Preview: Ryder Cup adds some extra spice to the Irish Open
Rory McIlroy during a Pro-AM round at The K Club ahead of the 2025 Amgen Irish Open. Pic: Brian Lawless/PA Wire.
The shadow of the 2025 Ryder Cup looms large over the Amgen Irish Open, which starts on Thursday just three weeks ahead of the USA-Europe matchplay showdown at Bethpage Black.
Yet that need not be a bad thing for the 10s of thousands of Irish golf supporters expected to brave the autumnal storms forecast for The K Club’s Palmer North course over the first round and beyond.
The presence of two homegrown European Ryder Cuppers in former Irish Open champions Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, plus team-mate Tyrrell Hatton, brings a whiff of the biennial battle with the Americans to this soggy corner of Kildare this weekend while the presence of former Stars and Stripes standard bearers Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed, adds a little extra spice in advance of the expected volatility awaiting Luke Donald’s Team Europe on New York’s Long Island.
With the DP World Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, falling between the two it is quite the run of events on this self-styled Back 9 of the European season and Lowry emphasised its importance on Wednesday as he anticipated his bid to add a professional victory in his national Open to his remarkable success as an amateur in this tournament at County Louth in 2009.
“Obviously exciting few weeks ahead, starting with this week,” Lowry said ahead of his 07:50 first-round tee time alongside Kopeka and France’s Martin Couvra.
“I think, as a golfer, as an Irish golfer, as a European golfer, if I can't get myself motivated and ready and up for what's to come over the next month, starting with Thursday here, I should pack it in.
“Yeah, I'm very excited. It's good to be back here at a place I know pretty well. I get to stay in my own bed for a few days, which is nice. Yeah, things have been going pretty well. The week has been going very nice so far.”
McIlroy, meanwhile, has returned to the venue where he won his lone Irish Open title in 2016 and will tee off on Thursday at 08:00 alongside South Africa’s Thriston Lawrence and Kristoffer Reitan of Norway.
He said he was looking forward to returning to his home Open for the first time since winning his Masters Green Jacket at Augusta National last April, when he completed a career grand slam of major titles.
“It's good to be back,” McIlroy said. “I had a great experience at Portrush a few weeks ago for The Open. I can't wait to get out there and tee it up tomorrow and get on the first tee as the Masters Champion and go from there.
“Great to be back. I've got plenty of nice memories from the K Club over the years, from attending the Ryder Cup as a 17-year-old to obviously winning the Irish Open in 2016. It's been a great place for me and I'm excited to be back.”
If it’s history you want this weekend then look no further than 2007 champion Padraig Harrington, fresh off his fourth senior major title and second of the year, who will get his 30th consecutive Irish Open appearance underway from the 10th tee at 7:40am.
“It's hard to believe 30 years,” Harrington, 54, said as he acknowledged his son Paddy Jr having been a part of a victorious Pro-Am team on Wednesday.
“The Harringtons already have a win this week… so starting off on a good foot,” he said during a customarily entertaining pre-tournament press conference in which he even fielded a question about whether he was considering entering politics. Typically, he cut right to the chase.
“We know where this is going,” Harrington said.
“No. No. I'm very busy with what I'm doing. It's an incredible honour, obviously, for anybody to become the president of Ireland but a very difficult job in the sense of I don't think my game would be up to it.”
Harrington’s impact on Irish golf is a legacy enough and there was no more resonant example of that than during a chat with the field’s only amateur, 18-year-old Fota Island representative John Doyle, the Irish Boys’ Amateur Open and Munster Men’s Amateur Open Champion.
Doyle, set to embark on his final year at CBS Mitchelstown before taking up a golf scholarship at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, told that some advice from Harrington earlier this year would stand him in good stead for his Irish Open debut this week.
“To come away with no regrets is my biggest goal for the week,” Doyle said.
“I was at a talk with Padraig Harrington in January and he said ‘the one thing I want you to take away is to walk into the shot and don’t change your mind’ and I think that’s a pretty good mentality for me this week, just to commit to my decisions.”
Whether it is a 30-year veteran or a teenage debutant, there is plenty to get behind at The K Club this weekend, no matter what lies ahead.
