Adare Manor hosts Irish Open
IN: News | European PGA | Irish Open (2007) | Preview | by Bruce Young | 16 May 2007
The European Tour finally hist the soil of Great Britain and Ireland when the Irish Open is staged for the first time at the magnificent Adare Manor Hotel and Resort in County Limerick in the south west of Ireland.
The Robert Trent Jones Snr designed layout is one of his final creations and although this will be the first time the Irish Open has been staged at the venue, it has played host to several Irish Seniors Open Championships in its 12 year history, the last of which was in 2004.
Ireland’s favourite golfing son of recent times, Padraig Harrington, is the sentimental and perhaps even logical favourite given his solid if at times unspectacular run of form of late. At number 12 in the world, he is the leading ranked player in the field by some distance and like every golfer the prospect of winning his national open for the very first time will be a driving force for him. He has gone close on many occasions and maybe this will be the year.
Thomas Bjorn is the defending champion having won at Carton House last year in a close tussle with Paul Casey and Darren Clarke and seemed to find a little bit of form last week in Andalucia when 6th.
Lee Westwood was brilliant last week in Spain when winning his first European Tour event in nearly four years. He seems to be closing in on some of his best form once again and should be a factor on this golf course.
Raphael Jacquelin is likely playing as well as he ever has at present with a series of top tens in recent weeks including when winning the BMW Asian Open in China. He seems to play a little better away from the ‘home countries’ but his confidence must be very high right now and his week will be watched with interest.
Michael Campbell has a very good record at the Irish Open including victory in 2004 but given his recent form it is hard to be convinced of his chances. He has however returned previously from an unsuccessful campaign in the US to play very well in this event.
Bradley Dredge has been a little disappointing in recent starts but he did make the cut at Augusta and has played this event quite well on occasions, albeit at other venues.
Richard Green has not played since the Accenture Match Play where he was a first round casualty but his form prior was solid. He heads the Australians in terms of world ranking ahead of O’Malley but O’Malley may well be poised to better this week as he has been in good form in his few starts in 2007.
With the European Tour fields beginning to strengthen as the lucrative events creep closer, there are not as many Australians in this week’s field as they are unable to gain starts.
Brett Rumford won this event three years ago on a windswept County Louth layout north of Dublin but he has hardly been setting the world on fire of late. Wade Ormsby, Andrew Tampion, Mathew Millar, Matthew Zions and Terry Price will get a game but they will need to improve although Zions from Kempsey in New South Wales played very well last week in Spain.
