European Tour is starting to look more
and more like a lame duck in Ireland

By JO MAES

The European Open at the K Club has finished and saw the old campaigner Montgomerie conquer the Irish elements to receive the 600K Euro first prize with maybe a 9th Order of Merit win on the horizon.
Monty is obviously a great name to have on the trophy after the likes of Ferrie and Dodd who are probably as exciting to watch as a melting snowman. The crowds did come out 'en masse' on the Thursday when entrance was ... well, free.
The rest of the days, people stayed home to watch the TV coverage (I presume). The sponsors are blaming the weather, blaming the date, blaming the field ... blaming anything.
The fact is ... the European Tour is starting to look more and more like a lame duck. Where has the excitement for spectators gone? I stood behind the ninth green on Saturday watching the players come through. I arrived when a two-ball were already on the green and started putting. I watched them finish, watched the next group play on and finish and watched the third group play on.
That took the good part of half and hour and I had seen four players faffing around over a couple of two-footers, blame the crowd for a three-putt when the blame should have been on the approach shot that ended up way short of the pin and shake their head over a missed opportunity.
Get a grip lads, if we don't move to come and see you, you will not be playing at all. Most players have left the European Open for what it is as they don't want to 'battle the weather' before the Open championship.
This results in declining attendance figures for one of the flagship events on the tour and as a consequence, sponsors having second thoughts about putting money into golf and we are still spoiled in Ireland with so many top class events lined up for the years to come.
I am afraid that only the players can turn this around. If they don't show their loyalty to Europe, the tour will end up with only a couple of flagship events while the rest of the events will play second fiddle.
This will ultimately result in hardly any top tournaments at all. It's time to break the mold.

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Here's what the Belfast Telegraph had to say this morning:

IRISH EVENTS UNAPPEALING


By Peter Hutcheon
A massive groan went up when play was suspended at the European Open at the K Club as the prospect of another Irish tournament entering a fifth day became a possibility.
Thankfully the delay just after 3pm because of thunderstorms, lasted a little less than three-quarters of an hour although there was a second delay just as the leaders were playing the last few holes as well.
This is the fifth tournament in a row in this country which has been blighted by awful weather and preferred lies were introduced both here and at last year's Ryder Cup on the neighbouring course.
Last year's Irish Open at Carton House did indeed go into a fifth day after a five-hour suspension for gusty winds during the opening round.
It's an awful run and Graeme McDowell was probably correct to say that the prospect of a week in Ireland was unappealing to many players, hence the weak fields both here and at Adare Manor in May when only two of the worlds' top 50 played.
Nothing that can be done to guarantee good weather but the K Club could possibly have helped ensure a better quality field by playing on the Palmer rather than the Smurfit course this week - another of McDowell's observations.
Staging the event on the newer venue is a little like going to Paris and eating at McDonald's.
"There's nothing wrong with this course but players want to play the Ryder Cup course," McDowell said.
"And I'm sure the decision to play here rather than over there put people off coming."
The finishing hole at the Smurfit course never did revert to a par five from a par three as initially planned as heavy downpours continued to sweep in over Co Kildare right through the weekend.
The delay certainly didn't affect Colin Montgomerie whose first shot back after the delay was a birdie putt from 15 feet which he promptly rolled in to retake a share of the lead at 11 under par.
Given the torrential rain the greens really were in absolutely incredible condition, a fact recognised by most of the field.
And one benefit of playing on the Smurfit, was that vandals had poured some type of chemical on four of the greens on the Palmer course.
"They probably thought that it was going to be used for the European Open and thought they could cause a nuisance," said the K Club's superintendent Gerry Byrne.
"Luckily the damaged greens are recovering well and we had to take steps to protect this tournament with laser beams protecting all of the greens at night for the past three weeks."