Weekend to produce an Irish champion

As someone who has been closely involved with the Irish Open for a number of years, it is heartening to see the Irish Open has already broken all sorts of European Tour records, most notably that the event has been sold out before a ball has even been hit.

It’s hard to imagine that just five short years ago, the Irish Open, historically one of Europe’s greatest professional tournaments, was fighting for its very survival on the Tour’s calendar. Hard work has paid dividends and everyone should now take credit but none more so than our own professional golfers, who during that same period have grabbed the professional game of golf by the collar and firmly established our small island as one of the two most dominant countries in the world (the other being USA) in terms of producing major champions.

This week the Irish Open returns to Northern Ireland for the first time since 1953. Royal Portrush is a course that demands accuracy from the tee and precision with your approach shots. It’s very testing, but it gives something back as well. Most of all it is a very fair test of golf. The large galleries will witness shot-making of the very highest calibre — not just from the 10 major champions in the field but also from anyone lucky enough to be in contention come Sunday.