Strong Stormont Presence at Portrush

Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Peter Robinson, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuiness and Tourism Minister Arlene Foster were among a number of leading politicians from Stormont and Westminster attending the Irish Open at Royal Portrush Golf Club.

The high ranking officials were special guests of The European Tour and host club Royal Portrush during the opening round of the first Irish Open in Northern Ireland for almost 60 years, which drew a massive crowd to the scenic Antrim Coast venue.

Despite a day of unsettled weather – bright sunshine mixed with heavy rain and a brief suspension for a lightening threat – the first round of the tournament was enjoyed by the spectators and the political delegation who spent several hours on the site.

The First Minister and Deputy First Minister were welcomed to Royal Portrush by European Tour Chief Executive George O’Grady, Chairman of the host club’s Championship Committee, John Bamber and Club Captain John Moss.

They were joined, close to the 18th green as they watched some of the world’s best golfers passing through, by Howard Hastings, Chairman of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

The Ministerial delegation toured the bustling Tented Village at Royal Portrush, stopping at many of the individual units, before visiting the Practice Range and spending some time with local Portrush resident and reigning Open Champion Darren Clarke, who has put heart and soul into ensuring the return to Northern Ireland is a huge success.

Also in attendance was Owen Paterson MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland at Westminster, who also toured the facility and spent some time with his political colleagues from Stormont.

Minister Foster, who has been prominent in the Irish Open’s return to Royal Portrush, was one of the early visitors to the course, watching Portrush native, Graeme McDowell, teeing off in the company of Padraig Harrington and defending champion Simon Dyson.

The Minister also congratulated Alan Dunbar from Portrush, who last week won the Amateur Championship at Royal Troon to earn an invitation to mix it with the professionals in his home town.

Clarke Enjoys Special Portrush Day

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Darren Clarke believes playing at Royal Portrush helped him become Open champion at Royal St George's last year.

Clarke, who has known this week's Irish Open venue since he was a boy, said: "I moved up here when I was young, played an awful lot of my golf here and moved back a couple of years ago.

"Winning The Open was due - a lot of it was due - to the fact that I was living here and playing Royal Portrush."

Now Clarke hopes the first staging of this event in Northern Ireland since 1953 can spark him back to life.

The 43-year-old defends the claret jug at Royal Lytham in just three weeks' time and is desperately looking to find some form after a nightmare slump.

Clarke is bursting with pride that the course he knows so well has received rave reviews and that the tournament is a sell-out - the only time that has happened on the European Tour outside of a major.

"The Irish Open has always been one of my favourite tournaments and to have it here at Royal Portrush with this amount of people makes me very, very proud," Clarke said.

"It's all worked out unbelievably well. The players love it - it's almost got an Open feel, which is what I think the course deserves.

"Every one of my fellow Tour pros bar none has been full of praise already.

"The Open is the biggest and best tournament in the world - obviously I won last year, so I have to say that. But it is and for guys to come here and say everything about it feels like an Open Championship is about as big praise as anybody can give it."

The extra special nature of the week began for him on Wednesday when he partnered both his father Godfrey and older son Tyrone, plus Westlife's Shane Filan, in the curtain-raising pro-am.

Clarke has not played for a month, missing the Nordea Masters in Sweden and then the US Open because of a recurring groin strain.

He hopes the break has enabled him to start afresh in a season in which he has, amazingly, yet to survive a halfway cut.

On both his fitness and his game he described things as "not too bad", adding: "I've been down here quite a lot practising and I'm looking forward to getting back."

He had said earlier this month that he would be playing with the aid of a Zimmer frame if necessary, but it will not be necessary.

He said: "I'll crawl around. I've been working away and hopefully things will turn around pretty soon."

Rain and wind is expected during for the tournament and, having conquered foul conditions at Sandwich last July, Clarke does not mind that at all.

He added: "The forecast is for pretty normal Portrush weather. It might not be to everybody's liking, but I've played it in some pretty horrific conditions, so hopefully that will be a little bit of an advantage.

"It's a course you need to know a little bit - definitely in bad weather."

Royal Portrush in Major Welcome

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After months of fervent anticipation, the wait is finally over as Royal Portrush Golf Club prepares to welcome a sell-out crowd of 100,000 fans to join The European Tour’s celebration of Ireland’s golfing success at the 2012 Irish Open.

Nearly 60 years have passed since Northern Ireland last hosted the Irish Open in 1953, and not since 1947 have The European Tour’s elite graced the famous Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush.

But this week, following the remarkable Major-winning exploits of Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke over the past two years, the country is ready for a week under the golfing microscope as the eyes of the golfing world focus on Portrush.

Never before has Northern Ireland enjoyed such a tidal wave of success as in recent years. McDowell started the ball rolling at the 2010 US Open Championship at Pebble Beach, before McIlroy succeeded his great friend 12 months later with a record breaking performance at Congressional. 

Not to be outdone by his younger compatriots, Clarke then added one of the most emotional Open Championship victories in recent memory to produce a stunning hat-trick in the space of 13 months.

This week’s homecoming will be particularly special for two of Portrush’s Honorary Members, McDowell, who learned his game on the famous links as a starry-eyed youth, and Clarke, a Portrush resident and Honorary Member of the club who has played there since his teenage years.

Northern Ireland’s aforementioned trio of Major Champions will be the undoubted stars of the show this week, but a supporting cast led by Ireland’s three-time Major winner Padraig Harrington, reigning US PGA Champion Keegan Bradley, the newly crowned Amateur Champion Alan Dunbar – a Portrush native – and a host of other Major Champions, Ryder Cup stars and European Tour winners, including another home favourite Michael Hoey, will add so much to what promises to be a fantastic event.

Simon Dyson will defend the title he won last year in Killarney over the Dunluce Links of Royal Portrush Golf Club, a venue so often hailed as one of the greatest tests of links golf in the world.

Thanks to the partnership between the Northern Irish Tourist Board and The European Tour’s long term partner in Ireland, Failte Ireland, the Irish Open will be played in the north for the first time since the Tour’s inception in 1972 – an historic occasion which has caught the imagination of golf fans worldwide resulting in an unprecedented demand for tickets and the first sell-out crowd at a regular European Tour event.

This week represents the fourth time Portrush has staged the Irish Open, and the first since 1947 when Harry Bradshaw took the first of his two Irish Open titles, the other also coming in the north at Belvoir Park in 1949.

Royal Portrush’s Dunluce Links staged The Open Championship in 1951 when Englishman Max Faulkner’s three under par total of 285 was enough to take the Claret Jug by two shots from Argentina’s Antonio Cerdá, while the last Major Championship action at the venue came in 2004 when American Pete Oakley won the Senior Open Championship – the sixth Senior Open to be played there.