McGinley rues lack of tempting Euro events
By yesterday, though, they had scattered to the four winds once more.
Newly-minted BMW PGA champion Rory McIlroy and his fellow US-based stars such as Luke Donald, Justin Rose, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter had headed back across the Atlantic to Ohio for Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial tournament at Muirfield Village. And as the European Tour moves on to Malmo to play the Nordea Masters, Swedish heroes Henrik Stenson, Jonas Blixt, Robert Karlsson and Peter Hanson, along with Gothenburg-based Race To Dubai leader Thomas Bjorn of Denmark, will all be heading home to lead a strong field at PGA Sweden National.
Europe’s Ryder Cup captain McGinley, meanwhile, will be checking up on this September’s venue for the matches against the United States when he plays Gleneagles today on a corporate day with Rolex.
And having seen up close the top European players who will form the backbone of his team to try and defend the Samuel Ryder trophy for a third time in a row, captain McGinley said he wished there could be more big tournaments to tempt them back home from America on a regular basis.
“You always want to see them playing in Europe and its just a shame we don’t have a few more tournaments of this stature, particularly in the UK,” McGinley said at Wentworth last weekend.
“The crowds out there for the pro-am were as big as you see for most tournaments on tour this year and it’s great to see. And everyone’s so happy, posing for photographs and enjoying it.
“People saying golf is on the wane, they should come out here on a Wednesday morning on the first tee at 8am, or at 7am on the driving range and see the excitement of people to see all the big stars coming back to play. It’s great to see people excited, not just the players but the people excited.”
McGinley said he was looking forward to the summer now he had squared away all the logistical issues surrounding his captaincy, leaving him free to watch his team take shape.
“I’ve cleared the decks, and one of the reasons I went head first, so fast, initially, was because I wanted to get all the things like the uniforms and logistics buttoned away so that I could come to this time and now I can start communicating with players, watching them play and play a bit of my own golf.”
To that last point McGinley, who missed the cut at Wentworth, will play six more tournaments before the Ryder Cup gets under way, signing off at the end of August having played the Irish, French, Scottish and British Opens, US PGA Championship and Italian Open. The first of those comes in four weeks on home soil when Ireland’s first Ryder Cup captain will play his national Open at Fota Island.
“The Irish Open is always great and I think Fota Island will be a tremendous venue and with all the boys playing as well it will make it extra exciting.”
It will not just be Irish golf supporters flocking to Fota Island Resort the week of June 19-22 to watch the European Tour touch down in Cork.
At least not if the response Fota’s director of marketing Seamus Leahy received from British golf fans during last week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
Leahy spent his week at Wentworth alongside representatives from Fáilte Ireland, Druids Glen and Galgorm Castle manning the Tourism Island stand at Wentworth as many of the 100,000-plus crowd broke up their day at the European Tour’s flagship event by taking time out to sample the varied attractions of the BMW PGA Championship Village.
Fáilte Ireland certainly did Fota proud in promoting next month’s Irish Open, their stand featuring a massive photo of the Cork resort’s scenic 18th hole and clubhouse as its backdrop.
“It’s been great to be here. We’re delighted Tourism Ireland and the Golf Ireland brand invited us over here to be on the stand. They’ve done a fabulous job of promoting Fota Island Resort and the Irish Open.
“It’s wonderful and the crowds seem to be very aware the Irish Open is at the Fota Island Resort. In terms of support they’ll come from all over the country, from Cork and Munster as a whole and from what I’m hearing here they’ll be travelling over from here (the UK). We’re hoping for 100,000-plus at the event and if we can get the sun to shine maybe we’ll top 120,000.”
Leahy said he was impressed by the set-up at Wentworth and the organisation of the best-supported event on the European Tour, which is headquartered on the site. “Wentworth’s been fabulous to see with all the tented villages, the catering and the buzz of the crowds. The European Tour’s seamless organisation and the way they get crowds around the venue with little or no difficulty is great to see.
“If the Irish Open felt and looked as good as this we’d be very, very proud. And of course it’s our intention to ensure it does.”
One of the benefits the arrival of an Irish Open to any venue has are the opportunities it presents to build a programme of events around the tournament.
University College Cork’s Mardyke Arena is contributing admirably to that cause by staging two golf seminars during the week of the event next month, one in association with the Confederation of Golf in Ireland, the other with the European Tour Performance Institute.
On Monday, June 16, Lee Valley Golf and Country Club hosts the Mardyke Arena and CGI’s ‘Business Planning & Marketing for Your Golf Club’ seminar while the arena itself is the venue for the following day’s discussions around ‘The pathway to excellence, conditioning, fitness and screening for golf.’
The first seminar is targeted at all golf clubs looking to improve their business planning and communication strategies for their club. Topics to be covered include the challenge of membership retention, business planning and managing change, as well as communications options for golf clubs. They will be presented by industry luminaries such as CGI director of golf and business, John Roche (pictured), Franco De Bonis, director of Digital Marketing Services at Snap Ireland and leading golf business consultant, Ronnie Malcolm, who will also lead a round table discussion.
The Tuesday, June 17 seminar at the Mardyke Arena is targeted at golfers, both professional and amateur, looking to improve their game as well as golf coaches, golf teachers, fitness professionals, physiotherapists and physical therapists. An impressive array of speakers includes, Jussi Pitkanen, the PGA Coach Education Manager for Ireland, Daryl Coyne of the European Tour Physiotherapy Unit, Shane Lawlor of sports medicine company ProGolf Health, chartered physiotherapist Orlaith Buckley of Dublin’s Golf Physio Clinic and Andy Morrison, a PGA Professional and PGA Sports Science Tutor.
Buckley will also be sitting down with ILGU high performance director David Kearney and GUI National head coach Neil Manchip to discuss “nurturing world class talent; the role of physical development and conditioning”.
Fees for both seminars will be €50 per delegate, including lunch, or €90 for two delegates from the same club, clinic or business. For more see www.mardykearena.com.
Congratulations to Muskerry’s Niall Gorey (pictured) for his impressive victory in the Castletroy Senior Scratch Cup on Saturday.
The Munster interpro posted back-to-back rounds of 71 for a 142 total to win by five strokes from Castletroy’s own Stephen Moloney on 147, on a day that made scoring tough.
It was a good weekend all round for Castletroy, whose Chloe Ryan finished runner-up on Sunday in the Irish Women’s Strokeplay at Douglas Golf Club.
Ryan, 20, shot the low round of the 54-hole event, a four-under-par 69 on the Saturday, but lost out on the title to England’s Lucy Goddard by just one stroke. More on Chloe in the coming weeks.
