Scene set for perfect Irish Open

THE field for the ‘3’ Irish Open at Killarney’s Golf and Fishing Club (July 29-August 1) was yesterday boosted by the inclusion of Rory McIlroy, the weekend’s PGA championship winner Simon Khan and 2004 British Open champion Todd Hamilton.

Meanwhile Matteo Manassero has also had accepted a sponsor’s invitation to contest Ireland’s premier golfing event and joins a field that includes Pádraig Harrington, Lee Westwood and former winners, Richard Finch, Patrik Sjoland, David Carter and Shane Lowry, who so memorably triumphed as an amateur 12 months ago.

Robert Rock, the Englishman who lost to Lowry at the third extra tie hole last year, comes back in search of his first Tour victory, while tournament director Ben Watson announced that other names will be announced over the coming weeks.

McIlroy joked that he doesn’t remember Nick Faldo winning the title in 1990 and 1991 when the event was in the Kingdom. But the tyro had a good excuse.

“I was one or two years old at the time,” he laughed.

“It’s a different course that I haven’t played before but the new date is a big bonus for the tournament and it’s also a Bank Holiday so hopefully we will have big crowds and a great tournament.”

Khan has a number of Irish relatives and had entered the tournament ever before his dramatic success at Wentworth. Like Hamilton six years previously, the weekend success was a career-altering achievement as he now qualifies for the next three Open Championships and has a five-year exemption on the European Tour.

However, he might have been too far down the qualifying list to qualify for the Irish Open without his momentous victory at the weekend, having been re-ranked as a Tour School qualifier the week before the PGA.

The other Irish entrants so far include Darren Clarke, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Gareth Maybin, Michael Hoey and from the Irish PGA 2009 Region order of merit, David Higgins, Damian Mooney, John Kelly, Peter T Martin, Simon Thornton, Barrie Trainor, Gary Cullen and Michael Collins.

Yesterday’s media day was attended by several representatives of ‘3’, fellow sponsors Fáilte Ireland, as well as officials from the European Tour and the Killarney club.

Fáilte Ireland chairman Redmond O’Donoghue said: “Killarney and the Irish Open provided the ideal cocktail for promoting golf tourism and we will be spending more money on the game. Golf tourism is very important for Ireland, generating almost 141,000 visitors annually as well as revenue for this country amounting to in excess of €105 million. And we recently had the boost of Pádraig Harrington agreeing to be our worldwide golf ambassador.”

James Finnigan of the European Tour was present yesterday continuing the campaign to come up with subsidiary sponsors to help defray the considerable cost in running an event of this magnitude. While disappointed at the overall contribution from companies within and outside of Kerry, Finnigan said he was grateful to the Europe Hotel and Resort for becoming an official sponsor. Part of the Liebherr Group, it is the first Kerry-based company to offer major support to the championship.