Irish Open: Cream already rising to the top at the K Club

When the K Club was announced as the venue to host this year’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, my initial thoughts were that it was a wonderful opportunity for another Irish victory on home soil.

More specifically, the K Club presented the type of opportunity to its host this week, Rory McIlroy, that Royal County Down last year did not, in that the K Club layout seriously favours a power game, and never was this demonstrated more than by McIlroy yesterday.

Those who started early yesterday will moan about the rain and the wrong side of the draw but the show goes on and you simply have to play what is in front of you and if Martin Kaymer’s early round score of 69 was very impressive, his was only a precursor to the afternoon’s fireworks where Danny Willet earned the plaudits but McIlroy impressed most, with his calm assured performance.