Dubai Duty Free Irish Open

Should be a fantastic event this week, the course is stellar and a pretty good field are turning out.

https://www.europeantour.com/en/europeantour/tournaments/2017/dubai-duty-free-irish-open-hosted-by-the-rory-foundation/lowdown/

Looking forward to the course and hope a bit of a breeze blows to make it interesting.

would love to play here. Wow

I'm going on Friday, can't wait! :D

Weather looks terrible for the first 2 days, some of the lads will not break 80 around here.

Weather looks terrible for the first 2 days, some of the lads will not break 80 around here.

Secretly, that's part of the fun of watching them play a links. We play in it, so it makes a pleasant change to see them playing in it as well. Bring it on!

Weather looks to be better than anyone could have hoped for! I am there Friday too its going to be awesome.

Anyone who lives here knows that the weather forecast in the summer (and most other times of the year for that matter) is utterly meaningless! :D

It will be glorious!

I'm here all week, should be great. Looking forward to seeing Rahm and Matsuyama particularly. Great field and a real buzz in the place.

Some serious dunes!! Is it a quirky course with blind shots? Or straight forward?

Rory's interview

one of the strongest fields I can remember for a proper European tour event

Anxious to get up early and watch before work the next couple of days and, of course, on the weekend. Grind up some good coffee and enjoy!

Ditch boring Wentworth and play the BMW PGA on a proper links! 3 great weeks coming, can't wait!

Anxious to get up early and watch before work the next couple of days and, of course, on the weekend. Grind up some good coffee and enjoy!

I may or may not have my iPad and SkyGo on in the office tomorrow morning!

In fact, I better pop off and get some stuff done this afternoon!

Notable players:

• British & Irish: Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Danny Willett, Lee Westwood, Andy Sullivan, Shane Lowry, Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell, Andrew Johnston, Jordan L Smith, David Horsey, Bradley Dredge, Graeme Storm, Richard Bland, Matt Wallace Padraig Harrington, Jamie Donaldson, Paul Lawrie.
  
• Continental Europeans: Jon Rahm, Rafael Cabrera Bello, Thomas Pieters, Joost Luiten, Soren Kjeldsen, Thorbjorn Olesen, Alexander Levy, Pablo Larrazabal, Nicolas Colsaerts, Renato Paratore, Victor Dubuisson, Jorge Campillo,, Alexander Bjork, Rikard Karlberg, Thomas Detry, Edoardo Molinari, Thomas Bjorn, Miguel Ángel Jimenez, Jose María Olazábal.
  
• Aus / NZ: Scott Hend, Sam Brazel, Brett Rumford, Marcus Fraser, Andrew Dodt, Jason Scrivener, Ryan Fox.
  
• South Africans: Dylan Frittelli, Brandon Stone, Dean Burmester, Richard Sterne, George Coetzee, Jaco Van Zyl, Thomas Aiken, Darren Fichardt, Trevor Immelman.
  
• Asians: Hideki Matsuyama, Hideto Tanihara, Thongchai Jaidee, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Jeunghun Wang, Soomin Lee, Li Haotong, Wu Ashun, SSP Chawrasia.
  
• Other notable players: Peter Uihlein, David Lipsky, Fabrizio Zanotti, Andrés Romero, Felipe Aguilar
  

One of the strongest fields I can remember for a proper European tour event.

The Strength of Field rating listed at the Official World Golf Ranking is a paltry 288. By comparison, last week's French Open had a SOF of 270.

The Abu Dhabi Championship had 330, and the BMW PGA Championship had 329.

The course looks great.

The name of the tournament -and others like the Dean & Deluca Colonial- make me barf.

The course looks great.

 

The name of the tournament -and others like the Dean & Deluca Colonial- make me barf.

It's heckuva lot better than no tournament. The Irish Open was lost in the wilderness for a few years. Having it as a strong/marquee stop can only be a good thing for the Euro Tour.

They can call it the "Rory's Meat and Two Veg Present: 2017 Irish Open, brought to you by Paddy Power and Today FM", as long as it's played and played on a links course :)

I think it's going to be a links course for the foreseeable future now they've got that links swing, lots of talk about Ballyliffin next year, another hidden gem in that part of the world. Today had massive crowds for a non-tournament day, don't know if I've ever seen that many, but they had so many celebrities and quite a popular band playing as well, they really know how to run an event for everyone.

How can you have a "Dubai" Irish Open?

How can you have a "Dubai" Irish Open?

Because the Middle East have a stake in nearly everything worldwide and have been throwing money at the European Tour for some time now.

How can you have a "Dubai" Irish Open?

Because without the Dubai part I'm afraid there would be no Irish Open.

They can say Dubai or duty free all they like, I know what it really is. Counting the hours to watch some links golf.

The CEO of Dubai Duty Free is actually Irish and put a lot into the event personally. Sounds worse than it is. And in the best years of the event, it was named after a cigarette company for about 20 years after all.

Ditch boring Wentworth and play the BMW PGA on a proper links! 3 great weeks coming, can't wait!

Totally agree.

One of the strongest fields I can remember for a proper European tour event.

 

The Strength of Field rating listed at the Official World Golf Ranking is a paltry 288. By comparison, last week's French Open had a SOF of 270.

I like to shop...

http://youtu.be/22BV0BpCMn4

How can you have a "Dubai" Irish Open?

Is the BMW Championship played in Bavaria?

How can you have a "Dubai" Irish Open?

 

Is the BMW Championship played in Bavaria?

The BMW International Open is.

The BMW PGA Championship is played at Wentworth.

Then they have the one in Chicago.

I think BMW had one in South Africa this year too.

If Jordan can win with this C game, so can the host.

Rory.