Carton’s Cuppers runneth over

WITH so many of their top players turning their sights towards the US Tour with all its wealth and perks, the European Tour is finding it increasingly difficult to put fields together that will attract serious public interest.

Fortunately, there is still sufficient strength in depth in Europe to keep most sponsors happy and certainly Nissan Ireland chief Gerard O'Toole must be pleased by the presence of seven of the successful 2004 Ryder Cuppers in the entry for the Irish Open at Carton House this week.

They are led by Colin Montgomerie, whose 'inland links' at Carton will be scrutinisedby his fellow players. Very few will have set eyes on the Montgomerie creation before today but the word is out that it is a 'monster' and that if unfavourable weather conditions prevail, a number of tees could be pushed forward.

Monty's Carton boasts 139 bunkers, some huge, and a visit to one of them means the inevitable loss of a stroke. Montgomerie will explain his reasoning behind his design at a luncheon in Carton this afternoon. But it won't be until the other stars complete their first practice rounds Darren Clarke will provide an early reactionas he tees off at 8am with young amateur starlet Rory McIlroy.

Montgomerie, meanwhile, certainly appears to be the 'loser'over the ball dropping incident in Indonesia.

The European Tour felt there wasn't sufficient evidence to penalise himbut his peers on the Players Commitee have admonished him. Brian Davis is just one of those who believe Monty was sailinga little close to the wind in Indonesia and wants the matter raised again at the players meeting at Wentworth next week.

Controversy never seems to be far away for a man whose frustration at not sustaining the level that made him European number one for seven successive years often leads him into trouble.

Hopefully, he will perform to near his best this week with the Nissan Irish Open badly in need of high profile names near the top of the leaderboard. In recent years journeymen like Brett Rumford, Soren Hansen, Patrik Sjoland and David Carter come out on top in tournaments sadly lacking the atmosphere and excitement of the great years of Montgomerie, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Jose-Maria Olazabal, Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros.

The good news, of course, is that Olazabal, Woosnam and Michael Campbell, the winner at Portmarnock two years ago, are back again along with other big names like Trevor Immelman, Graeme McDowell and Angel Cabrera and ready to tacklethe Ryder Cuppers, Montgomerie, Pádraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Miguel-Angel Jimenez, Lee Westwood, British Masters runner-up David Howell and Paul McGinley.

Harrington has a couple of runner-up finishes to his credit but is first to agree that he hasn't seriously challenge for the title. Much the same applies to Clarke, who, however, has been reeling off a succession of top ten finishes both at home and abroad and will surely go all the way sooner rather than later.

He might well have done better than 67 in the final round at the Forest of Arden having gone out in 30 shots helped by an albatross two at the long 3rd but he still played very nicely. McDowell and McGinley closed with 66 and 68 respectively so they, too, are quietly confident about their prospects. The other Irishmen with a reasonable chance of making their presence felt are Gary Murphy and 2003 rookie of the year Peter Lawrie.

There's a host of other Irishmen challengers, including Challenge Tour leader David Higgins and former Ryder Cup man Philip Walton along with a number from the Irish region order of merit for whom this represents an annual opportunity to rub shoulders with the stars.