Battle to save Irish Open goes on
As Pádraig Harrington, working hard to attract a replacement for “3” who surprisingly pulled out a year ahead of expectations, accepted at the weekend: “It’s by no means a certainty. The Tour badly need a sponsor.”
The reality is that in recent years, the Tour has listed other prestigious tournaments, most notably the European Open, the British Masters and the English Open, on their schedule only to drop them when a commercial sponsor could not be found.
O’Grady has pledged to do all in his power to ensure there will be an Irish Open and he certainly has been a loyal supporter of the event during its most troubled times over the past decade or so.
The feeling is that the Tour will augment whatever contribution is forthcoming from Fáilte Ireland but without a sizeable injection of cash from a title sponsor, that still might not be enough to salvage the tournament.
It is understood that the tourist board’s contribution in 2010 was €1 million but whether that will again be available in the current financial climate is questionable.
Significantly, perhaps, O’Grady’s words were laced with warning signs, such as… “I am confident we can keep going with reduced prize money and still get ourselves to a break-even position, which is critical”.
Admitting that he had spoken to a potential sponsor in Dubai, O’Grady added that “the interest is lukewarm but you never know, you have to start from somewhere.”
Harrington and Darren Clarke have promised to do all they can in this regard. Both men are widely respected and also have their own influential contacts in the financial world through personal sponsorship contracts.
MEANWHILE, the 2010 European Tour may have ended at the weekend with a well-merited Race to Dubai order of merit triumph for Germany’s Martin Kaymer over Graeme McDowell but golf’s millionaires still have plenty to play for over the next week before finally putting their clubs away for a month or so.
Both the Chevron World Challenge in California and the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa are offering purses of $5m (€3.8m) and with restricted fields, those finishing towards the lower end of each will depart with a decent reward.
The Chevron event at the Sherwood Country Course near Los Angeles has been identified with Tiger Woods since its inception 10 years ago.
Not alone did he win it four times but the tournament raised massive sums for his charitable foundation. The relationship went well until this time last year when Woods became embroiled in the painfully difficult personal trauma that cost him his marriage and led to easily the most unsuccessful year in his career so far.
His late withdrawal led to a place in the field for Graeme McDowell, who by chance happened to be in LA that week.
He was outside of the world top 50 at the time but took full advantage of the late invitation by finishing second, a shot behind winner Jim Furyk, and as a result improved to 38th in the rankings and eligible for the game’s biggest events in 2010.
What happened subsequently has become part of golfing folklore and certainly turned McDowell into a world star. Not surprisingly, he returns by right on this occasion and is, of course, joined by Woods.
McDowell’s countryman, Rory McIlroy, also makes the long journey to the west coast of the US where other European Ryder Cup heroes Luke Donald, Martin Kaymer and Ian Poulter are also involved.
For good measure, Woods leads a sizeable American Ryder Cup contingent including Stewart Cink, defending champion Furyk, Dustin and Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Hunter Mahan, Steve Stricker and Bubba Watson. The 18-strong field is rounded off by Paul Casey, Anthony Kim, Shaun O’Hare and Camilo Villegas.
Given that he boasts a fine record in the Californian tournament and is well remembered for outgunning Woods down the stretch on his way to victory in 2002, it is perhaps a little surprising that Pádraig Harrington has instead given preference to the Nedbank Challenge at Sun City.
