Irish Open is biggest selling event on European Tour
The Irish Open at Royal Portrush has become the biggest selling event of the year so far on the European Tour.
Tickets for Saturday and Sunday have now sold out completely and it is not yet certain whether any ‘walk up tickets will be available on the Thursday or Friday either.
The Olympic Course in San Francisco sold out 160,000 tickets at last week’s US Open but it is almost unknown for a golf tournament outside the majors and the Ryder Cup to put the signs up in advance.
“We are expecting a crowd in or around the 100,000 throughout the week of the Irish Open Championship, and with a particularly large spectator audience expected for the weekend, we felt it prudent to stop selling tickets for Saturday and Sunday,” said tournament director Antonia Beggs.
Access to the course on the North Antrim Coast will not be easy and those travelling to the event will need to set off early.
It is being held in Northern Ireland for the first time since 1953 and the European Tour has been busy signing partnership deals a number of which roll over into multi year agreements.  These include with such major brands as Heineken and BMW.  Emirates airlines signed the Open as it’s first major foray into sporting sponsorship in Ireland.
Golf is a major contributor to economies around the world.  Estimates around the US Open suggested that the US Golf Association spent US$15 million on the staging of the event in California this year and a report, albeit published in happier economic times in 2006 suggested the value of the sport to California alone was in the region of 1,000 times that, supporting 160,000 jobs.
To place that in perspective it is ten times the figure which Adidas generated in sales of soccer kit and equipment in the past year.
Next weekend’s Open is a valuable boost to the economy of Northern Ireland and is well positioned to have a similar very positive impact when it turns to Carton House in 2013.