Ireland is to have only one golfer on the European Ryder Cup team for the first time since 1999 when the tournament takes place in five weeks time.
Rory McIlroy’s place in the team was a given but the claims of Graeme McDowell and Shane Lowry were ignored by Darren Clarke when he made his wild card picks for the team yesterday.
Both players expressed their disappointment at missing out but suggested they would be back in the mix when the tournament returns to Europe in Paris in 2018.
Clarke himself was the sole Irish player in that 1999 team when the captain was Severiano Ballesteros. Since then there have been three players on four occasions and two on the other three.
Clarke is the second successive Captain from the island of Ireland following on from Paul McGinley last time.
He does not have any Irish commercial partners though so the amplification of his involvement will be less this time around that was the case with Paul McGinley and Allianz leading up to 2014.
Being played in prime time evening viewing for Europe, interest will remain high in the tournament though without the same number of Irish players whether it attracts as great an interest beyond the core golf market is perhaps open to some question.
Rolex, and BMW are the two official partners of the European team while Standard Life Investments are worldwide partners of the event.
Sport for Business will be looking in the coming weeks at activation and engagement plans they have for the Irish market.
Sport for Business’ Coverage of the Business of Golf is in partnership with Carr Golf – Experts in the Business of Golf
