If this was a dress rehearsal for next year's championship, then the organisers of the Murphys Irish Open at Fota Island in Cork will be pleased.
Superb weather conditions and a well-manicured golf course meant that by close of play yesterday more than 100,000 people had visited Fota over the past four days. This was at least 20,000 more than had been expected to attend.
It was a credit to both the oncourse stewarding and the gardai on duty along the approaches to the course that such numbers were efficiently accommodated and that traffic continued to move sm0othly, even on Munster final day in Cork. There were fears that the arrival in the city from early morning of Limerick and Tipperary hurling fans in their thousands might prove too much for the authorities
As well as the two great sporting occasions, the mid-summer festival in Cork and the carnival 2001 festival in Cobh were going on at the same time. Gardai, however, took it all in their stride and diversions kept traffic running smoothly
As the temperature in Cork continued to rise from early morning, the crowds flocked to Fota. Most golfing enthusiasts had come to see if Colin Montgomerie could be caught by any of the Irish contingent, but that became less likely as the Scot was making few mistakes during his final 18 holes.
The unique venue meant that youngsters bored with the serious business of golf could spend time watching the animals in the almost free-range setting of Fota Wildlife Park.
The cost to the Heineken Group, owners of Murphys brewery in Cork, of staging the event is estimated at £5 million. Heineken says the Irish Open is second only to the Western Australian traffic in Perth. But benefit to the southern region, however, may be as high as £9 million over the four days according to the tourism sector, which welcomed the Open as an antidote to the bad publicity caused by the foot-and-mouth scare. Television coverage was beamed to 200 million homes in 90 countries. The event will be staged at Fota again next year, according to Heineken.
From start to finish this year, Montgomerie led the Open, and his huge popularity in Ireland was undoubtedly a major drawing factor over the four days.
The crowd waited in blazing sunshine until the final stroke of a tournament, which he won at 18 under par, with a mixture of scintillating and measured golf.