Irish Open, the most eye-catching is Rory McIlroy

09/11/2024 08:31 PM

Eight Italian players will participate in the Amgen Irish Open, one of the longest-running and most anticipated tournaments on the DP World Tour calendar. In the third of the nine “Back 9” events that will take place from September 12 to 15, on the Royal County Down GC course in Newcastle, Northern Ireland, Guido Migliozzi, fresh from eighth place in the previous Omega European Masters with which he returned to being the first Italian in the Race To Dubai (13th), i.e. the order of merit, Matteo Manassero (second, 14th), Andrea Pavan, Francesco Laporta, Filippo Celli, Renato Paratore, Lorenzo Scalise and Edoardo Molinari, second in this event in 2014 and best result of the Italians, will be at the start.

The most eye-catching are Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, world number three and winner in 2016, Scot Robert MacIntyre (no. 16), Englishman Aaron Rai (no. 22) and Irishman Shane Lowry (no. 32), who won the race in 2009 when he was still an amateur. They are the highest in the world ranking in a context that includes, among others and all with the credentials for a leading role, South African Thriston Lawrence, Irishman Seamus Power, Northern Irishman Tom McKibbin, New Zealander Ryan Fox, Danish twins Nicolai and Rasmus Hojgaard, Swede Sebastian Soderberg, Japanese Rikuya Hoshino and American John Catlin, who scored in 2020, who currently plays on the Asian Tour where he has won two titles this season and is the leader of the money list.

Also having a chance of doing well are the Scotsman Ewen Ferguson, the Spaniard Adrian Otaegui, the Finn Sami Valimaki, the Thai Kiradech Aphibarnrat, the Japanese Yuto Katsuragawa and the New Zealander Daniel Hillier, to name a few.

Defending the title he won in September last year is the Swede Vincent Norrman, 26 years old from Stockholm, who two months earlier had won in the USA in the Barbasol Championship, a tournament organized as a combination of the European tour and the PGA Tour, which for the purposes of the palmarès is worth on both circuits. He has a double ‘card’ and prefers to play in the States, but in reality he has not done much after the two exploits and the chances of a repeat are rather slim. The prize pool is 6,000,000 dollars with a first prize of 1,020,000 dollars.

The event, born in 1927 as the Irish Open and now in its 69th edition, has never changed its name, but has been paired with a sponsor on six occasions. It was suspended for five years during the Second World War and then suffered a long interruption from 1951 to 1974 in which it was played only once, to resume continuity from 1975. From 2017 to 2019 it was part of the Rolex Series of the DP World Tour.

In addition to the four mentioned, three other past winners will be in the field, without great ambitions: the Danish Soren Kjeldsen, the Englishman Ross Fisher and the Irishman Padraig Harrington. This is the fifth time that the tournament has been held at Royal County Down GC, while Portmarnock Golf Club has hosted it on 19 occasions. The roll of honor includes the signatures of famous champions and, in particular, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer and Colin Montgomerie, who hold the record for victories with three.

The tournament on Sky and streaming on NOW – The Amgen Irish Open will be broadcast on Sky, Sky Sport Golf channel, and streaming on NOW at the following times: Thursday 12 September, from 2 pm to 7 pm; Friday 13, from 9 am to 2 pm and from 5 pm to 7 pm; Saturday 14 and Sunday 15, from 1.30 pm to 6.30 pm. Commentary by Claudio Viganò, Silvio Grappasonni, Marco Cogliati and Roberto Zappa.