Carton will test the best

THE venue promises to be at least as interesting as the golf itself when the AIB Irish Amateur Open Championship gets under way over the brand new Montgomerie course at Carton House near Maynooth, Co Kildare this morning.

Carton is the luxury 36 hole complex developed by the Mallahan family over the past decade and where the GUI will be setting up their headquarters in the next couple of years.

Carton’s rise to fame began with the opening of the Mark O’Meara designed course in 2001 but the arrival of Monty’s course last July really captured the imagination. Others have tried to develop what they like to describe as an ‘inland links’ in this country but it could be that the controversial Scot has come closest to reaching that ideal at Carton.