Watson remains defiant over Irish Open sponsorship

IRISH OPEN organisers have not admitted defeat in their search for a title sponsor but insist this year’s event will not suffer for the lack of one.

The European Tour, with support from Fáilte Ireland, has underwritten the 2011 tournament, to be held at Killarney Golf and Fishing Club from July 28-31, in the wake of 3’s withdrawal as title sponsor last November.

And while officials have not given up their search for a replacement, Championship Director Ben Watson accepted that time was running out with the first round teeing off on the Killeen course 13 weeks from today.

“Commercial aspects are crucially important to any modern sports event,” Watson said following a two-day visit with fellow European Tour officials to Killarney.

“We’re constantly having discussions, we constantly talk to commercial bodies for the possibility of title sponsorship and very much remain open to that but by the same token we’ve known the situation since ‘3’ pulled out and with the support of Fáilte Ireland and our other sponsors we will put on the event on that basis and go forward on that level.

“If a title sponsor comes in we will react accordingly.”

Watson admitted there was currently “nothing concrete with any specific organisations” but added: “what we do is have constant discussions with a number of bodies and companies and we will try and develop that. We don’t rule anything out at this stage.”

As the championship director pointed out, plans for this year’s Irish Open are already progressing.

“We’ve been down in Killarney with the team to look at the course and the set-up and various changes to the infrastructure that we might make to develop our plans for 2011.

“Fáilte Ireland are still very much the big sponsor for the event and we’re just trying to develop our plan to move forward for 2011 and put the event into place.”

And Watson is satisfied that the Tour can build on last year’s successful return to Killarney, which saw England’s Ross Fisher hold off a charging Pádraig Harrington for victory.

“Everyone found that last year we wanted to latch on to the fact Killarney was one of the places to go in Ireland for the Bank Holiday weekend and we wanted to put the message out that this was not just for golfers but for (the) whole family. And we’ll be creating that again.

“We’ll have the tented village again and a lot of the same facilities and a few new ones to make sure thateveryone who comes along has a great day out.

“The golf is the tournament and that’s what people are specifically there for but it’s not just about the golf, it’s about a great day out.

“We want to make sure that people have a great day. We’re in the entertainment business and we’ll make sure that both inside the ropes with the golf and outside the ropes with the entertainment we’re putting on that people will have a really fun day and that’s unaffected by the sponsorship.”