On this week’s edition of the podcast, we recap the KPMG Women’s Irish Open. How successful it has been in its four years and how it can continue to grow moving forward. There were also missed chances for Seamus Power and Conor Purcell on both sides of the Atlantic as they battle to retain cards on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour respectively. Knock, knock, it’s Europe as the Irish men’s, and women’s, boys and girls’ teams take on the cream of the crop in the European Amateur Team Championships.
[Music] Hey everybody and welcome along to this week’s edition of the Irish Golfer Podcast. Peter Finnen here and joined by Rona McNamera. How are you getting on? The boom is back. The boom is back. We got a lot of uh shout outs for our podcast actually during the week as well, so we’ve delivered. Do you think I think so? We kind of missed last week. No, we’re not meant to start off. We were flat out. We were called out a few times actually. Jimmy Uncle Kenny, we were at the PJ event. How How are you, Jimmy? Uh Jimmy Bulier, great PJ pro there in the Midlands. Uh yeah, wondering where his podcasts were. He was refreshing like crazy last week. So, shout out to Jimmy. Shout out to Jimmy. He’s got us got us back on the wagon. Back on the wagon. Um and me. Yeah, me. Back on the wagon. Back on the wagon is right. I I I I I was playing down our chances there out on Saturday night and talking to a few throne heads and tell you what now I’m starting to believe. No, it’ll be good and Kare me double this weekend. All be good after your after your wonderful score at the weekend as well. Well, that’s the boom is back. You know, things are looking up. Savage cut.7 of a cut down. That’s not what you want before the captains in good form. That’s all good. It’s all good. Um, right. Lots to get stuck into this week. We’ll be starting off with the KPMG Women’s Irish Open. I suppose before we do, big shout out to Shrex and Cleveland Golf who are sponsoring this podcast uh for the next couple of months. Um, if you haven’t experienced any of their products so far, you can visit eu.dunlopsports.com to check out anything they have. Uh, we’ve went through it in so many areas over the last number of weeks. They’ve so many tour winners now using Shricks and irons and shicks and balls from Keegan Bradley, Ryan Fox, Seb Straa, JJ Spawn. On the European tour, we have Alex Del Rey, Hideki, Matsyama, Shane Lowry. All winners, all gaming full bags of Shrixen product. And uh yeah, the stats don’t lie. Especially when we break it down into golf ball. Um they really seem to have broke that mold this season with golf ball. uh right from the Zstar offering which offers you three different categories of golf ball with the XV which is your firmer ball, your in between one which is the diamond, that’s what Connor Pel uses or your standard Xar um and that the Z star and that goes right down to uh your AD33 which is the most popular ball in Ireland. Yeah, anytime you find a golf ball stray in the woods there somewhere, there’s a high likelihood it’s going to be an AD 833. Yeah. So that mixed with the irons as well. So ZXI7, ZedXi 5s, ZedXi4s and utility clubs. So they really do have something in the bag that will suit every player. So um they are stocked in most pro shops up and down the country. So visit eu.dunlopsports.com and you will find out everything that Shreks and Cleveland have to offer. Right, KPMG Women’s Irish Open. What a tournament. What a win. What a winner. What a winner. Yeah. What a performance. Um my tip for the week actually, so I’m happy enough really like Yeah, I looked the looked at the list and I kind of just fancied her to be honest. Uh so yeah, her win doesn’t surprise me. Maybe the manner of which she did it like it was a procession. Like this was tigeresque from Pebble Beach. Like she lapped the field. Yeah. Genuinely like six shot win 21 under shot her age. uh 68 67 67 69 like classy stuff like it’s it’s not a surprise like she won the Augusta women’s amateur last year has a top 10 at the women’s open already is leaps and bounds the world number one amateur in the world h needs two points to get her LPGA tour card ly w like it’s a name to it’s a name to remember for the next five 10 years to come like a career LPGA career major solemn cups the lot yeah you know when an amateur like I seen um the guy from Excel was there like she had a manager with her all week, you know, sort of way like a proper one of the bosses from Excel management uh there. So, you know, like she’s a superstar in the waiting and they’re just plotting her course as to when she enters the but still she came she saw she conquered like it’s a I wouldn’t quite put it in the same as Shane Lowry winning as an amateur in County Loud because you know she was world number one she came here playing some serious golf and was expected to do okay in the event and put in a good showing but not not to win in the form that she did especially given the field that was here like whatever about if we were to go back four years ago to the KPMG Women’s Irish Open when it was there first and say this was going to happen the field wasn’t necessarily the strongest outside Leona we had a worldass field here this week yeah I’d say Maline Sagstrom was more than happy to collect the winners check and certainly happier than Robert Rock was back in09 but no the field was uh brilliant like five solemn cup stars Kiara Tambberlini as well will probably play a solemn cup next Ly W will probably play Stall Cup next year to be honest. H she’ll turn pro in the next few weeks and I could like she’s one of the two or three stars of the future that we’re playing as well. Um so yeah, it was a really really good field. Um definitely can see the growth of the tournament as well given the caliber of player that they’re able to attract. I mean like likes Charlie Hall, Maline Sagstrom, h they won’t they won’t play the other le events. So like we’ve had them for one week and one week only which is which is great. Yeah. when you consider the options that are out there and it’s the week before a major as well which is a big I know like you spoke to Leona yesterday after hers like we’ll get into a few of the players the Irish players uh just who was there thereabouts and and what they said throughout the week but Leona was tired. Yeah, it’s always a difficult week for her as well. Uh even like even though there’s so many other like attract attractions in the field, she’s still the the main one. And like she’s hopping off a plane after uh three weeks out of four in America transatlantic schedule, hops off a plane on the Monday straight into a corporate event. Like it’s it’s knackering. Yeah. And she used to do so much, you know, play the prom and like play the prom in the sense that she plays nine holes in the morning, has to hang around to play nine holes in the afternoon. Like there it takes it out of you as well. And yeah, like she’s a great great uh role model for the tournament. But God, you’d imagine if she could just rock up under the radar one of the years after a week off or something what she could possibly do because she was absolutely shattered on the Sunday. Yeah, she was. You could tell by her she was just tired and it’s not a nice prep going into a major week. They’re all obviously heading into a major week now this week in the Evian. Um it’s not a good prep week really is it for a major? Well, it’s look it’s a great date for the event for us because it’s the week before the major. But h in terms of preparation see definitely not ideal but it’s a more of a women’s golf thing. Like they seem to play much more of a packed schedule than the men do. Like the men throw the toys out at the pram if they had to play backto-back weeks. Like you see Shane’s not playing a week before major this week. They have that luxury where a lot of the the women don’t to be fair. Like you see them playing three, four, five week blocks. So this is this is nothing out of the ordinary, but she does have a handier week h in France this week. She’ll play nine holes today, play nine holes tomorrow, and probably take the day off Wednesday. She’s not in the prom. So something’s gone something’s gone her way. Yeah. I don’t know. You’re dropping Well, like if you’re not in the proam, it means you’re dropping down the world rankings and you’re not desired anymore at stuff like that. She she said herself five years. She hasn’t missed one of them in five years of being It’s no harm. It is no harm. for she’s like so it’s it’s no harm. Um but yeah like world number 84 you’re not exactly uh everybody’s main priority anymore. No no and that that that I don’t know we’ll have a catch up with her later on in the year but that’s a hard thing to digest as a player when you know she’s less logos on her top than she had last year. Um little things like that that would chip away at you that just you know not you’re falling from grace like but you’re on the slide a bit and looking for a way to get back into where you are. So she seems hungry though like from spending a bit of time around her and seeing how she’s operating around things. She is she’s hungry to kick back to where she was and and get back to where she was a couple of years ago. And she’s only she’s one good week away from doing that. Hopefully this is the week like she um she was dangerous in the last major and uh yeah she showed some good signs this week though. She went in some good runs like round three she went in a nice 4 400 for nine in round three. Played pretty well on the opening day as well. Just didn’t really hold anything and then Friday was just like an absolute grind. You’re not going to be shooting under par in those conditions. Yeah. But no, she’s been she’s playing well the last three or four weeks and she’s a good record at the Evian shot 61 a few years ago. So, it’s not as if she’s heading over there needing to, you know, put a lot of work in to practice the golf course. She knows it all off by heart now at this stage. So, uh, Scottish Open, then the women’s open coming up again, uh, in the next three or four weeks, too. So, big opportunity for a pretty good summer. Yeah, exactly. And that’s all she wants. Like, one good major finish just papers over all the cracks that we’d be exposing over the last while and having a look at. No. So, more power to her. Um, of the other Irish, like we had 16 Irish in this field here, four of them made the cut, was it? Uh, four of them made the cut. So, Anna Foster, Kenise Screen, and Ellen Park, amateur. Emma Fleming joined Leona at the weekend. And it was Anna who came out on top at 12th place, final round of 72 after a Saturday 67, 800 par picked up nine grand for her troubles. That’s really good. Yeah, that’s really good. And it goes a lot in your way in the world rankings. Like even Cany Serene, that was some final round of hurdle by the way. Yeah. 66 66 on a Sunday free like double doubled her winnings for the season in one day. That’s crazy, isn’t it? It’s mental. And like she’s like she has a weak status on the LT as well. So this was important going forward for things like the reshuffle I think after the PF London event as well. So just in terms of trying to get her full card for next year again she’s another woman who feels like she has to play every single week. I think that was her fourth or fifth week in a row. Uh but Anna Foster was brilliant like full status for next year already secured uh 26th in the order of merit. Just a brilliant rookie season. I think four top 15 finishes in the last six weeks including uh fourth place finish in Germany the week before. So someone who’s definitely moving along in the right direction. Just taking all in her stride really. Yeah. I was surprised with Lauren that Lauren missed out on the C. She’s tired as well. She did actually Yeah. Yeah. Well, it’s a big week and it’s just you’re not doing your usual routine either. Like same probably for Sarah Burn as well. She did a couple of clinics as nearly the players who were left alone for most of the pre-ournament stuff seem to have more juice in the tank. Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s a tough one. It is a tough one juggling that home open. That’s why like you don’t envy. I seen the list are out for next week already for the open for the week for the open and you see Rory and Shane listed down for the Monday first two press conferences for the week Monday afternoon. So they’re just looking to get that out of the way quick and just get into the business end from Monday evening on knowing that they’re not doing media and stuff like that and just drift into their own little uh bubble. Yeah. Yeah, it’s that was definitely choreographed I’d say. Yeah, 100% 100%. Um, I felt sorry for Tambberlini. Yeah, she’s the only one that got close and then to go down onto the main street in Manouth and get food poisoning on the whatever it was. What was on the Friday night? Friday night. Went out for dinner, got food poisoning. We won’t mention the establishment, but it was an Indian, was it? I heard it was a Thai or a Thai. Sorry, a Thai restaurant. Asian cuisine. Asian cuisine. Yeah, we tired them all with the one brush. Um, yeah. So to get food poison and she was visibly upset. It really did kick her out of her routine like she’s squatting down on tea boxes and just really really struggling um with that. Took her a while to get over it and just that Saturday just blew her out of it then. Yeah. Even though like she still shot a 73 which was no disgrace. But it’s funny like she absolutely hated the weather there as well. She had the big snood on over her head and everything. It was like 18 degrees out. She’s going around like she wasn’t buying into it though. It’s like the Antarctic. No, it was it was funny. In fairness, like she came back well on the Sunday as well, 71, but fifth place. Can’t really h complain about that. But I thought it was a really really good week again, especially for the Irish having forward there. And they’re all kind of out at different times as well, so they each got a bit of the crowd and like Anna playing with Charlie and Tamberlin as well on the final day. Like that must have been that was special. like that was a real she didn’t obviously she didn’t contend to win but she was in the third to last group on a Sunday so you are getting a sniff of what it’s like to be in the mix in a big tournament and they she had the biggest crowd they would have got the bulk of the crowd yeah so there was to hold your own in that environment she probably won’t think about it now but going forward it’ll definitely stand to her yeah it’s a lot to build on it is a lot to build on on the crowds so I was I was in and out during the week you know I was there for three of the tournament days say uh you were there for the whole lot of but uh covered a whole lot and you’ve been there for the last number of them. Crowd numbers seem to be down a little bit even though the field was better. The weather I don’t know the weather weather wasn’t good. The weather it was just showery all the time, wasn’t it? Yeah, cuz you’re depending on like the people who wake up in the morning, open the curtain, think, “Oh, look, I might go in for a couple of hours.” They bring up the numbers and the weather just did not lend itself to that at all. The weather pre-ournament lent itself to it, unfortunately, but definitely not over the the four days. Uh yeah, Caron like it’s a brilliant venue, worldass venue, like luxurious for all the players who get to stay on site. Not all of them do, but some do. Uh brilliant tented village. The infrastructure is amazing. Food in the players lounge is brilliant. Just get at lacking that bit of atmosphere. Yeah, you know, far be for me to say anything bad about the KPG Women’s Irish Open, but definitely I miss the days of Drolant and the trees and the atmosphere and the sort of like tightly packed uh sense that you get around the golf course and cart just it’s just too big. Yeah. No, it’s it’s it’s a pity. Um because the guys organized like at forefront went they pulled out all the stops to make sure they had a proper feel that it like you know you can’t uh mother nature just gets in your way and stops the day trippers from coming and stuff like that and that’s the difference fans but no that is that’s the difference between um having an unbelievably good TV spect flat even on TV and even being around there. Um there’s like there’s no doubt that this tournament has gone from strength to strength over the last number of years. I know you did a piece online highlighting one area that hopefully gets improvement and that the players are giving you feedback on as well on the prize fund side of things. Yeah. Like the fact we have, you know, five solemn Cup players and, you know, a handful of stars of the future play and you’re not going to get that in any of the other le events. And I just think I know the price when went up from 400,000 to 450 but you think they could have just bumped up to 500 at least have it matching the Tener Open which didn’t even get near as quality of a field. Um like the winner well obviously Sagstrom gets the winning check in second place. She gets 67 and a half grand. That’s less than what it was in 2009. you think of the IR the Irish Open died and it’s been revived brilliantly but I think just you need to put bit more money in the kitty going forward to keep this going because they’ve done so much right the venues like the infrastructure is fantastic the sponsors like I mean god you couldn’t turn left or right for fear of seeing an avel cap on somebody like that’s what it’s about and we’re at the stage now where we have the date before the Avian like that’s what you want h cuz god we’ve fought for years with the men’s Irish open to get a good date and we’ve got a women’s one quite quickly it just needs a better prize fund. Like this has the potential to be up there with the Scottish ladies open like you can get this co sanction with the LPJ or get maybe one or two more Sky from the US tour coming over get you know bigger TV and everything like there’s huge scope here but uh you know god forbid I say that. Yeah. Well, they’re looking at a venue change for next year. You know it’s it’s apparently they’re looking at the K club for next year. Um that would be good. I would like to see it on a length course. I think we get international. So would I, but I think you’re hamstrung if you do that. Do you with this day? Yeah. You wouldn’t get the players. Yeah. It needs to be in around the women’s open time. And same with the men. The Scottish Open kind of has that has that ideal week before the open. So I think if you put it on a link course, you’d be very hamstrung in the type of field you get. Scots ruin it again. Again. Yeah. And we’re supposed to like them. Telling you. The Welsh. They’re meant to be our brothers. They’re meant to be our brothers. Um, no. All in all, this was a cracking event though, uh, from start to finish. Like, you couldn’t fault anything to do with it and like we’re just nitpicking and stuff, but yeah, that’s based on feedback that some players you’ve spoken to and uh, the overall vibe of the things. So, it’s it’s really good. It’s really good. Bigger, better, faster, stronger. It’s evolving every year. A lot done, more to do. Yeah, 100%. There you go. Banging out all the old cliches. Um, right. Where do we go after KPMG Women’s Irish Open? Probably PJ Tour. Missed opportunity for Sheamus Power. Yeah, unfortunately he’s running out of tournaments now. That’s the problem. This is the We’re in the Tractor Open, the John Deere Classic. Um, yeah, like I have to admit like I watch bits and bobs this I found this very hard to stomach this tournament. I was only thinking about this last night like Brian Campbell second win of the season like fair play to you and everything but I mean you won’t you wouldn’t know but like there’s a lot of lads we’ve had I think maybe two wins on the PJ tour in the last couple of years and my god it’s like the worst role of honor you’ll ever see in your life. Yeah, that’s the second time he’s won this season. Yeah, it’s terrible. Like he’s up there with Scotty Sheffer. If you look at the in between though, like it’s so different that he’s had I was looking through his stats there. He’s no top 30 finishes in between winning in Mexico. I think he’s missed six cuts. Like it’s crazy to see. And then you look like the thing I like about Brian Campbell is how relatable a lot of his golf is. He’s not a bomber and gouger. Like we look at Aldrich Potiger from the week before like hitting 200 mph average ball speeds like which is like insane. You’re talking about 128 130 mph club head speed. Whereas Campbell is average like he gave up four strokes to the field off the tea. He ranked second last off the tea in strokes gained this week and he gets the job done. He’s just a winner. like his ball speed’s 160 mph on average. Offer offer that stretch of form to Shane Larry and he probably snaps your hand off for it. That’s the thing. Shane Larry’s golf is so much better than that. But when Campbell gets himself into position like anytime he’s got a sniff this season, he’s won. Yeah. If he has if he’s not winning, he’s missing the cut. Like he’s not he’s not winning, he doesn’t care. No, but packing it in. It’s a great way to be. Um so you have to tip your hat to him a little bit. But yeah, it’s um just a strange winner. I found this a strange tournament. It’s kind of a bit of a nothing week in the leadup to a major. He wasn’t in the open actually. Campbell either. They sent out a list of exemptions today of people. Imagine that. Like he’d won two twice in the PJ tour this season and he wasn’t in it wasn’t in the open until they released their final special exemptions today. Um which is mad. But it it continues the stat as well that I think I mentioned it to you a couple of weeks ago. No PGA Tour winners in their 40s to the season so far. Yeah. Well, that speaks volumes to I suppose that all the players going over to live. It’s given opportunities to younger lads coming through and you have that PJ tour university thing as well. So the college lads are all ready to go and win as well and like lads coming off the corn ferry are really good players too. So there’s more scope for opportunity. That’s why I said like Brian Campbell’s to have won twice in the PJ tour in the same season would be unheard of three or four years ago. It just wouldn’t happen. Yeah. I don’t know. I think it’s more it’s I don’t know. Is it more player or course if that makes sense? Well, if the Yeah, a lot of the course are similar on the PJ tour anyway. just probably 90% of the courses on the PJ tour Brian Campbell cannot win on. Do you think? Yeah. I I just Yeah. It just like this played into his hands. It was a slow golf course as well. He plots his way around like they it it bucketed down rain in this thing. So he plotted his way around really solid approach play. Um but yeah, I I I’m not trying to discredit his wins, but they both seem quite similar golf courses, Mexico and here. and uh he got them done in different weather conditions, but it speaks more course than player to me. Yeah, it’s still a TPC course, but the the field the field was horrendous, you know. I mean, yeah, but we’re in the leadup to the majors like, you know, when you you’re relying on Max Homer and Ricky Fowler and guys like that bring the juice to bring the juice. Yeah. You know, you know you’re having problems. But this is a PGA tour problem. You know, this is since the live split and stuff like that. They’re struggling with these events that aren’t signature. They’ve built the signature events up to be so big that they struggle with these alternate field events or these your average like the John Deere Classic used to be huge. Yeah. Like the field for the Mexico Championship that Brian Campbell won before was terrible too. So like that’s why like it’s given more opportunities to those kind of players and they’re obviously taking them which is obviously very good. Yeah. Well, there’s no one else there to take them. Exactly. It’s full of them type lads. So the way the way you’re going, you wouldn’t be too far away. Oh, listen. You played well now in Newland. We’ll get into that in a few minutes. We’ll get into that in a few minutes. Um yeah, but Sheamus Power, he will come away disappointed. Like he was there. He’s actually dropped spots on the FedEx Cup. So yeah, he’s five more events left to get into the top 100. He’s 128th in the minute. He started the week 123rd. So guys that are behind him are starting to produce are starting to hunt their way into the top 100. Um I fear for his card now. I really do. Um because this is just such a big opportunity. Massive opportunity. Like he he he might as well have missed the cut. H finishing 44th. He shot the second worst score of the final round. Like he was tied for sixth overnight. All the like even worst case scenario come in the top 20 and you can build on that. Like that’s the fall five place as well. He just lost so much ground and only five full field events remaining before the FedEx Cup playoffs. Yeah. Like when you think of the opportunity he would have had looking into Sunday, you’re in a tie for sixth going into the final round knowing I’m playing well. I’m right where I want to be. If I play well tomorrow, you know, I could get into the top two, three, four of this tournament easy. Not easy enough, but like with a good game that I’ve I’ve gamed already, the previous three to finish up 404, he must be so disheartened going home. Yeah. And like as I said there, that was a that was a poor enough field as well. There was no one there that like there’s a lot of players that you would say Sheamus Powers has achieved a lot more than and ah it’s just it’s just disappointing. It is disheartening. It’s you are you are starting to fear for him as well. You know, it’s not with Sheamus as well, you know, it’s it’s physical. It’s not mental. That’s the hard bit. Like, you know, he is struggling with injury over the last while. He’s covered up a lot of the injury stuff that he’s been going through. Um, yeah, it’s it’s it’s hard to watch. It is hard to watch. And like we had people messaging us in saying, “Oh, you don’t give Sheamus Power enough air time and stuff like that.” And it’s he’s had such a hard couple of years of injury to injury from hip injuries and all sorts of back problems and stuff like that. Just one leading to another and he just deserves a break. And I just thought when I seen how poised he was and how ready he looked on the Saturday at the John Deere and then just to see it all ending in disaster then it’s hopefully he can reproduce that but like the closer we get to that finish line the harder it is to like 28 spaces is a lot to make up like you’re going to need a top two or three finish. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. like he was unfortunate as well with the way the leaderboard went. Like I think it was five strokes between the top 20 players as well. So each bogey was like a dagger to the heart as well. H there was really no room for error. He got away with nothing. But yeah, well the reason we don’t give him enough air time is because he hasn’t done anything for a couple of years. Oh it is. It’s tough. Yeah. Ah look it’s it just shows you how important Sundays are. Doesn’t matter where you’re on the leaderboard. Sunday is the big day to perform. Unless you’re on live. Unless you’re on live. Yeah, Saturday’s a big day. H Did you see actually on live uh did you see Scott O’Neal, the the CEO, new CEO there? Well, he’s been there six months. Did a podcast sit down with Rick Shields. Did you watch it? No. Did you not? I was too busy watching the women. Too Well, this happened before the women. It happened middle of last week. But really good interview. Um says like, you know, not that I’m a big fan of Liv, but I like it. I watch it and I he talked a lot of sense. He’s like really good buddies with uh Brian Rapap, the new incoming PGA tour. Like they went to college together, good buddies on and off the course. So uh both from like an American football sports background, a lot of big things, but yeah, like I don’t know, it’s a it’s um he said a lot of really good things in the interview that like anyone that hasn’t listened to it, it’s good. It kind of brings you up to date as to where they’re at as a brand, what they’re thinking about, how they’re going about it. And yeah, they’ve uh they have some big things coming like by the sounds of it. Like they even go into like contract negotiations, not going through it by player, but just where they’re at as a brand and the pitfalls they’re facing into the future. But like for anybody that thinks Live Golf is just going to disappear, 100% it is not. No, we knew that though before any any of this came out. It’s definitely here for the long run. Yeah. No, it was good. If anyone does get a chance to listen to it. Um, right. Where else are we uh going? There’s Roundup. Conor Pel. Connor Pcel could have been a bit like Sheamus Power. Could have been a much better week. Uh, ended up finishing in a tie for 61st. Does move up three places in the uh race to Dubai to 144th place. But uh Daniel Brown won the BMW International Open in Germany. Trening for the Open again is Big Dan. Big Dan. But Connor was going around like Charlie Hull hiding the cigarette and under his paw. Connor was uh right in the mix early on. Got to five under and then just faded away over the weekend. Just making too many double bogeies and he’ll probably know that himself. Yeah. No, it is. It’s uh but Don Brown like he gave a good interview as uh winner as well. you know, he lost a friend recently and stuff like that was dedicating it to him, but Dan Brown’s a really solid player. Oh, yeah. And like at the Open last year, everybody, you know, kind of got to know him and know his character and I think he came in the top 10 as well, which got him his place in next year’s open. Um like definitely a player who doesn’t go away when there’s a chance to win. Like he’s been knocking on the door a couple of times this year. So like he’s sneaky sneaky going up just outside the top 100 in the world now as well. So, h he’s definitely a player heading in the right direction. Yeah. Oh, no. All good. Um you’re heading down to Khani. I am. The Europe tomorrow European amateur team championships uh starting tomorrow 36 holes Tuesday, Wednesday, then the top eight going to flight A and obviously the bottom the bottom eight went to flight B. So, this is an interesting one. Stuart Gretin and Gavin Tier and definitely the form horses for the Irish joined by Thomas Higgins. uh Matt Mlan and Keelin Rafferty. So, it’ll be interesting to see how the team shapes up. Like, there’s a big blend of youths and experience and mixed form. Everybody’s sort of has mixed form going into this, so it’ll be interesting to see how they get on. Uh it’s not really happened for the likes of Matt McClean so far. John Doyle actually is the sixth member on the team. He could go well. uh second in the Sanders Trophy pretty much playing on home soil being a monster man as well. So it’ll be interesting to see what what crowd is at this too because it’s going to be some of the stars of the future if not from Ireland definitely from Spain, France and the rest of Europe. Yeah, it’s a big tournament for Keani to get like it’s 50 years, isn’t it? 50 years. 50 years since it was last there. Yeah. Like it’s a huge event for them to host and have and I know they’re embracing it big time. I see the uh management team down there putting out some really good stuff on socials and how they’ve got the course ready and and what they’re doing geared up for it. So, it’s a huge deal for the for the whole uh town of Khani. Yeah. Uh it should be a great week. Um hopefully the Irish can perform well. The weather will hold up too. So, I think 50 years ago they didn’t qualify from the strobe play. So, hopefully if they can go one better than that, it’ll already be a good week. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Um, right. PGA in Ireland. We’ve mentioned Nuland. We were there on Friday, so you finished up a little earlier at the uh KPMG Women’s Irish Open. I arrived two holes late, played a 16 hole pro. The M50 was an absolute nightmare. I wouldn’t say with the way you performed at the third hole, you played that either. No, no, exactly. Um, yeah, it was uh No, it was a great event. Uh it was the New Lands ProAm um sponsored by Bali Moore. Um we played with Paul Ivers, really good pro uh really good player and yeah, we we had great fun around at Newlands. I have to say like it is an unbelievable condition. We played it in a howling wind and the greens were probably a bit slower than they’d normally have them, but those greens if you’re above the hole petrifying. Ah, frightening. Really good. Like really top class stuff. But no, it was a great day and uh we ended up with just one man breaking par. Kean Garrett. Yeah. One under. Finished birdie birdie as well, which is always a sweet way to get over the line. But it just shows a the wind but the test that Newand’s provides. Yeah. Yeah. We caught up with Keen a little bit after his round. So we’ll play that clip, then we’ll come back and we’ll have a a deeper chat in it. Keane, congratulations. is the Balymore New Lands Pro winner under 70 in brutally difficult wind out there as well. You must be delighted. Yeah, I’m I’m absolutely delighted. It’s uh it’s tough to win on the Irish region where the standards very very good. You know, the scores this year have been really low and it’s you know it’s it’s good. Um today really suited me to be honest with the wind. It was very very windy. It’s And it’s not just wind, it’s gusts and it’s it’s gay at times. Um, and the greens are just unbelievable. Like the you couldn’t fault them at all. And they were so fast. Like you did a downhill put down wind. It was nearly impossible. Gravity was just going to do its job there. You didn’t have to do anything to it. Yeah, the greens are fantastic as you said, but the whole presentation of the golf course was unbelievable. Oh, you couldn’t fault it. It’s it’s brilliant. And we’re very fortunate on in the Irish region like when we go to golf courses especially like New Lands here um the way the course presented us it’s really it’s it’s top notch. And coming down the stretch there you finished birdie birdie. Had you any idea where you stood at the time? No I didn’t. Um I don’t really look at the leaderboard but you’d have a feeling of the day. I knew on a day like that anything around a par is going to be a really good score. Um I bogied seven my 16th hole. It’s down by the road. You have to try and slice it. And I’m a drawer. So, it’s a So am I. It was kind of one of them where I just said, uh, try fade it, not slice it because you don’t want the block slice there either. It’s, uh, on the M7. So, h into the trees, hacked it out, get myself a par chance. Didn’t get it. Um, went on then birdie eight and great birdie on nine. Really nice. I I kind of knew at that point if I got it under par, I’d be very hard beating. Yeah. Only scoring a par as well, which make makes it all the sweeter. You were carrying a good bit of form in here as well. You had a good score in the assistance qualifier. Won that in trim. Yeah. So, you’re must been confident. Yeah. Like my my game has been it’s been really good this year. I’m doing a lot of work. Um not just on golf, but on other things as well. And it’s uh it’s it’s definitely improving. Um you know, it’s just it’s it’s hard. Like I was only saying to Palamine the other day like I came back from Mount Juliet Proam played lovely golf and bomb bad hole and you’re kind of thinking like gez what like how do people shoot scores you know it’s just it can be just tough um yeah the 18 the 18 holeer you just can’t afford a mistake in these proams. No, like boies are okay. Doubles hard to recover from and a triple and all. I’ve had a couple of triples in recent proams and you go from a decent finish then to right down the leaderboard. Like four shots in our region is the difference in second and 18. So yeah, and on a day like that where doubles and triples are going to be made, you did really well to hold those off. Yeah, like being a Betty’stown man playing on that type of wind, like it’s easy for me to see the flights. It’s not easy to do it. It’s easy to see it and that like that’s important as well. I know I was speaking to other pros here today that they struggle to keep that ball down and that’s it’s not really an issue for me being a links man. Yeah. Well, hopefully you can keep it going throughout the season. Congratulations. He’s a confident boy, isn’t he? Yeah. Well, you would be after getting your your first uh solo win. He was had a tide win last year in the Grange I think it was. Um no, good player. Won the assistance qualifier in trim as well by a bit of a stretch. I think he shot a 500 round there on a course where players have struggled to break par in previous years. So, you can tell the work he’s putting in on his game is is coming is coming to fruition. And he spoke really well actually about I suppose the no room for error about the 18 hole proams. Like you keep playing well, throw in one double bogey, you might as well just pack up and go home. Yeah. Um like you need to be shooting four, five, six, seven under usually to win uh these things. Obviously the weather took down the scoring a bit but no good on him as well and trending nicely for the H PJ championship next month as well. That’s the thing. It’s a nice time to be coming into a bit of form. Like I’m looking here at the Elevon Order of Merit as well. Um like it’s the usual names up there again. and Timmy Rice leading out from Simon Torrent and then Nile Carney, Richard Kilpatrick, Color Morati, Dave Higgins, Mick McGiddy, and then you’ve Richie O’ Donovan, uh Nikki Grant, and Damian Mooney. Rounding out the top 10, you’ve Cormick Sharan actually just outside that as well off the back of his recent wins. But like Charvin’s only played five events compared to all the other lads in the top 10 of played over double that, like up to 14 events each. Um so lots of golf to be played still but it’s heating up nicely that order merit. Yeah. Yeah. And Elev put a they’ve really sort of tried to elevate it over the last couple of years. So um definitely it’s a thing it’s a thing worth winning as well. So it’s you want to you want to be the best player over the course of season as well. Yeah. No it is. It’s it’s um it’s it’s a wellrun. We’ll be down at the PGA Championships as well uh first week in August. So looking forward to that actually. Will you be there? Will you? I will. Yeah. won’t just rock up on the Sunday this time. Rock up on the Sunday probably. Yeah. Yeah. And then have a look. You’re doing all the heavy lifting, all the grafting. Um, right. Anything else to get stuck into? No, I don’t think so. Just um there’s more. It’s not just the men’s European championships taking place in Kani. There is the women’s, the girls, and the boys. The women are over in Shantily in France. Um Emma Fleming actually incidentally is is part of that team. So she’s in fine form h heading over after making the court at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open. She’ll join Beth Coulter, Anya Dunigan, Marina Joyce Moreno, and Rebecca Gardner on that team. So like that’s another strong team. I know they’ve lost a few players over the last, you know, 12 months or so just with players turning pro. Anna Dawson actually as well is on the team after coming fourths in the Irish women’s amateur. So like there is a still a bit of depth there with Rebecca and Anie and Emma Fleming as well as well versed in these things as well as is Bets and so I think they might they might go well boys team are in Czech Republic or Czecha as it’s called now. I can never get used to that. H they have a Willio Rearen, uh John William Burke, Kalin Coleman, Adam Fahi, Louie Goldman, Isaac Oliver, and then the girls are in Slay Hall in England with Roshin Scandlin, Zoe McClean, Totten, Olivia Costello, Hannah Lee McNamara, and Kate Dylan. So that’s another strong team. Yeah. Connor Porcel. Oh, he’s playing over in the States this week in playing over in the States. Yeah. So sanctioned is the Isco Championship co-sanction with the PJ tour. Um it obviously runs underneath the Scottish Open, but like a 4 million prize fund isn’t anything to be sniffed at. And if he can have just one good week, win it, get a PJ tour card for the year, be going very well. Be savage. It would be savage. Even a top 10 be life changing enough. A top 10. I wonder does a top 10 here get you into the following week on the PJ tour. Could do week after the open. That’ll be nice. Um, no, there’s there’s so much going on. Like this is our mad season. This is silly season now. Like we’ve obviously the Scottish Open this week. The US adaptive open this week as well. Brenon got underway. H Kip Popper ominously is four under 26. But now Brendan’s hanging in two under two three. So um looks like it’s going to be low scoring there actually over over in the US adaptive open. He’s the only Irish player playing this week. I couldn’t find anybody else. So, it’s just Brendan flying the at flying the flag at Woodmond Country Club. Yeah. No, we’re um Right. Heroes and villains. Well, you know who my villain is anyway. I don’t. Charlie. All right. Go on. For sprinting away from the media. What is she doing? Go on. Tell me. I wasn’t there. No. Dead right you weren’t there. Uh she just So, she walks out of the scoring hut. This is Charlie Hull now. This is Charlie. Uh I think she was she aptly arrived two weeks ago. No, not anymore. Uh she was top three or four players at that stage on the leaderboard and has a quick glance and then just starts walking away gets to the arch that like separates the courtyard from like the practice facilities and then just takes on in a sprint and one of the one of the lat comms heads Nicola has to go and take on after and she just couldn’t keep up. So Charlie disappeared and I I even have to say as well after round one on Thursday, she was talking to Greg Allen and she was on her phone most of the time too. So and maybe what she did on Friday isn’t too surprising. It’s not a good look really, is it? Well, I suppose like she’s no obligation to talk to the media. I know we hate that. Yeah, once you signing autographs for kids and sticking around like Yeah, but at least do TV because people watching want to see that everything. Never mind talking to the Irish hacks. She’s your villain. Yeah, villain of the week. I’m going PJ tour in general as villains because I seen the I did say a few weeks ago I like we didn’t know how the whole FedEx Cup money distribution would go but they come up with some stupid way of doing it. So they have they’ve b they’ve basically split the FedEx Cup prize pot now into the three events and they’ve upped the purses in each of those events. So now they’ve just turned the FedEx Cup into just standard tournaments just with more money thrown at them. So they’ve taken away the scoring side of things. Uh like I I don’t know lads are going to like the St. Jude thing is on during this as well. I think half the top players in the world are going to skip that event. So they’ll end up with FedEx Cup now that players just aren’t going to bother playing um in all three of the events. uh the BMW like the BMW championship now the first prize and it’s gone up to $5 million. So it’s it’s more to win the BMW than it is to win majors and stuff. It’s like the Club World Cup. It’s nonsense, you know? It’s it’s like I just I can’t get my head around it. Um it’s like they’ve just blown up every idea that they’ve had over the last 12 years with this. They’ve last rip it up. Yeah. Throw more money at it. So, the tour championship winner as a tournament on its own now gets $10 million. That’s like, yeah, I I just can’t get my head around it. It’s just It seems obscene amount of cash for three events that they’re pulling in, but that’s money talks. Money does talk. We’ve lost a run of ourselves. They’re smelling themselves. No, but it is it’s a bit it’s just it’s silly season. It is a bit mad, but it’s the end of the season, and that’s like that’s only a month away. I can’t believe we’re already Oh, was it the season is like for so many other people it’s over after the open next week. Yeah. I mean, if you’re especially nowadays with how just difficult it is to engage and be interested in golf, a lot of people won’t watch golf now after the open championship next week. Yeah. No, it is. It’s it’s crazy. Um, right. So, who are we going for a villain? PGA Tour or Charlie? Charlie. We’re going Charlie. Yeah. She made the effort to come over though. Fairness to her. I’d say there was a 50 grand in that little envelope she got. Stop. No. No. Right. Okay. Come on. I’ll give you the cast and vote in that one. You can have Charlie Hull as your villain of the week. The Gary Player villain of the week. The Gary Player villain of the week. Right. The Patty Harrington hero of the week. There’s only one winner of this because we didn’t do a pod last week. So, he has to win his own prize. He won a major. Yeah, but that was last week. Yeah, I know. But that was last week. Yeah. It was so it was so important. You would have done a podcast on a Monday. I was here. I wasn’t. I was across. It’s actually this is a big launch week. So I was across looking at irons with one of the manufacturers early last week. So yeah, you’re going to see a lot of movement on irons this week uh across Irish golfer channels, across all golf channels. Uh loads of mid-season launches coming in there from Callaway and Mizuno and um people like that launching New Iron. titlist. My Patty Harrington hero of this week, the week just gone, right? Relevance is Kenise Screen. Oh yeah. Yeah. Legend. Yeah. Like what a Well, what a refreshing personality. Uh like not many people come over and speak to you after shooting a a 76 in their third round and are all smiles. and then to double that by better that by 10 shots on the Sunday earning three grand, doubled her winnings and just really great interviews with with us over those couple of days. Uh great personality anyway. Like we did we did a podcast with her at the start of the season and someone who was just incredibly easy to root for and she even did a stint in the commentary box yesterday as well and she was she was excellent. She didn’t need any of those uh any any prompting or anything like that. just once she gets going, she’s away. And yeah, I just think a really refreshing personality for for women’s golf, but especially Irish golf as well. No, it’s great to see and like she she she has a big future if she gets the opportunities. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s what it’s about like because it’s tough. She has limited status on the L this year. um looks like she’ll be getting full status on the LG Access worst case scenario next season, but definitely uh Sunday’s 66, which is low round of the year, low low round of the joint low round of the championship as well, uh moves her up into 131st in the order of merit. So, she’s, you know, hopefully going to keep that going and get towards keeping at least getting a same status in the le or getting a full card for next year. Yeah, it’s good. And there’s going to be more opportunity for girls like Candice as well. Like um just because the KPMG Women’s Irish Open is done doesn’t mean we’re done with golf in this Ireland professionally for the women. So Malahide are hosting an LE access event uh next month and that’s Forefront uh who put together the um KPMG Women’s Irish Open again putting that together. So I’m looking forward to that actually. It’s right beside our office as well. So, we’ll be down there for the week and I I’d say a lot of Irish will be in that. Like, we’ve had 16 in the main event. I’m hoping we get double that into this. So, anyone in anyone? Let them all in. Let them all in. No, but it’s good. It’ll be a good event. Uh, but no, looking forward to that. Um, yeah, I’ll go along with you with that. Candies hero of the week. At least we agree on something. Patty would have got it last week. Last week. Right. I think that’s a wrap. Is it for this week? I think so. Yeah. We’ll be back um next Monday. We’ll actually be up in Port Rush, but we will be coming at you two or three times during the week in Port Rush. We’ve uh little house about five minutes from the course. The whole team are heading up there covering the open for the week. So, uh we’ll be coming at you tick and fast next week with uh probably four or five updates of shorter pods and stuff like that and um yeah, keep you well up to date behind the scenes of what’s going on up in Port Rush. We’ll probably have a little recap of what’s happening in Scotland. um this week as well. So Mark may or may not be joining us depending on how Sunday goes. Depending on how Sunday goes. Could also be sleeping on the roof. Oh, you could have a trophy with me. You could cup up with me. So um yeah, shove shove your clar. Um right. Yeah. So stick up to date. As I said, there’s plenty of equipment launches happening this week with new irons from some of the major manufacturers. and we’ll have Scottish Open updates, European from down in Karan, all available in Irishgolfer. So do have a um quick glance at our website if you’re looking for any news on all the Irish players at all the events. So cheers for tuning in and we’ll chat to you again next week. Bye. [Music]
