Baltray provides missing links

IRELAND’S global reputation as the home of golf’s greatest links courses will be further boosted this year with the confirmation that the Co Louth club at Baltray will stage the Irish Open Championship on May 14-17.

Given the country’s estimable reputation for producing the world’s greatest links, the majority of Irish golf fans believed the Irish Open should always take place by the sea and after a few years inland at Carton House and Adare Manor, that has now come to pass. That view is clearly shared by the European Tour and the new sponsors of the championship, the global mobile phone company ‘3’ with its proximity to Dublin also a telling factor.

This is the second time the course, located about four miles from Drogheda, has come to the rescue of the tournament when its future was in some doubt. It was staged there in 2004 at a time when Nissan Ireland extended their sponsorship for a fourth year when no other course was forthcoming and in spite of unfavourable weather conditions, proved a great success.