There was always going to be more riding on the 2026 Amgen Irish Open than the destination of the trophy.
In the end, Shane Lowry supplied the perfect sporting conclusion, winning his second Irish Open 17 years after his breakthrough as an amateur at Baltray. His 23-under-par total and 11-shot victory represented a record winning margin for the championship.
But commercially, politically and in terms of Ireland’s international visibility, what happened around Lowry at Trump International Golf Links in Doonbeg will prove even more significant.
This was an Irish Open broadcast into more than 400 million homes through the DP World Tour’s international distribution, with coverage in the United States on Golf Channel and CNBC and across Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East.
And then Donald Trump arrived.
The Trump Effect
Whether viewed positively or negatively, the presence of the sitting US President turned the Amgen Irish Open from a significant European golf tournament into a global news event.
Marine One landing beside the course, play briefly stopping, Trump watching alongside some of golf’s biggest names, and then joining the trophy presentation ensured Doonbeg appeared far beyond the traditional sports pages.
Reuters and Associated Press carried reports around the world. CNN covered the visit and the whiskey announcement. The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian were among major international publications reporting from the weekend.
For Irish tourism, those reports repeatedly carried the same accompanying imagery: Atlantic coastline, rolling dunes, links golf and County Clare.
It is difficult to put an advertising-equivalent value on that exposure without access to the DP World Tour and Tourism Ireland’s eventual media evaluation, but it was unquestionably on a scale the Irish Open would rarely achieve.
Trump’s presence polarised opinion, required a substantial security operation and inevitably shifted some attention away from the golf and title sponsor Amgen. That was always going to happen, but it certainly made the tournament stand out.
An Extraordinary Whiskey Dividend
Perhaps the most remarkable commercial development came after the golf had finished.
During the presentation ceremony, Trump said that he intended to remove the 10 per cent US tariff on Irish whiskey, saying Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Lowry and others had been pressing him on the issue.
At this stage, it is important to describe it as an announcement of intent rather than a completed tariff change. Sunday’s announcement included no implementation date and, at the time of writing, the commitment still needs to be translated into formal US trade action.
If it happens, however, the potential value is considerable.
The Irish Whiskey Association puts the annual value of Irish whiskey exports to the United States at approximately €450 million. The US accounts for close to 5.5 million cases and around one in every three bottles of Irish whiskey sold globally.
Applying a 10 per cent tariff to €450 million gives a crude annual tariff exposure of around €45 million.
That should not be interpreted as €45 million, which would automatically flow directly back to Irish distillers if the tariff disappears. Importers pay tariffs, and the economic burden is ultimately distributed among producer margins, distributors, retailers, and consumers. But it gives an indication of the scale.
Removing the tariff could make Irish whiskey more competitive at retail, protect margins, provide greater certainty for distributors and encourage renewed investment in what remains by far the category’s most important international market.
It would also correct a competitive imbalance that had become increasingly uncomfortable for Ireland after tariffs on Scotch and other UK whiskey were removed earlier this year while whiskey produced in the Republic remained subject to the US levy.
If the policy change is completed, the 2026 Irish Open will have an extraordinary footnote: a sports event in West Clare will have provided the stage for a potentially tens-of-millions-of-euro trade decision.
Golf Tourism’s Shop Window
The longer-term opportunity is perhaps even greater.
Golf already contributes €717 million in direct economic value annually across the island of Ireland, supports approximately 15,600 jobs and generates almost €278 million in tax revenues, according to research commissioned by Golf Ireland and The R&A.
It also fits particularly well with the type of tourism Ireland wants.
International golfers are generally higher-spending visitors. They stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, hire cars and drivers and frequently travel around the country playing several courses rather than one. Links golf also brings visitors beyond Dublin and into regional and rural economies.
Doonbeg is a textbook example. The resort itself estimates that its payroll, suppliers and services already contribute about €11 million annually to the local economy, with approximately 340 full- and part-time jobs.
The Irish Open then accelerates that activity through accommodation, hospitality, transport, temporary staffing and local suppliers.
Fáilte Ireland deliberately used the Championship Village this week as a platform to sell Irish golf clubs, hotels and resorts, putting tourism businesses directly in front of the tournament audience.
There is a precedent for what a major golf week can deliver. The 2024 Irish Open at Royal County Down was estimated to have generated approximately £12 million for Northern Ireland, including around £5 million within the immediate Newry, Mourne and Down region.
Doonbeg also had the advantage of arriving only days after the Walker Cup at Lahinch. For two consecutive weekends, international golf cameras were trained on County Clare.
The ultimate commercial value of hosting tournaments is not simply what spectators spend during four days in September. It is persuading a golfer watching in Boston, New York, Chicago, Toronto or Tokyo that a trip to Ireland should move onto their bucket list.
Sport for Business Perspective
There will rightly be different views on choosing a Trump-owned property as the venue for Ireland’s national golf championship, and any complete assessment should include the significant public security costs of a presidential visit.
Commercially, though, the week demonstrated the unusual power of sport to bring together tourism, international media, diplomacy and business.
Ireland had one of its most recognisable sports stars lifting the trophy. It had Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and a field featuring nine Major champions providing sporting credibility.
It had an American title sponsor, Amgen, attached to one of the weekend’s most globally discussed sporting events.
It put County Clare and Irish links golf in front of hundreds of millions of potential viewers.
And, remarkably, it may also have secured a breakthrough worth potentially tens of millions of euros to one of Ireland’s signature export industries.
Shane Lowry was emphatically the winner of the Amgen Irish Open.
For Ireland Inc, though, the final score from Doonbeg could take considerably longer to calculate.
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Image Credit: Amgen Irish Open
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