A TRADITION of recent years, which has seen the Irish PGA Championship act as dress rehearsal for Pádraig Harrington’s assault on the British Open, will be broken this season. Instead of occupying a date immediately ahead of the season’s third major, the domestic championship will this year take place ahead of the Ryder Cup in the hope that a number of tour players not involved in that biennial competition will be tempted to play.
Indeed, Michael McCumiskey, the chief executive of the Irish PGA region, has written to every tour player informing them of the dates and venue – September 23rd-26th at Seapoint Golf Club in Co Louth – in an attempt to garner a strong field for the championship, which will be sponsored by Ladbrokes.com.
Harrington has won the championship for the past three years, when it was staged at The European Club. In 2007 and 2008, his use of the event as final preparation for the British Open proved successful as he claimed the title at Carnoustie and Royal Birkdale respectively.
The change in dates this time should help attract a number of tour players, as it is a free week on the European Tour schedule.
Paul McGinley, meanwhile, heads a five-strong Irish challenge in this week’s Mallorca Open on the European Tour. The Dubliner has eased himself back onto the tour after undergoing knee surgery but now plans to undertake a more intensive schedule in a determined attempt to make the Ryder Cup team at Celtic Manor in October.
In fact, McGinley will use Mallorca as the springboard for a stretch of four tournaments in a row that will also take in next week’s BMW PGA at Wentworth, the following week’s Madrid Masters and finish the stretch with an appearance at the Wales Open in Celtic Manor. “I feel I’m in a position to do this now as I’ve done all the rehab on my knee that my doctors have set out for me,” said McGinley, who has fallen to 319th in the latest world rankings.
McGinley is joined in Mallorca by Damien McGrane, Gary Murphy, Simon Thornton and Colm Moriarty, who usually plays on the Challenge Tour but who gets a rare opportunity to play on the main tour. Denmark’s Soren Hansen, ranked 50th in the world rankings, is the top-ranked player in the field.
Interestingly, former Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal – the designer of the course – will mark his return to action by playing in tomorrow’s pro-am after an extended battle with rheumatism. Olazabal has been out of action since last October and will play in the pro-am as part of his rehabilitation as he seeks to work his way back out onto tour again. However, the Spaniard will not play in the tournament itself.
