Christy O’Connor Jnr won the first Irish Open – sponsored by Carolls - at Woodbrook Golf Club in 1975 and received a cheque for the equivalent of seven thousand Euro – in Irish punts - for his win. Ten years later Seve Ballesteros won the event at Royal Dublin earning €28,000 for his efforts, with Sam Torrance winning in 1995 in Mount Juliet, when Murphy’s were the sponsors, picking up a cheque for €155,557.
At the Nissan Irish Open in 2005 it was Stephen Dodd who won €333,330 on the Montgomerie Course in Carton House and four years later the prize fund at the Irish Open in Killarney was five hundred thousand for the winner Ross Fisher – in an event sponsored by 3.
With such an increase in prize money over the years it is interesting that Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell have made some encouraging remarks following the loss of the major sponsor for the Irish Open suggesting they are willing to help find a much need replacement. Whether player power can rustle up a sponsor for 2011 at such short notice is only something we can surmise is difficult – but not impossible
At a time when there are seven Irish golfers in the Race to Dubai – with an eighth only two spots away- the first European winner of the US Open in forty years; a three time major winner and the most promising talent in the European game for many years in Rory McIlroy, it seems rather strange to be looking out on the horizon at a sponsor-less Irish Open. Something that has not happened since the two most recent years at Adare Manor – ironically the home of this year’s JP McManus Pro-Am - which was a who is who and what is what in world golf.
In its time the Irish Open has been won by twelve Masters winners, eight Ryder Cup Captains, two vice captains, two Open Champions and three US Open winners. Since the first official Irish Open the event has been hosted at ten different venues throughout the 36 years with a number used repeatedly - albeit at separate times – Killarney, Portmarnock and County Louth more recently – with only one venue limited to the one occasion and that was Ballybunion in 2000 when Patric Sjoland was the winner.
In 1921 it was Sir Stanley Cochrane at his private club, Woodbrook, hosted the first big professional tournament in the country - The Hennessy Tournament in 1958. This once-off event proved so popular that the next year it was renamed the Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes Tournament with a prize fund 5,000 guineas. With many leading players arriving to play the Woodbrook and International Tournament Golf a major golf event came into being.
In 1963 the tournament became The Carrolls International and the tobacco company brought British, European and American golfers to play in Woodbrook and continued to do so up until 1975. In those days many legends of the game played the course; Christy O’Connor, Senior and Junior, Bernard Gallacher, Neil Coles, Brian Huggett and Bernard Hunt.
There were other rookies as well including Eamon D’Arcy, John O’Leary and Sam Torrance with the some bigger names also appearing; Open Championship Winners, Max Faulkner, five times winner Peter Thompson, Gary Player, Tony Jacklin, Tom Watson and Ken Nagle.
The Irish Open ceased in 1953, having run almost continuously since 1927, and was only when Carrolls revived the event in 1975 becoming what is now known as the Irish Open. In that year the field included the Open Winner Tom Watson, who played for the first Prize of £5,000 which went to Christy O’Connor Junior, nephew of the great Christy O’Connor Senior, himself a four times winner of the Carrolls International.
In the eighties the names of the winners were to prove stellar although Seve Ballesteros was already a Masters title holder in 1983 with Bernhard Langer doing so in 1985 followed by Ian Woosnam some years later in 1991. By that decade the winners were to include Sir Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal and Sam Torrance - all European Tour players happy to support the events in their region.
There were two American winners in the early days with Hubert Green winning in 1977 and Ben Crenshaw the preceding year.
In 1976 Ben Crenshaw held off Brian Barnes and Billy Casper to win the Carolls Irish Open at Portmarnock and the 1999 American Ryder Cup Captain at Brookline was runner up the following year. Crenshaw himself won the Masters in 1995 Masters at Augusta National and claimed a second Green Jacket in 1984.
Hubert Breen was a two time major winner after winning the US Open in 1997 followed by the PGA Championship in 1985, coming closes to winning The Masters in 1978 when he came second to Gary Player – following a missed putt on the eighteenth green.
But since those early days there has not been an American Winner.
Indeed there was no Irish winner for 25 years following John O’Leary’s victory in 1982 at Portmarnock - when the Dubliner held off Maurice Bembridge and Greg Norman - until 2007 at Adare Manor when Padraig Harrington beat Welshman Bradley Dredge in a playoff to put an Irish name back on the trophy. It was fitting that O'Leary was in Adare that sunny Sunday afternoon to make the presentation to a fellow Dubliner, who has become since a three time major winner.
However there has been a local winner added since after Shane Lowry won the inaugural 3 Irish Open at the County Louth Club in Baltray as an amateur.
In those so called glory days of the Irish Open in the seventies and eighties players were able to manage schedules more easily and make commitments in a time of a shorter season, minimum sponsors, appearance money and little live television to dictate schedules. It was also a time when commercial obligations were perhaps not as extensive with season almost no break these days as the game extends into the Middle East and Asian markets. For the European Tour the opportunity in Asia is too valuable to let pass and it has already extended its reach with a number of co-sanctioned tournaments with the Asian Tour.
But in the early days of the European Tour the Irish Open was a major part of the scene that was in its infancy with players happy to support as many events as possible in the region to make a living. The opportunities offered by television coverage organised by a commercial promoter would have yet to be started even though in the United States a formal PGA Tour had existed since the 1930's. It was only in 1972 that The Professional Golfers' Association introduced the PGA European Tour.
In the early years the season ran for six months from April to October and was based mainly in Great Britain and Ireland. The 1972 season consisted of 20 tournaments, of which 12 were in the United Kingdom and one was in Ireland and of the seven events in Europe, six were "national opens" - the Dutch, German, Italian, French, Spanish and Swiss Opens, with the seventh being the Madrid Open. Over the next three decades the European Tour’s season has gradually lengthened and become more globalised.
In 1982 the first event was held outside of Europe with the Tunisian Open and was part of season with 27 that stretched into November for the first time. Two years later the PGA European Tour became independent of The Professional Golfers' Association [PGA] but sensitive to the risk that its best players could leave to play on the more lucrative PGA Tour in the United States.
In an attempt to counter this phenomenon, the European Tour introduced the "Volvo Bonus Pool" in 1988 which was extra prize money to be distributed at the end of the season to the most successful players of the year. However only golfers who had played in a high number of the European Tour's events could receive a share.
In 1989, the tour visited Asia for the first time for the Dubai Desert Classic and by 1990 there were 38 events on the schedule, including 37 in Europe with the start of the season now moved to February for the Johnnie Walker Classic in Bangkok. In 1995, the European Tour began a policy of co-sanctioning tournaments with other PGA Tours, by endorsing the South African PGA Championship on the Southern African Tour (now the Sunshine Tour) and this policy was extended to the PGA Tour of Australasia in 1996, and then to the Asian Tour.
Throughout the early years the European Tour has conscious about its position relative to the PGA Tour and over time the two have steadily formed a partnership. In 1998, the European Tour added the three U.S. majors — the Masters Tournament, the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open — to its official schedule and the leading Europeans have all been competing in these events as the prize money counted towards the European Tour Order of Merit. The following year three of the current four individual World Golf Championships, usually played in America, and offering ore prize money than most European events, were established as part of the European Tour schedule.
Up until recently the minimum number of events that a player must play to retain membership of the European Tour has been 11 meaning that top international players could become members by playing just four events - apart from the majors and the World Golf Championships. For players such as Ernie Els and Retief Goosen of South Africa the new deal offered the opportunity to play the PGA and European Tours concurrently.
For the 2009 season, the number of minimum events required for members was increased to twelve; this coincided with the elevation of the HSBC Champions, previously a European Tour event co-sanctioned by three other tours, to World Golf Championships status. In 2011 that mandatory number has become 13.
For the players it is an added complication trying to combine a manageable season and personal life on both sides of the Atlantic.
Already Rory McIlroy has elected not to play on the US Tour next year and Ian Poulter is the opposite wondering can he meet the 13 event requirement.
In addition the European Tour has a number of tournaments with global sponsors such as BMW, UBS, HSBC, Barclays, Accenture, so the days of supporting national events - as they once did - is increasingly challenging. With the Majors occupying most of the focus for the top players dates then become an issue as the likes of Padraig Harrington plan their schedule around those key golf events.
These global sponsors also attract big name players and at the Barclays Singapore Open recently Phil Mickelson was in action for his sponsor - Barclays - but also added the WGC – HSBC Champions the previous week. These days all the major players have such commercial obligations.
Although the prize money in 2010 for the Irish open was not inconsiderable at 500,000 euro it falls behind events like the HSBC Champions in Shanghai offering €860K, Portugal Masters €600k, Singapore Open €713K.
Indeed the week prior to the Killarney event Dustin Johnson and KJ Choi played at the Nordea Scandinavian Masters as both were available as it was hosted the week after the Open Championship at St. Andrews - which is regarded as the prime slot for an event. The prize fund was half of what was on offer in Ireland and the winner's cheque was for €333.0000
What is clear that in the complex commercial world of golf the Irish Open is hoping to plough a furrow as a national event equivalent to those in Holland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Sweden and Spain – unless a global brand values the opportunity. In these times history counts for little.
Without a brand of commercial might, money and a commitment to global golf the likes of Mickelson, Woods, Furyk, Garcia, Fowler, and Kaymer will find it increasingly difficult to play the Irish Open. As will the new World Number One Lee Westwood.
Hopefully GMAC and Padraig can be of help.
