Irish Open offers Pádraig way back

AWARE the Irish Open would go ahead in 2011 without a title sponsor, the country’s leading players promised to do all they could to ensure the success of the championship.

They went out into the highways and byways in search of a sponsor, without success.

So they then came up with different ways of solving the problem. Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke captured back-to-back major championships and made it clear that they would be at Killarney over the August weekend, doing battle for their native title.