Irish Open Diary: No whingeing about the wind from Down visitors
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Padraig Harrington had sympathy for Belgian playing partner Thomas Detry as the wind got up at Royal County Down early in the first round.
Harrington, playing his 29th consecutive Irish Open, is naturally comfortable with his homelands temperamental climate.
“Every time you lifted your head up and looked around, you got some hope because you could see a lot of carnage going on. ‘What's he doing over there?’
“it was a tough day but it was actually a day to have a little bit of a look around and see that the scoring wasn't going so well for everyone and to see that players were struggling in it. Even though the conditions, really while it wasn't warm, it wasn't exactly really windy, was it. It wasn't too bad at all.
“The greens are very fast… like Thomas Detry's ball blew off the green on 8 and into an unplayable lie.
“He caught a gust and it was the heaviest gust of the day and his ball was in motion when it caught the gust.”
Not that Harrington has heard any whingeing from the overseas competitors.
“You know, I think they embrace it on the week that we're in. I'm not sure they would want to spend every tournament around these conditions but they certainly see this as a different week. It's a European thing… so they come here and they go, isn't this a great event. Let's get the head down and get on with it.”
Having spoken of his relief at LIV star Jon Rahm’s availability for Ryder Cup selection next year, European captain Luke Donald is now hoping the ongoing merger talks between the rival tours will finally be resolved by the time the 2025 matches roll into New York’s Bethpage in 12 months.
Donald, speaking at Royal County Down on Thursday following his opening round at the Amgen Irish Open, said: “I think we are all being very patient right now. It's 15 months since Yasir (Al-Rumayyan, governor of PIF) and (PGA Tour commissioner) Jay Monahan got together.
“It's been frustrating I think for a lot of the players to see how slow everything has been going, and I'm sure it's been frustrating for Jon as well. But I think this hopefully gives some time for hopefully things to happen. I've heard in the last couple weeks there's been a little bit more progress.”
Luke Donald also handed Ireland’s Seamus Power a qualification carrot on Thursday as the West Waterford golfer makes his way back from a serious hip injury. The PGA Tour winner still has a skin cancer issue to resolve on his left arm and will miss next week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth to return to the USA for a consultation but as the qualification process for the 2025 matches gets up and running, Europe’s captain is willing Power to enter the selection mix.
“I'm keeping an eye on everyone,” Donald said. “I haven't talked to Seamus that much personally but again it's early days. We only just started the qualification process. Spent some time with him before Rome. It was unfortunate with his injury to kick him out, he had such a good start to the season from the year before. Hope he can come back and put his name in the hat.”
Søren Kjeldsen admits he is feeling his age as he looks towards life on the Champions Tour next year but good memories of Royal County Down nine years ago are fuelling the Dane’s bid for a special weekend at the 2024 Amgen Irish Open.
It was here in 2015 that Kjeldsen emerged as Irish Open champion after holding off Bernd Wiesberger and Eddie Pepperell in a play-off and on Thursday, a two-under-par 69 sent back into the mix with 54 holes to play.
“I think my game suits this type of golf. But obviously we all have good memories. I love being out here,” Kjeldsen said. He will go to Champions Tour qualifying in November before turning 50 next May.
“I look forward to it. Mentally, it's been difficult to accept the time is for that now. But at the same time, the timing is right because I play well a lot of weeks now where I struggle to compete, and that's mentally draining… it's getting really difficult out here for me.”
