Where have all the crowds gone?

TIME was when the Irish Open was dominated by the superstars of the game ... Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, Nick Faldo, Jose-Maria Olazabal, all major championship winners, Colin Montgomerie and Sergio Garcia, two of the game’s finest ever players.

That day, for some reason, is long past.

David Carter in 1998 set the trend for low key champions and since then we have had Patrik Sjoland, Soren Hansen, Brett Rumford and now Stephen Dodd. Fine golfers all, no doubt, but not the kind of guys that the public will flock to watch.

It may seem a small point but as Pádraig Harrington pointed out, the course at Carton House was noticeably quiet with none of the loud, ringing cheers that we used to once associate with the event. In other words, there was little or no atmosphere. True, the weather was awful and would have dampened the spirits of the most ardent of fans but you also felt that the likes of Nick Dougherty, David Howell, Stephen Dodd and Nick O’Hern, to name four, were never going to enthuse the galleries.

Dodd emerged a worthy champion having shot a final round of 68 with the pressure at its greatest and then knocked two fine shots on to the par five 18th in the play-off to capture the title. That can never be taken away from him. I’m sure he’s also a nice man but beyond that, well, his demeanour and golf game are not exactly designed to send the blood coursing through the veins.

When it came to talking to the press and media, he had the minimum to say and trying to draw a sound byte from him wasn’t just difficult, it was impossible.

The Carton crowd wanted two things: a big name player, preferably Irish, and some decent weather. They got neither with Harrington only briefly in with a chance after his spectacular holed bunker shot for an eagle two at 13.

In the end, he expressed genuine amazement that he was only three shots off the lead having putted poorly throughout the week.

Athlone’s Colm Moriarty did himself proud over all four days and a cheque and 30,100 for a share of 13th will ease any immediate financial difficulty as he returns to the Challenge Tour.

The other Irish either didn’t figure at all or, like Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley, slowly but surely slipped from the scene as the weekend went on. Graeme McDowell didn’t even make the cut.

Then there was Colin Montgomerie’s Carton course. In the final analysis, it didn’t prove to be the back breaker so many had predicted.

The winning total of nine under wasn’t at all bad in the prevailing conditions and with Monty promising some tweaking here and there, it will be a little fairer in 12 months time.

Given how easy they have it so many weeks of the year, nobody will feel any sympathy for the pros. Where the club player is concerned, however, it could present too severe a test although by availing of sympathetic tee and pin locations, it should prove enjoyable for the single figure men.

In that context, I understand that there has already been several enquiries from the States by people keen to try their luck over Monty’s ‘inland links’. However, those playing off a higher handicap than, say, 15, and anxious to savour the delights of this lovely place, would be better advised to play the adjoining Mark O’Meara lay-out.

The one really worrying element of the championship is the continued drop in spectator numbers. One can only guess at how these figures are gauged in the first place but here are a few statistics of considerable interest.

Fota Island 2001: Montgomerie the winner, chased home by Harrington, Clarke and Niclas Fasth, amidst a plethora of birdies and eagles. Daily attendances of 12,000; 18,000; 23,000 and 35,000. Total: 88,000.

Fota Island 2002: Soren Hansen the winner in a play-off with Darren Fichardt, Fasth and Richard Bland. Daily attendances of 13,500; 18,600; 27,900; 21,600: Total: 81,600.

Portmarnock, 2003: Michael Campbell the winner in a play-off with Thomas Bjorn and Peter Hedblom. Daily attendances of 11, 740; 16,730; 20, 940; 27,000. Total: 76,410.

Co Louth, 2004: Brett Rumford the winner. Daily attendances of 12,244; 14,040; 18,324; 25,342. Total: 72,665.

Carton House, 2005: Stephen Dodd the winner in a play-off with David Howell. Daily attendances of 10,142; 12,704; 17,550; 21,342: Total 63,651.

Everybody will have their own theory about a 25,000 drop in attendances over a five year period. Obviously, location, venue, weather and cost are among the chief factors. On the first two counts, Carton should have been okay given its proximity to Dublin and its accessibility. As for the elements, well, they were on their worst possible behaviour and any comparison between the weekend of ‘01 at Fota and last week at Carton would be completely futile. Cost, however, is another matter and I heard murmurings of rip off and so on.

Burgers rarely figure in my personal diet but I met one individual who had his mouth crammed with the stuff and complaining about having to pay 9 for the privilege. Bring along your wife and two children for the day and the cost at the gate was exactly 100. Too much? Perhaps, but you paid 70 for any west upper stand seat in the Six Nations rugby championship.

These are factors of the European Tour, who now own the Irish Open title; the sponsors, Nissan, who decided at the last minute on Sunday to take up the cudgel for next year and the Mallaghan family, the owners of Carton House who made everybody as welcome as possible to their magnificent facility, will be closely examining over the coming months.

It’s not just the absence of charismatic champions that has one of the country’s greatest sporting occasions teetering on the edge.