The clock is ticking down – faster and faster, it would seem – to the Open at Royal Portrush. For the five Irish players confirmed to take part, the preparation work is vastly different.
Rory McIlroy will be among a stellar field for the Genesis Scottish Open – which will have the second most official world ranking points of the season on offer – at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick. US Senior Open champion Pádraig Harrington is also playing, earning his spot through the Legends category.
For Tom McKibbin, the precursor to Royal Portrush comes in the LIV Andalucia tournament this week at Valderrama. McKibbin earned his place in the Open through the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai standings last season, where he finished in the top 20.
Darren Clarke has been playing all of his golf on the Champions Tour in the United States so far this season and he won’t have a scorecard in hand this week. Instead, he will be preparing for his 34th Open appearance. Clarke won the Open at Sandwich in 2011. Now 56, he is exempt for another four years.
It is doubtful if anyone has played as much links golf in his preparation as Shane Lowry, who won the Open when it last came to Portrush six years ago. Lowry, like McIlroy, completed his USA schedule at The Travelers Championship last month. Since returning home to Ireland, he has included visits to Portrush, Portmarnock and Baltray on his prep work.
The Scottish Open, a co-sanctioned event on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, has attracted a standout field which features the leading five players – Scottie Scheffler, McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa – off the official world rankings. Morikawa, interestingly, has nabbed veteran caddie Billy Foster to carry his bag.
There is a second, alternative event this week – the Isco Championship in Kentucky – which is also co-sanctioned on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. Séamus Power, who contended strongly heading into the final round of the John Deere only to finish in tied-44th, is playing in the Isco. So, too is is Conor Purcell, who gets in off his DP World Tour ranking.
Despite admitting to feeling tired in last weekend’s Irish Open, Leona Maguire competes in France this week. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
For Leona Maguire, this week’s Amundi Evian Championship in France – the fourth of five Majors this season on the LPGA Tour – will see the Cavan golfer play for a fifth straight week. Maguire, the only Irish woman in the 132-player field, was at least grateful to hear that she wasn’t required to play in the pre-championship pro-am and could limit her practice to nine holes on Monday and the second nine on Tuesday.
“It was nice to open that email for a change. I think it’s the first pro-am I’m not in in about five years. So Wednesday will be a little bit of an easier day,” said Maguire of a different kind of preparation.
On completing her final round in the KPMG Women’s Irish Open at Carton House on Sunday, Maguire had admitted to there being “nothing left in the tank” after a busy schedule. Yet, within hours, she was on the way to the airport for another flight to the Evian.
Of heading to warmer climes, Maguire added: “It’ll be nice to see the ball flying again. The yardages were all over the place [at Carton House] between the wind and the cold, so it’ll be nice to see shots flying their full yardages again. And obviously Evian is a bit of a different test, a lot of slopes and things like that, a lot of shot-making required over there.
“It’s a Major, you’re going to need all of them firing on all cylinders to finish as high up the leaderboard as you can. I’ll take the positives [away], not read into too many of the tired shots, and see what we can do.”
While Lauren Walsh didn’t make it into the field for the Evian, the Kildare golfer – who missed the cut in the Irish Open – did manage to secure her place in the field for next month’s AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl off the LET order of merit for the leading five players not already exempt.
