Irish Open 2016 at The K Club

Rory McIlroy will continue to host the Irish Open for the next three years on behalf of his foundation, with Dubai Duty Free also extending its sponsorship until 2018.

The prize fund for next year's tournament at The K Club over May 19-22 will increase by 60 per cent, rising from 2.5million euros (£1.85m) to 4m euros (£2.96m).

Four-time major winner McIlroy, who missed the cut at Royal County Down earlier this year, said: "The Irish Open has always meant so much to me, so I am really excited to announce my commitment to host the tournament, on behalf of the Rory Foundation, for the next three years.

"I would like to thank Colm McLoughlin of Dubai Duty Free and Keith Pelley of The European Tour for supporting my vision to develop the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open Hosted by the Rory Foundation into one of the leading events on The European Tour's schedule over the next three years.

"I was delighted with the support I received, not only from the players who competed this year, but also from the fans who came along to the Irish Open at Royal County Down in May - they made it another sell-out tournament.

"I am sure The K Club - on the 10th anniversary as host of the 2006 Ryder Cup - will be an excellent venue for the 2016 Irish Open."

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Clarke in Love at Hazeltine

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Darren Clarke insists there will be no controversial gamesmanship at next year’s competition following the uproar at the women’s Solheim Cup.

Clarke said the incident at the Solheim Cup, when Europe’s Suzann Pettersen insisted on penalising the USA’s Alison Lee for picking up her ball after she believed a putt had been conceded, was against the spirit of golf.

Speaking at a news conference with USA captain Davis Love III to mark a year to go to the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, Minnesota, Clarke said: “This Ryder Cup will be played in the manner in which Davis and I respect each other.

“We’ve been friends for such a long time; I hold Davis in the highest regard. He’s been a good friend but probably one of the best gentlemen in our sport.

“The Solheim Cup was an unfortunate thing. What Suzann did was correct in ‘The Rules of Golf’, but in the spirit of the game, it was wrong. And she admitted that on the Monday with hindsight. Hindsight is always a wonderful thing.

“In the Ryder Cup, we are always briefed by the referees earlier in the week and the rules officials, and we do not touch a golf ball until we hear either from our opposite number or from the referees, just one of those things. I hope and I’m sure it won’t happen under our watch.”

Love agreed that sportsmanship would be key.

He said: “Darren and I will set the tone with our teams, and with our messaging over the next year, what we expect and how we expect the matches to be played.

“Something will come up during the three days that is uncomfortable. But we’ll handle it as gentlemen and a sportsmanlike way. It will be fair and competitive and fun.

“In the end, one of us will win, one of us will lose, but we’ll enjoy a cigar and a tear afterwards on Sunday night.”

Love said he was “reluctantly” facing the fact he would not be a playing captain, and expressed his hope that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson could be back in contention.

He added: “Tiger has had some surgeries and that’s slowing him down a little bit.

“I have a feeling Phil’s going to be strongly motivated to make the next team, and obviously Tiger wants to get healthy and play. They are just two of a lot of players that have stressed to me that they want to play on a winning Ryder Cup team.”

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GMAC Seeks Porsche Success

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Graeme McDowell will look to resurrect his season this week as the Porsche European Open returns to the schedule for the first time since 2009.

McDowell's only top 10 of the year to date came in the Dubai Desert Classic in February and the former world No 4 has fallen to 67th in the rankings.

The 36-year-old has not played competitively since missing the cut in the PGA Championship but has been working hard on his game before getting his campaign for a fifth consecutive Ryder Cup appearance under way at Golf Resort Bad Griesbach.

"I always love coming back to Germany and the European Open is a prestigious event," said the former US Open champion, who was third in this event at the London Club in 2008. "There are some great names on the trophy.

"I'm very happy to be here and I'm looking to resurrect my season; this week is as important for me as any of the past few months have been. I'm starting my 2016 campaign this week and my Ryder Cup campaign. I want to drive myself forward and get myself where I feel I belong.

"Golf is a tough game sometimes and it has felt more difficult this year for me than it has in the past. But it makes you appreciate the good times in the past and I'm looking forward to good times ahead.

"Since Whistling Straits I took two weeks off and didn't touch any clubs and spent some time with the family. Then I've been working pretty hard for three weeks now.

"I've just been resetting and practising and trying to get this ship back on path. I'm playing here, Dunhill [Alfred Dunhill Links Championship], British Masters, Hong Kong and Turkey and hopefully HSBC-Champions."

Home favourite and course designer Bernhard Langer is in the field, along with fellow former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel, Ryder Cup hero Jamie Donaldson and American Hunter Mahan.

"It is nice to test myself against the younger players every once in a while," the 58-year-old Langer said. "It's not my goal to play on the European Tour in the long run as I'm very happy on the Champions Tour. I've done the European Tour and PGA Tour for many years and I've done my time.

"I am proud to have this event on a course I designed. We used to play the German Open on a course I designed in Stuttgart so to have this event on another is fantastic."

Fellow German Max Kieffer is looking to make the cut in his 22nd consecutive stroke play event, which would be the longest active streak on the European Tour.

"I'm playing very consistently. I don't really know why," Kieffer said. "It's great. There have been three or five times this year when I've felt like I'm not hitting it well on the range, but every day I wake up I feel I can play good golf. That's what you want for your form, to feel consistent."

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McIlroy Not Moved by Fedex Cheque

Rory McIlroy has said he does not care about the $10m bonus that could come with victory at the Tour Championship.

The 26-year-old, whose season has been interrupted by injury, just wants to get back to winning and is more motivated by adding the FedExCup to his list of trophies.

"Luckily, that amount of money doesn't sort of mean much to me anymore," said McIlroy on the eve of the season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta that caps the FedExCup playoffs and awards the bonus to the points leader.

"It will go in the bank and if I want to buy something nice, I will. I mean, like, it's nice to think that you could win $10m this week, but that's not what excites me.

"It excites me to play well and to try and win. And the FedExCup is... one of the only things that I haven't put on my golf CV and that would be more exciting to do that rather than walk away with a cheque."

The young Northern Irishman has already won financial security for generations of family to come.

In 2013, McIlroy signed a multi-year endorsement deal with Nike Golf worth a reported $200m, and he's earned more than $28m in his PGA Tour career, not counting tens of millions more from European Tour earnings and more still from other endorsements.

However, the 26-year-old Northern Irishman regrets the loss of a chunk of his year after he injured his ankle playing football with friends.

McIlroy said he had learned some lessons from 2015, including that he should avoid putting extra pressure on himself as he believes he did when he was trying to extend his run to three majors in a row at the Masters in April.

"I'll still work as hard as ever in trying to get prepared and trying to get my shape in the best place possible to play those (major) tournaments, but not work at it for the reason of 'I can make history here'.

"There was just this expectation of and knowing what was at stake, what could happen, instead of just going out and playing and trying not to think about all that stuff."

There is another lesson McIlroy said he learned.

"Don't play football in the middle of the season."

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Jack Hume Fires 68 in Austria

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Jack Hume got off to a flying start yesterday in his bid for his European Tour card.

Playing in the first qualifying stage over the Ebreichsdorf course in Austria the young Naas star fired a highly impressive four under par 68 to grab a share of second place after the opening round.

His round was almost flawless as he collected six birdies and just two bogeys.three of his birdies coming in succession from the third.

He finished with six straight pars playing some really clinical golf.

Paul Dunne also in action in Austria carded a 70 which included four birdies and two bogeys.

The Greystones man who jointly led the Open going into the final round disappointingly closed with a bogey five.

Leading the way in Austria on 66 was Os Lengden of Sweden.

Meanwhile at Collingtree Park in Northampton Irishman Clontarf’s Eamonn Bradymade a solid start to his bid for a card returning a level par 72 to be two strokes adrift of leader Paul Reid.

Richard Weldon from Killeen Castle retuned a 74 to remain in the hunt but PaulMcGibney has some work to do after an opening 77.

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