Killarney to welcome back Irish Open

FÁILTE IRELAND’S commitment to the Irish Open, at least for 2011, means that the country’s flagship golf tournament will go ahead for the second successive year and for the fourth time in all at Killarney on July 28-31 next.

Tourist Board chairman Redmond O’Donoghue has always been a strong supporter of the championship and his influence has again been considerable in ensuring the continuation of the event that was placed in doubt after the withdrawal of mobile phone company 3, a year short of their agreement with the European Tour.

“We are delighted to once again be involved in this great event and to commit to being a major sponsor to ensure its continued success,” said O’Donoghue.

“2010 provided a fantastic opportunity to showcase Ireland to an audience of 394 million homes worldwide. It attracted the best field for many years with 25 of Europe’s top 50 participating. Some 82,000 spectators attended over the four days, the second highest on the European Tour after their flagship tournament, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth which had 88,000.”

O’Donoghue’s pledge for Fáilte Ireland to be “a major sponsor” has come as sweet music to the ears of European Tour chief executive George O’Grady. He makes no secret of his difficulty in acquiring a replacement title sponsor for 3 and he has accepted he will be unable to announce a prize fund until matters become much clearer.

Fáilte Ireland ploughed €1 million into this year’s Irish Open and it is believed that they have committed a similar amount for 2011. While it is a very handsome figure in these difficult times and its own indication of the Tourist Board’s commitment to the tournament, it would still fall perilously short of what is required to stage a major European Tour event. That is where George O’Grady and his team at Wentworth come very much into the picture.

It is their task — in collaboration with all interested parties — to provide a prize fund worthy of the championship.

It is understood that the Tour received financial compensation when Smurfit Kappa withdrew their sponsorship of the European Open in 2008. Any payment of a similar nature from 3 would also go into the 2011 Irish Open “pot” while the Tour itself will also make a contribution even if the revenue from last October’s Ryder Cup — an event from which it has derived a considerable share of its income over the past 20 years or so — fell short of expectations.

“Together with Fáilte Ireland we will announce the prize money when we are ready, but this is a positive announcement,” O’Grady told RTE yesterday.

“I have a level of prize money in my head, and I have no intention, on behalf of the game, to lose money. All the Irish players are onside. We sat in a room together during the Dubai World Championships and worked out what we could do for the Irish Open.

“They were all there, led by Pádraig (Harrington), Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke, Graeme McDowell and Paul McGinley. They are all hugely committed and we are committed too. I already have in my mind the amount we are going to guarantee which is very level with the events around it. Rather than waiting for a sponsor to come on board to decide where we are going I am saying we are going to Killarney.

“Fáilte Ireland is our partner. We are marketing the Irish Open together, and now a sponsor can join a successful product if they want to. There is a lot of sponsor interest talking to me now in America, Japan, Dubai and here in Ireland.”

So the search goes on both for a title sponsor and companies prepared to act in a subsidiary role — as Heineken, Genworth Financial, the Europe Hotel and the Irish Examiner did in 2010.

Hopefully, it will result in an outcome that will enable the tournament to offer a prize fund as near as possible to the €3 million on offer this year.

Generally speaking, purses are down in many cases for the 2011 campaign. Apart from the season-ending Dubai World Championship boasting $7. 5m (€5.58m), the largest announced so far is £4. 5m (€5.29m) for the BMW PGA Championship followed by €3.4m in the Volvo World Match Play Championship and €3m in both the French Open and the Andalucia Masters.

Barclays Bank will likely retain their £3m (€3.5m) and $6m (€4.47m) support for the Scottish and Singapore Opens. They’re the kind of figures that those charged with maintaining the status of the Irish Open will be battling to match or come close to over the coming weeks and months.