Job well done for Killarney

THE European Tour carnival may have moved on to fresh pastures but for the staff left behind at the Irish Open’s host venue there is still plenty of work to do.

It will take until tomorrow at the earliest before the tented village at Killarney Golf & Fishing Club is cleared from the 11th fairway of the Mahony’s Point course and while the club’s superintendent Dave MacIndoe allowed himself a lie-in yesterday it was a brief respite as he bids to return the three golf courses to normality after a hectic Irish Open on his patch.

After a long run of 4am starts during tournament week, MacIndoe had the luxury of a 7:30am alarm call as he reflected on another successful week hosting the European Tour and some of the continent’s best golfers.

And while the Scot’s preparation of the Killeen Course and practice facilities at the club earned rave reviews from Tour officials and players alike, he and foreman Bernie Nolan have already begun the task of restoring not just the tournament course but the Lackabane and Mahony’s Point layouts to their former glory so all three can be up to standard for members.

“The course has stood up really well considering the amount of people on it last week. I took a quick look at it on Sunday at 5pm and it’s in remarkably good shape.

“All the traffic areas will have to be aerated and de-compacted and we’ll give the grass a wee tonic for a major boost but if it’s anything like last year, within a few weeks of the tournament you won’t know there was a tournament on.

“The tented village area took a hammering but we can play the 11th as a par three and get the Mahony’s Point course open probably tomorrow and so all three courses will be back in operation again.”

Up and running they may be but MacIndoe said a lot more work will have to be done to get the Lackabane, which stayed open throughout the Irish Open, and Mahony’s Point back up to scratch.

“They were seriously neglected. We had to throw all our resources into getting the Killeen up to Tour standard and that took away from Lackabane and Mahony’s Point.

“I had 34 staff working on the Killeen every morning last week and come Tuesday I’ll be lucky if I’ve got five.

“So keeping Killeen at Tour standard is just not possible and there’s a lot of catching up to do on the other courses because they can go backwards very quickly in two weeks.”

In the meantime, MacIndoe and general manager Maurice O’Meara have some magnificent feedback from European Tour officials, players and spectators alike to boost their hopes of the Irish Open returning to Killarney in 2012.

MacIndoe said: “The Tour’s senior tournament director David Probyn was very complimentary and I spoke to Simon Dyson on Sunday evening after he’d collected his winner’s trophy and he called Killarney a phenomenal place for the tournament.”

Killarney has already thrown its hat into the ring for a third Irish Open in a row and O’Meara now has two years of plaudits in his armoury to state his club’s case for a return, rather than a switch to a Dublin or Ulster venue, as has also been mooted, should any potential new title sponsor express a wish to move the tournament.

“It was a great week, a busy week and the feedback has been similar to last year – great course, great venue, great town,” O’Meara said. “The players seem to be very happy again. They’ve got to know the place a little bit better and the scoring kind of reflected that although we did make it a bit trickier with the rough and the new tee box on the first hole. The feedback on the course was very good. There have been positive suggestions which we’ll take on board if it is coming back in 2012 but overall we’re happy considering the lack of a title sponsor and the limited budgets.

“So now we’re going to try and see what we can do for 2012. The feedback from the general spectator has been very good and we’re very pleased we got the marshalling right because with the Rory (McIlroy) factor and now the Darren factor it was very, very important to get that right. If we got that wrong, the players aren’t happy and they go away and think again about coming back. But they’re delighted if they come back here next year.”