In July 2008 Padraig Harrington retained his hold on The Open Championship title with his victory at Royal Birkdale and moved to Number 3 in the world behind Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. This week that feat was matched by Holywood’s Rory McIlroy after he took possession of the trophy at Congressional in the US Open, repeating the ground breaking work done by Graeme McDowell in 2010 at Pebble Beach in the same tournament.
After the well deserved high praise and tumultuous accolades it was only normal that the euphoric fog would lift this week leaving some the realities of golf in Ireland come into the fore. Particularly The Irish Open which is fast approaching and unable to find a world class commercial sponsor so far. In what is still a flagship sporting event in Ireland, with international exposure and an ideal summer date, the historic event is still unable to attract the type of commercial partnership that seems to come easier to other sports on the island.
Given the continued world class achievements of the country’s golfers and the exposure that Ireland consequently gains on the global stage, it seems nothing short of bizarre that the event is as hindered as the Greek economy is in its efforts to find financial backing. No matter one's social or sporting prejudices, it is still trophy event and appeals to an audience outside the 32 counties. Undoubtedly the Irish Open is challenged given the premature departure of mobile operator “3”, who left golf in favour of a four year sponsorship deal with the Football Association of Ireland, worth a reported €7.5m.
Although the decision was not a complete surprise it is reminiscent of another mobile operator, O2, and the timing of their decision to end the agreement with Padraig Harrington the very season he won his first Open Championship. However the similarity is not just they were both phone company's, but the commercial sense of a lost opportunity, as with the arrival of the 22 year old whirlwind that is McIlroy - with an exciting game, positive attitude talented interviewee and an appeal to young players - never has the event been so ripe for a youth focused brand to exploit their association. Alas, this year it appears it is not to be.
These days the mobile companies are focused in other areas with Vodafone supporting Dublin GAA, O2 committed to Irish international rugby, 3 Mobile now with Irish soccer and Meteor sticking to entertainment and the annual Music Awards. With the traditional sponsors of the past twenty years, the financial service sector, all now in a collapsed state the sport has yet discover new long term commercial partners in Ireland. The opposite to other golf worldwide tours - PGA , Champions and Asian – which all attracting major new deals with ease.
Cadillac, which relinquished The Masters in 2007 after 40 years of sponsorship, returned to prominence in the sport as a major sponsor of the PGA Tour at El Doral in a World Golf Championship [WGC] event.
It was GM's Buick brand that sponsored up to four PGA Tournaments annually through the late 1990s, and stopped doing given the need for some brand consolidation at the company, preferring to concentrate on team sports such as college basketball. Cadillac, on the other hand, is a brand out to highlight individual achievements and individual excellence and so the opportunity to sponsor the WGC at Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami was regarded as the best way to let customers experience their products.
For Mercedes, the company that replaced Cadillac at Augusta, with the tagline - 'the best or nothing," – stepping into the Masters made sense and helped the brand become associated with marketing properties that were the top tier. As is clear every April, The Masters and Augusta National is an event that remains meticulous about how they manage every blade of grass, about their history and with a worldwide focus in 185 countries it can deliver return. Albeit on a much higher scale perhaps. How a similar opportunity does not for the Irish Open is nothing short of bizarre.
Failte Ireland and Tourism Ireland, both desperate to reverse the rapid decline in visitor numbers to the country, have clung to the wreckage left by the flight of the sponsor last December, ensuring the 2011 Irish Open takes place in July. However given the national finances the commercial rationale of the Government do so on an ongoing basis will be severely tested in the coming years as the EU and IMF determine our spending.. The European Tour, who were cajoled and harried into surrendering the July weekend for the 2010 event, in order to support the needs of the sponsor 3 and position the Irish Open for the long term - have also remained stoically behind the event as well.
More critically, the Irish Open was reinvented in Killarney in 2010 and is now in a better place than it has ever been thanks to the local support and the dosh from new Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport – given their ownership of Killarney Golf and Fishing. Club. The only error being the focus on increasing the prize fund to €3M last summer in order to magic some of the bigger names to the event - a strategy that proved misplaced. And perhaps the reason the title sponsor felt some sense of dissatisfaction.
If that were so, such thinking was naive given the commercial pressures that the world's top golfers have these days travel to venues where major sponsor interests lie. In Asia for example where HSBC and Barclays have a long teem financial and commercial commitment. With no global sponsor involved in the Irish Open the playing obligations of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia are still weighted very much against the event during the peak of the season.
Unless the players can work some miracles in the locker room the field will not vary from last year as the Irish players always support the national event anyway. It just happens that again this year the US Open winner is a local boy.
Clearly such is the appeal of McIlroy right now, that if he asked any player way to bring their clubs they would probably do it. Especially given the location and hospitality in Killarney that was widely reported as exceptional. Which from the Government perspective bodes well as did the spectacular images of Killarney Open last summer, helped by the good weather. In the wake of Queen Elizabeth’s visit, closely followed by POTUS – the President of the United States – one should expect to see increases in visitor numbers this summer.
For all golf fans the Irish Open remains a key event in the sporting calendar that speaks directly to a strong demographic across all markets and is a vital link with those sectors that traditionally visit Ireland too. The added spectacle of Rory McIlory is bound to be an attraction in itself albeit there are murmurings of an event already perhaps being staged in Royal Portrush in the near future – supported by Darren Clarke, McDowell and McIlroy. Particularly with the 100th anniversary of the Titanic looming in 2012.
But the reality is that in the short term the vent needs a pan European brand to give it some horsepower, or division of a global sponsor to reinvigorate the tournament further from a commercial perspective. Or indeed the players themselves.
With the pointed recognition by McIlroy in the post US Open interviews of the great benefits he gained from the work done by the Golfing Union of Ireland [GUI], there is a logic that says the sport would be best supported by those who are getting the most out it – the players. With McDowell also in the top ten and Harrington just slipping out of the top fifty last week, there should be an annual stipend repaid by those world class golf graduates for the GUI once they hit the big time.
Given the rankings of those three players alone, a small percentage would go along way. It could also go along way to removing the perennial worry of finding sponsor for the Irish Open year in year out. That’s what is done in France and they don't even have a player in the top 50 of the official world golf rankings.
The question is, who is gonna call Chubby Chandler and raise that one?
