Professionals set to go to extra lengths at Killeen

WHEN Europe’s leading touring professionals show up at the first tee on Killarney Golf & Fishing Club’s Killeen Course in the last week of July, it will not be business as usual.

The opening par-four hole, a dogleg right that skirts around the Lough Leane shoreline, has seen some redevelopment since last year’s tournament, won by England’s Ross Fisher, with head greenkeeper David MacIndoe overseeing the building of a new tee box, making the first some 27 yards longer than the 377 yards it played in 2010.

“What they were doing last year was carrying their tee shots over the top of the fairway bunkers (on the outward corner of the dogleg) and maybe with a touch of fade and across the road to leave maybe an easier shot back into the green,” MacIndoe explained.