Today's other stories in brief
Mobile call gets full Monty
THE SIGNS are everywhere: NO MOBILE PHONES! But do people ever learn? Fortunately for one individual, Colin Montgomerie had finished his round just seconds before his phone's tone rang loudly and clearly around the ninth green, Monty's last hole, yesterday.
Looking for the individual in question, even the big Scot was somewhat taken back to discover that the phone belonged to a volunteer marshall standing behind the green.
Shaking his head in disbelief, and issuing that famed glare of his, Montgomerie - quite rightly - let the man in the yellow cap know his feelings. "You're lucky that didn't go off when I was putting," said a non-too-impressed Montgomerie as he passed by.
It hadn't been a good day at the open air office for the eight-time European Tour money list winner, who opened with a 75 which has left him in a battle to survive the midway cut.
Incidentally, for anyone thinking of attending the tournament over the next three days, the advice is to leave mobile phones at home or in the car.
By the numbers
10 - Nick Faldo - with 10 - holds the most number of top-10 finishes in the Irish Open. This year's European Ryder Cup captain is a three-time winner of the championship, winning his titles in 1991 and 1992 (both times in Killarney) and 1993 (Mount Juliet).
63 - Pádraig Harrington holds the course record at Adare Manor, a 63 shot on his way to victory in the 2005 JP McManus pro-am.
26 - The number of holes-in-one recorded since the first Irish Open was held in 1927.
10 - There have been 10 play-offs to decide the outcome of the title: Seve Ballesteros beat Bernhard Langer 1985, Royal Dublin; Ian Woosnam beat Philip Walton 1989, Portmarnock; Nick Faldo beat Wayne Westner 1992, Killarney; Nick Faldo beat Jose Maria Olazabal 1993, Mount Juliet; Sam Torrance beat Stuart Cage and Howard Clark 1995, Mount Juliet; David Carter beat Colin Montgomerie 1998, Druids Glen; Soren Hansen beat Richard Bland 2002, Fota Island; Michael Campbell beat Thomas Bjorn 2003, Portmarnock; Stephen Dodd beat David Howell 2005, Carton House; Pádraig Harrington beat Bradley Dredge 2007, Adare Manor.
Work-in-progress for McDowell
GRAEME MCDOWELL sought to inject some humour in his assessment of a disappointing first round yesterday. "I feel like I've had a month off and someone stole my clubs," said McDowell, who blamed the fact that he had been working on his ball-striking in the build-up to the tournament for some erratic driving on the way to an opening 74.
"You know, I can't really play a lot worse than that - that's probably my worst tee-to-green performance in the last 12 months, without a doubt," said McDowell. "I just struggled . . . I haven't hit it good in the last two days in practice, so it's a little bit of work-in-progress after a couple of weeks off.
"If I can shoot three or four-under tomorrow, I'm back in it. I don't think this golf course is going to allow guys to shoot six-under every day. It's a tough track. If you start missing fairways, there's the potential for a lot of bogeys."
Dress like Harrington
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON is a clotheshorse for Kartel, the Dublin-based clothing company. And, as part of their marketing around the British Open champion, the fashion house came up with the bright idea of selling identical polo shirts in the on-course merchandising shop as worn daily by Harrington . . . so we know that Harrington will wear cream today, a green-striped top tomorrow and red for Sunday.
It's not just a marketing ploy. Ten per cent of the sales will go towards Harrington's Charitable Foundation, which provides financial assistance to deserving causes.
