Tiger’s trip to Adare tops treats for 2010
Woods will be just one of many superstars – and they won’t all be golfers by any means – competing in the McManus extravaganza that is set to raise many more millions for worthy charities in the mid-west. If it’s half as good as it was at Adare in 2005, the occasion will be something very special indeed and McManus and his committee are already concentrating their minds on ensuring that will be very much the case.
The Killeen Course at Killarney will today be confirmed as the venue for the 2010 Irish Open with all the indications that the host venue – enthusiastically supported by the business people of the town and its environs– will put on a very special show indeed. George O’Grady, chief executive of the European Tour, will make the announcement, along with the Sports Minister Martin Cullen, and must be one very relieved man.
It isn’t often a new sponsor comes along in these straitened times as 3 did this year and put up €3 million in prize money. In doing so, they made no secret of the fact that they wished to change from a mid-May date to a time of year when there was the prospect of a strong field and the likelihood of more favourable weather.
On failing to acquire either of the two weeks preceding the British Open, they opted instead for the August Bank Holiday and may well have come up with a winner. It allows for a week’s gap after the British Open and another before the US PGA Championship and that should appeal to the majority of the leading European players. Furthermore, it will be the fourth last tournament before the Ryder Cup team to take on the Americans is finalised and those not already assured of their place would almost certainly want to take in an event offering at least three million precious points.
Padraig Harrington has given Killarney his blessing, even if he has never played a competitive round there. O’Grady has invariably made it a point of consulting the 2007 champion before coming to any final decision about the Irish Open and obviously he is happy with the arrangement for 2010.
Meanwhile, Padraig has improved another position from 7th to 6th in the world rankings behind Woods, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Paul Casey and man-in-form Lee Westwood. Henrik Stenson, 7th , and Sergio Garcia, 10th , bring the number of Europeans in the top ten to five. Rory McIlroy is next best of the Irish in 17th but Graeme McDowell has slipped out to 54th . He needs to return to the top 50 by the end of the year to receive an automatic invitation to next April’s Masters at Augusta.
While it is more than a little disappointing for Harrington that he hasn’t won a tournament since the US PGA Championship in August, 2008, he has to be pleased with his performances over the past two months. Since the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on August 9th , he has finished 2nd, 10th (US PGA), 2nd (Barclays), 4th (Deutsche Bank), 4th (Tour Championship), 6th (BMW) and 3rd (Portugal Masters).
There was one blip – the Alfred Dunhill Championship – in which he finished down the field but he was just coming off an exhausting month in the States.
He misses out on this week’s Castello Masters in Spain to get himself ready for a series of big tournaments, the Barclays Singapore Open, the WGC-HSBC Champions and the Dubai World Championship. Currently 15th in the Road to Dubai order of merit after his 3rd place finish in the Portugal Masters at the weekend, Harrington still retains an outside chance of overtaking leader Westwood. However, he is now €1.85 million points behind the Englishman so would probably need to win two of those events to do so.
Rory McIlroy, now second, has a much better chance of claiming the massive $1.5 million Dubai bonus although he is now 209,000 points behind Westwood. He plays in the Volvo World Match Play Championship in Spain next week before completing his campaign in Singapore, Shanghai and Dubai.
Four other Irish players, McDowell 37th ; Gareth Maybin 47th , Peter Lawrie 49th and Damien McGrane 53rd , are also currently within the top 60 who qualify for Dubai. Desperately trying to join them is Darren Clarke, 64th at present, and he hopes to make further inroads by taking in the €2 million Castello Masters beginning at Castellon near Valencia on Thursday.
The other Irish in the field are Paul McGinley, 100th in the money list, and Gary Murphy, still anxious to pick up a few extra points that would more or less guarantee his place on tour in 2010.
Shane Lowry takes the week off and the 3 Irish Open champion has good reason to be happy with how his season has gone so far. He has picked up €105, 811 in prize money and gained a huge amount of experience that he would have missed out on had he remained amateur until after the Walker Cup in August. And he is sure of two more full years on tour as a result of his Irish Open win in May.
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