An army of professionals and volunteers is putting the finishing touches to Fota Island Golf Club in Cork, which will host this year's Murphy's Irish Open with a prize fund of £1.2 million. The event has the potential to rescue the tourism season in the south-west, damaged by foot-and-mouth disease.
It will be beamed to a television audience of 200 million people in 90 countries, and will focus on how golf's elite, including Colin Montgomerie, who has won the championship twice, will cope with the Co Cork course.
Behind the scenes, making it all run smoothly has involved a mammoth effort. The cost to the Cork-based brewery, part of the Heineken group, is estimated at £5 million, making it second in importance only to the Heineken Classic, which is held in Perth, Western Australia, each year.
The commitment from the company is that Fota will also be the venue for next year's Irish Open. The gathering at Fota Island of 70,000 visitors over four days is seen as a vital fillip to tourism in the region, which undoubtedly will suffer this year because so many people, especially from the UK, made alternative arrangements.
It is anticipated that revenue of between £7 million and £9 million will be generated in the Cork area as a result of the tournament.
The setting could hardly be finer. Fota, with the famous wildlife park and arboretum adjoining the golf course, is a haven of natural beauty just minutes from Cork. At this time of year, it will be almost perfect with a profusion of colour. The hope of tourism chiefs is that the television images that will go out across the globe will help restore some of the season's lost momentum and create a new demand for the south-west as a destination next year.
During the event, an international media centre will accommodate 200 journalists, and special processing facilities will be laid on for photographers. There will be 52 retail outlets on site, including a supermarket, as well as a Garda station, post office and ATM cash points. A medical team will be on standby. The golf course will have its own air traffic control system to guide the arrival of helicopters bringing golfers and corporate guests to the event, and an air corridor has been established to ensure animals in the nearby wildlife park are not stampeded.
The tented village, resembling a small housing estate, grandstands, viewing areas and entertainment suites, are all coming together after two years of planning.
Some 700 voluntary stewards from golf clubs North and South will marshal the event and 1,500 temporary staff will be on duty from Thursday, June 28th, to Sunday, July 1st, when this year's championship reaches its climax. Logistically, it is a huge undertaking, says Mr Kevin Cullinane, one of the organisers. Over the past 15 months, the golf course has been redeveloped. The 18 fairways have been reseeded and some 100 kilometres of gravel drains have been installed, making it an especially dry parkland course.
As well as Montgomerie, who won back-to-back titles in 1996/97, the legendary Seve Ballesteros will be at Fota as will Ian Woosnam, Thomas Bjorn and Paul Lawrie, winner of the Open at Carnoustie in 1999.
Last year's Irish Open winner, Patrik Sjoland, will be back to defend his title. The Irish challenge in the 153-strong field will include Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley and, with Ryder Cup places beckoning, support for the trio should be enormous.
Des Smyth, who became the oldest winner of the Madeira Open last March, will be there too, together with Ian Poulter (UK) Robert Karlsson (Sweden) and Philip Price (Wales), winners respectively of the Moroccan, Spanish and Portuguese open championships.
It is 19 years since John O'Leary became the last Irish holder of the championship.
The Murphy's Irish Open is in its eighth year. Heineken Ireland's investment in the event has been £14 million and, by keeping the Open alive, the company claims, it has played an important part in Ireland's selection as the Ryder Cup venue in 2005.
When it was inaugurated in 1927, the Irish Open was one of only three championships available to professional golfers in Britain or Ireland. The event petered out in the early 1950s because of financial difficulties but was revived in 1975 by P.J. Carroll & Co. In 1993, when Bernhard Langer took the title, it became the Murphy's Irish Open and its future was assured. Once the home of the Smith-Barry family, the magnificent Fota Island estate might have fallen into the hands of private developers, and probably would have were it not for the intervention of UCC in 1975, when the college purchased the 780 acres of parkland.
Through UCC's involvement, the Fota Wildlife Park was born, restoration of the majestic Fota House was begun and part of the estate was sold to become today's golf course. The estate, including the course, is a unique asset on the periphery of a major city. For four days, at the end of this month, Fota will be able to show its wares to a worldwide audience.
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