Dubai Duty Free Irish Open

[kristan]

I was able to play Portstewart, Royal County Down, and Royal Port Rush last year with buddies. Portstewart was the only course I didn't shoot in the 70's. Some of those holes on the front side are odd but beautiful. The back side was completely different than the front and much harder than it looks.

[Bingo1976]

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.

 

The one in Chicago is the BMW Championship that I was referring to.

[i*windows]

How can you have a "Dubai" Irish Open?

 

Is the BMW Championship played in Bavaria?

 

Die Bayerische Motoren Werke, (BMW) home is Bavaria, and the BMW international Open was indeed hosted in Munich (state capital of Bavaria) 2 weeks ago.

[Bingo1976]

How can you have a "Dubai" Irish Open?

 

Is the BMW Championship played in Bavaria?

 

Die Bayerische Motoren Werke, (BMW) home is Bavaria, and the BMW international Open was indeed hosted in Munich (state capital of Bavaria) 2 weeks ago.

 

The one in Chicago is the BMW Championship that I was referring to.

[i*windows]

How can you have a "Dubai" Irish Open?

 

Is the BMW Championship played in Bavaria?

 

Die Bayerische Motoren Werke, (BMW) home is Bavaria, and the BMW international Open was indeed hosted in Munich (state capital of Bavaria) 2 weeks ago.

 

The one in Chicago is the BMW Championship that I was referring to.

 

ah, sorry!

 

Anyway back to the golf Chris Paisley from Hexham (now that's a great golf club) at the top of the leaderboard!

[Bingo1976]

How can you have a "Dubai" Irish Open?

 

Is the BMW Championship played in Bavaria?

 

Die Bayerische Motoren Werke, (BMW) home is Bavaria, and the BMW international Open was indeed hosted in Munich (state capital of Bavaria) 2 weeks ago.

 

The one in Chicago is the BMW Championship that I was referring to.

 

ah, sorry!

 

Anyway back to the golf Chris Paisley from Hexham (now that's a great golf club) at the top of the leaderboard!

 

No worries - I should have been more specific...anyway, I am looking forward to getting home and watching this - I love what they are starting to do with the 'links swing' - if they could just introduce an English Open on a links course either in the South West, or Liverpool, or Kent, then that would be perfect.

[mjtoal]

How can you have a "Dubai" Irish Open?

 

It is Dubai Duty Free, a company which owns airport duty free shops in Dubai as well as other leisure properties. The CEO is an Irishman who helped set up the company. I am going to take a wild guess that he plays golf. The owners also have horse racing interests in Ireland. Rory was formerly sponsored by Jumeriah, the Dubai-based hotel group.

[NorthernHills]

Went to the "Dubai Duty Free" Irish Derby at the Curragh last weekend, guys are clearly investing some cash. Looking forward to watching this over the next few days, good warm up for my visit to Birkdale in a couple of weeks!

[MountainGoat]

How can you have a "Dubai" Irish Open?

 

It is Dubai Duty Free, a company which owns airport duty free shops in Dubai as well as other leisure properties. The CEO is an Irishman who helped set up the company. I am going to take a wild guess that he plays golf. The owners also have horse racing interests in Ireland. Rory was formerly sponsored by Jumeriah, the Dubai-based hotel group.

 

Interesting...thanks!

[bladehunter]

Great looking course. Hope the wind blows a bit and we see some tough play.

[Ronanraff]

This promises to be a great week for golf here and the European Tour in general. Portstewart is a fantastic links and now that the Irish Open has got a date which creates a mini links swing prior to the Open, I have a feeling it will only go onto bigger and better things. Royal County Down in 2019 before an Open at Portrush would be amazing. I was up at Portrush last week and the changes they have made are just great and it promises to be something special. Well done Rory on lifting the profile of this great event, back to where it belongs. I don't really care what you call it, as long as remains a success and shows the world how great golf is here.

[Hawkeye77]

Love this course and damn, I've got to get to work!

[gflo]

such a big gallery for a thursday! way more than last week.

That must be great for the players to play in front of such connoisseur and respectful crowd.;)

[gvogel]

How can you have a "Dubai" Irish Open?

 

It is Dubai Duty Free, a company which owns airport duty free shops in Dubai as well as other leisure properties. The CEO is an Irishman who helped set up the company. I am going to take a wild guess that he plays golf. The owners also have horse racing interests in Ireland. Rory was formerly sponsored by Jumeriah, the Dubai-based hotel group.

 

IT turns out that Rory's caddy knows the Dubai Duty Free CEO and suggested that they get involved with the golf tournament.

[buckeyefl]

Thanks for ruining my day GC by using your annoying announcers instead of the European Tour announcers. Seriously Terry Gannon? Was Rich Lerner busy writing emotional poetry about Tigers 1999 golf shoes? Ive tried to research Gannons PGA tour record since it must be extensive given his habit of correcting former tour player collegues and the players themselves. His cup must be the size a pyrex one gallon bowl to protect those massive jewels or he is just a blow hard.

 

Beautiful course. My wife wants to go to Ireland and i am beginning to agree with her.

[KillerPenguin]

How can you have a "Dubai" Irish Open?

Al-Anabi Racing (from Qatar) sponsored a successful NHRA top fuel dragster for several years (before mysteriously and suddenly pulling out - maybe they saw sub-$50 a barrel coming). I'm sure Arab oil money spends just as well as any other, though I wonder if Dubai has any interesting strings attached to its sponsorship.

 

www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-nhra-sheik-20150204-story.html

[Hawkeye77]

Thanks for ruining my day GC by using your annoying announcers instead of the European Tour announcers. Seriously Terry Gannon? Was Rich Lerner busy writing emotional poetry about Tigers 1999 golf shoes? Ive tried to research Gannons PGA tour record since it must be extensive given his habit of correcting former tour player collegues and the players themselves. His cup must be the size a pyrex one gallon bowl to protect those massive jewels or he is just a blow hard.

 

Beautiful course. My wife wants to go to Ireland and i am beginning to agree with her.

 

Agree. Guessing these guys are back in Florida and not even on site?

[MMB1500]

McIlroy comprehensively outplayed by his playing partners today, along with much of the rest of the field.

 

It would be nice to see him get his spark back. He certainly seems to have lost his fire. Maybe he's bored?

[MountainGoat]

Thanks for ruining my day GC by using your annoying announcers instead of the European Tour announcers. Seriously Terry Gannon?

 

I like those guys. I think Gannon runs a good show.

[Dave230]

Rahm was miles better than McIlroy on the greens today, 6 or 7 shots better. Very disappointing performance from Rory, hopefully he can turn it around.

 

Matsuyama's irons are so pure in person. Funny thing is he really duffed the ball up the first hole, well by pro standards, and bogeyed, thought he mightn't have fancied it, then really came on strong.

 

There wasn't a breath of wind for a lot of the day today, hence the ridiculously low scores. Level par was about -3 today.

[cvhookem63]

Rory has some work to do if he is going to see the weekend

[Darth Putter]

Rory just need to quit playing on Thursdays and play 36 on Sundays.

[buckeyefl]

McIlroy comprehensively outplayed by his playing partners today, along with much of the rest of the field.

 

It would be nice to see him get his spark back. He certainly seems to have lost his fire. Maybe he's bored?

 

Sparks don't fix bad swings or more importantly putting. Give it time and he'll be back.

[PGArox]

Just got around to watching some of the action from the first round. What a beautiful course! In a gorgeous part of the world. I love the weather in that part of the world ... my kind of weather.

[Hankshank]

Just got around to watching some of the action from the first round. What a beautiful course! In a gorgeous part of the world. I love the weather in that part of the world ... my kind of weather.

Umm... California, Ireland... ok, Ireland is not Scandinavia, but I've been to Britain quite a lot and Ireland is just a bit less accentuated than Ireland weatherwise over the year. The summers are nice. Here in Scandinavia it's absolutely heaven from May to August. But then... I think you would prefer southern California like in October... or December... or March.

[Hankshank]

How can you have a "Dubai" Irish Open?

Al-Anabi Racing (from Qatar) sponsored a successful NHRA top fuel dragster for several years (before mysteriously and suddenly pulling out - maybe they saw sub-$50 a barrel coming). I'm sure Arab oil money spends just as well as any other, though I wonder if Dubai has any interesting strings attached to its sponsorship.

 

www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-nhra-sheik-20150204-story.html

I think you can simplify that a little.The Irish are poor, Dubaians are rich... ;)

[Hankshank]

This promises to be a great week for golf here and the European Tour in general. Portstewart is a fantastic links and now that the Irish Open has got a date which creates a mini links swing prior to the Open, I have a feeling it will only go onto bigger and better things. Royal County Down in 2019 before an Open at Portrush would be amazing. I was up at Portrush last week and the changes they have made are just great and it promises to be something special. Well done Rory on lifting the profile of this great event, back to where it belongs. I don't really care what you call it, as long as remains a success and shows the world how great golf is here.

What do people call it? Just curious...

[i*windows]

hopefully the wind gets up today and Rory can sink a few putts, otherwise he wont be around at the weekend.

[i*windows]

Nice Shot Tracer tweet, shame they cant be embedded

http://twitter.com/EuropeanTour/status/883051245711314945

 

live on the range this morning - looks windy :-)

 

https://www.facebook.com/TheEuropeanTour

[Dave230]

Just got around to watching some of the action from the first round. What a beautiful course! In a gorgeous part of the world. I love the weather in that part of the world ... my kind of weather.

 

I would be happy to swap you, too much rain! A good day here is as good as anywhere but they aren't frequent enough unfortunately.