The Irish Independent is claiming this morning that the K Club in Straffan, County Kildare is ‘odds on’ to host the 2016 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open golf tournament. The European Tour though remain cautious saying only that the club is one interested party with whom negotiations are continuing at present.
The tournament will be held next month at Royal County Down and is being billed as one of the highlights of the European Tour in 2015. It is expected to sell out, an achievement normally achieved only by the (British) Open, Europe’s sole Major.
The K Club has never hosted the Irish Open but was the venue for 13 renewals of the European Open and next year will be the 10th anniversary of the hosting of the Ryder Cup.
It will itself be 25 years old next year, one of the reasons given by owner Dr Michael Smurfit for wanting to host the event.
It is likely that the European Tour will charge a facility fee for bringing the tournament to its next home before returning to Northern Ireland in 2017.
Others considered potential host could be Carton House and Fota Island who have hosted the two most recent renewals of the Open, Portmarnock Golf Links or Trump International (formerly Doonbeg) in County Clare, though the last named is the only one of those to feature in the Irish Golf ad currently airing on US Television.
The focus until after next month will be on Royal County Down where the new sponsor, alongside the Rory Foundation, have produced one of the best fields to assemble here. McIlroy, Harrington, McDowell and Clarke have propelled us into a golden age for Irish golf and hosting the Open is one of the mainstays in a clubs statement that it is a world player.
The K Club has played its hand and it remains to be seen how many other will enter the fray over the coming weeks.
Schools are being invited to pitch why the Open Championship Trophy should visit their school. Four will be selected from across the country to host a visit between May 4th and 15th of this year. The Trophy Tour, a first for golf in Ireland is being supported by the Rory Foundation and the Confederation of Golf in Ireland.
