In his weekly look at the world of golf, Alex Dimond casts his eye over a past seven days that have seen Rory McIroy and Ricky Fowler get ready for the Irish Open, Miguel Angel Jimenez claim a BMW and Colin Montgomerie win some majors at last.
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– Wentworth: An claims ‘life-changing’ PGA Championship win
If the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth felt like a sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden, then the Irish Open is perhaps more of an intimate, tickets-on-the-door gig at CBGB’s.
The Wentworth event is great, undoubtedly one of the European tournaments of the year, but it also feels like any other event except on a bigger, more polished scale. You know it’s important because it’s the same, except grander.
The Irish Open is great because it is so completely different, marching to the beat of its own drum. That is the case most years, but especially this one.
The organisers, blessed with plenty of options, have decided to take the tournament to different courses every year, and this year the event takes place at Royal County Down, a course in Northern Ireland widely regarded as one of the very finest in the world (Golf Magazine have often ranked it their No. 1 course outside the United States).
A links course in the truest sense of the word, County Down has quirks (blind tee shots, unusual contours) that endear rather than frustrate, a credit to a layout that was fashioned over many years at the hands of many architects.
The likes of Rickie Fowler, Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer and Ernie Els will all play this week, a far stronger field than would otherwise be attracted in what is now the run-up to the US Open. Indeed, nearly 100 of the 148 players in the field have previously won on the European Tour, a rare sign of the caliber of player attracted to make it to a small corner of Northern Ireland.
That is mainly down to the course on offer (the first time it has hosted the Irish Open since 1939), but in part also down to an inflated prize fund—one enabled by the fact it is world No. 1 Rory McIlroy and his foundation who now put on the event (it may also be in part down to the presence of One Direction’s Niall Horan, who is once again involved after nearly killing three people during his pro-am appearance last week).
McIlroy has been a driving force behind the revitalization of the Irish Open in recent years, although his presence alone would have surely driven up attendances considerably regardless of his further involvement (in 2012, the earlier days of Rory mania, a record 112,000 turned up for the four days at Royal Portrush). He does much more than that, however, putting his weight behind the promotional push for weeks and months before the tournament and getting involved with plenty of local events during the week itself.
This week, for example, McIlroy will wear four pairs of golf shoes designed by child cancer sufferers, a sweet touch (the shoes look pretty cool, too).
“I think Rory’s support this year has pushed it to a new level, and probably a new level on the world stage more so than the European stage. It’s really stepped up a gear,” Padraig Harrington said this week. “It’s where we want the Irish Open to be. It’s tough these days.
“It’s a very competitive market to be running the best event out there, and you know, we are right there this year with the Irish Open. It’s going to be one of the events at the end of the year that anybody who wins this will be putting it right there at the top of their CV.”
For McIlroy’s peers, the excitement of the week is getting to play a course that many have heard about but few have had the chance to play. It is not exactly a course designed to host a professional event—tucked out of the way, and without the “stadium” features of many modern courses designed specifically with tour events in mind—but in many ways that only enhances the charm. Fans will have to get used to walking just to make it to the course, for example: With the nearest train station two miles away, a stroll through the local village is not just advised but demanded.
That only adds to the charm, though, and marks the event out from the rest of the events where logistics are planned out to the nth degree and convenience for punters (especially corporate ones) trumps everything.
A great course, a great field, a great spectacle. Hopefully the Irish Open lives up to the hype, but either way fans will be getting a taste of something very different this week.
What an incredible experience yesterday was…apart from the way I played ! Huge thanks to @McIlroyRory , @fizzer18 and scholesy ! Great day
— Niall Horan (@NiallOfficial) May 21, 2015
Just a couple of friends, playing pool before a golf tournament. #DDFIrishOpen pic.twitter.com/OjU4LrvLao
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) May 26, 2015
Classic RT @si_golf: Rickie Fowler and Rory McIlroy at the 2007 Walker Cup at Royal County Down: pic.twitter.com/HvV1tNXxeK (Getty)
— Adam Stanley (@adam_stanley) September 5, 2013
Ace in the hole
Last week’s BMW PGA event at Wentworth saw a number of hole-in-ones during the course of the tournament, making it an even more expensive weekend for the title sponsors BMW.
Miguel Angel Jimenez, fresh off winning nearly 400 bottles of beer for a hole-in-one at the tournament the week before (*cut to amateurs around the world dreaming of such a windfall*), got his second ace in a week, meaning his 10 career ones on the European Tour is now an all-time record.
Miguel Angel Jimenez hit a record 10th ace in European Tour competition on Saturday. http://t.co/TXRYgd3FlL pic.twitter.com/CiCa8PrQ0h
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 23, 2015
He was not the only one to kiss perfection, with five aces in total during the week. The two others to pick out came from Andrew Johnston and Chris Wood, who won a BMW M4 Coupe and i8 (which looks like something out of Minority Report) respectively.
Another reminder of how good it must be to be a professional golfer.
Hole in one! @Chris3Wood wins a BMW i8! http://t.co/4yKbyJECNE
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) May 24, 2015
Monty’s major memories
And we finish on an amusing note, at least for those of you who might not be the biggest fans of Colin Montgomerie.
Over the weekend the Scot won his third senior major championship, defending his Senior PGA crown with an impressive finish at French Lick resort in Indiana. Almost immediately after securing that crown Montgomerie was back on the Golf Channel as a pundit, where he was presented to the audience thusly:
Classic Golf Channel photo caption, right after Monty had won on senior circuit, too. Ouch. pic.twitter.com/AcYwaWd4oA
— Steve Elling (@EllingYelling) May 26, 2015
Good effort, Monty, but it seems some people will never let you forget you never quite managed to get it done when it really counted.
