Golf:Perhaps unsurprisingly for a tournament without a title sponsor, the prize fund for this summer's Irish Open has been cut to €1.5 million, exactly half of the pot of gold that was on offer to the field at last year's event.
Having failed to secure a major sponsorship deal since 3 Mobile ended their association with the event, sustaining the €3 million fund was always going to be a tall order for the European Tour. And although the new figure is by no means the smallest on the European Tour’s schedule, quite how attractive it will prove to the top touring professionals remains to be seen.
Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Padraig Harrington – Ireland’s three major champions of recent years – have already committed to the tournament at the end of July which will help bring in the crowds as the Killarney Golf and Fishing Club.
Defending champion Ross Fisher, who picked up a cheque for €500,000 after winning the title last summer, will also return to the scenic Co Kerry venue. But others such as Ian Poulter, Bubba Watson and the Molinari brothers have already opted to skip the event in order to play an exhibition match in Germany the same weekend.
Outside of the four Majors and WGC events, the Irish Open was the joint sixth most lucrative tournament on the 2010 European Tour schedule but has been no stranger to sponsorship challenges over the years. The 2007 staging had no title sponsor but was still a €2.5 million event when Harrington bridged the 25-year gap to the last Irishman to win the national championship when held at Adare Manor.
In 2008 the same prize purse was on offer without a title sponsor – at the same venue – when Richard Finch picked up a €416,660 winner’s cheque.
The Irish Open was first held in Killarney in 1991 and 1992 and was won on both occasions by Nick Faldo. Over 82,000 spilled through the gates in what was widely regarded as a highly successful week and similar numbers can be expected for this year’s August Bank Holiday weekend gathering.
McDowell, meanwhile, has declared it his dream to play the British Open in his hometown of Portrush as he vowed to help bring major golf back to Northern Ireland.
“I know myself and Rory would be behind a Northern Ireland event with the potential of then getting the British Open back to Portrush, that would be something,” he said, stressing the importance of securing sponsors.
“That is a dream of mine. To play the Open Championship in Portrush is a wild dream, to play a European Tour event in Portrush is an achievable dream and I will do everything I can to make it happen.”
The remarkable back-to-back US Open victories by Irish golfers has prompted calls for the British Open to return to the region for the first time since 1951, when it was played at Royal Portrush.
