we’re so high up you kind of expect that to be the case. The course is in good nick, the greens are really nice so it’s all good.

“I played well in Joburg and played well in parts in East London so it’s been good. I saw my coach there for a few days last week too so I’m trying to kick on this week and have a good one.

“My game is good in the wind, I have a lot of practice in it obviously so I’m well used to it at this stage. 

“Michael (Hoey) won this tournament a few years ago alright, although it was a different course, so I’ll do my best to make it another Irish winner here.”

Phelan is joined by fellow Irishmen Peter Lawrie, Ruaidhri McGee and Simon Thornton while Gareth Maybin is Northern Ireland’s sole representative on the picturesque Portuguese island.

A plethora of former champions of the event have returned for the 2015 edition, including home champion in 2012 Ricardo Santos, two-time European Tour winners Bradley Dredge and Alastair Forsyth as well as former Ryder Cup player Jarmo Sandelin.

The field also includes many of Portugal’s most promising young players, including Ricardo Gouveia, who won in his seventh event on the Challenge Tour last year before coming agonisingly close to earning a European Tour card at the Qualifying School Final Stage.

Scott Henry, meanwhile, returns hoping to go one better than last year, when he was beaten to the title by England’s Daniel Brooks on the first hole of a play-off.

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Lowry Mastering Dizzy Heights

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Shane Lowry is up to a career high No 40 in golf's official world rankings with Rory McIlroy remaining out on top.

A closing 68 at the Farmer's Open open saw the Offaly native miss the play-off by just two shots.

The Clara man completed his opening tournament of 2015 and first event in 10 weeks in a tie for seventh on seven-under with Martin Laird of Scotland (69), Nick Watney (73) and Jimmy Walker (73).

Having struggled with the South Course on Thursday with a disappointing 74 Lowry bounced back with a second round 67 on Friday. Having dipped again with a 72 for the third round Lowry saved much of his best golf for last.

This stirring effort was good enough to clinch for Lowry his first top-10 finish in the US, just two outside a four-man playoff between JB Holmes, Harris English, Jason Day and defending champion Scott Stallings for the 2015 Farmers Open title.

Rory McIlroy remains No 1 in the rankings with a lead of more than four points over Henrik Stenson while Tiger Woods fell to 62nd, his worst mark since the year he joined the PGA Tour in 1996.

Lowry famously won the 2009 Irish Open as an amateur, and within six years is set to make his Masters debut at Augusta National in April.

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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.”

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No Saving Grace for Irish at Dunhill

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Kevin Phelan was the only Irish player to survive the cut at the Alfred Dunhill Championship on Friday at Loepards Creek Country Club. 

Michael Hoey, Damien McGrane and Peter Lawrie all finished off the pace and ended two rounds on the wrong side of the line as Branden Grace raced into a five shot lead at the halfway stage.

The 26 year old won four times during a memorable 2012 campaign, and remained on course for another victory as he added a second round 66 to his sparkling opening 62 at Leopard Creek Country Club. 

Three clear overnight, Grace turned in 33 after starting on the back nine before picking up another shot at the first.

His only dropped shot of the day came at the short fifth, but Grace birdied the sixth and finished with a lengthy putt for a closing gain on the ninth that put him five shots ahead of Italy’s Francesco Molinari.

“This is a golf course that suits me and if I keep hitting everything in play the way I have been the first two days then it should be a good weekend,” said Grace.

“The pins have been kind so far; I’m sure there’s going to be a couple of tricky and sticky pins out there on the weekend, but I’ll just stick to the game plan and see what the next two rounds offer us.

“Today was great – the ball striking wasn’t as good as yesterday.

“I kept it going - there was a little bit of a slip there due to a lack of concentration but it happens. 

“I’ve been hitting it well and kept on hitting good putts out there.”

Molinari was typically precise with his irons as he followed five birdies in 12 holes with an eagle at the long 13th. 

The former Ryder Cup star then missed a golden birdie chance at the 14th and dropped his first shot of the day at the 17th, but two-putted the long last to get back to seven under for the day.

“I played really well today,” said Molinari. “I holed some really good putts – the last four or five holes could have been better, but seven under is always a good round.

“Branden has set a low target for everyone, so it was good to get some birdies.”

Tjaart van der Walt, twice a runner-up on The European Tour, had five birdies before three-putting the ninth – his last – for his only bogey in a round of 67 which left him third on ten under par.

Another South African, Shaun Norris, last week’s Nedbank Challenge winner Danny Willett and Dane Lucas Bjerregaard – who chipped in at the last for eagle – were tied for fourth on nine under.

Defending champion Charl Schwartzel, looking to become only the sixth player in European Tour history to win the same event three years running, carded a two under 70 to be 11 shots adrift of leader Grace.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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