Irish Open pro-am launched

Golfers across Ireland will get a chance to play against some of the world’s greatest golfers in The 3 Irish Open Pro Am at Baltray on May 13.

Ireland's 392 golf clubs have been invited to stage a qualifying competition at their local club, from which two teams, of three players, one men’s and one ladies’ team, will be nominated to represent the club.

This competition, which can be run in conjunction with an existing club competition, has the full backing of the Golfing Union of Ireland and the Irish Ladies Golf Union.

A notification of the 3 Irish Open Pro-Am has been circulated to the golf clubs in Ireland, and it included the following guidelines: The men’s 3 man team must include players from the categories 0-9, 10-16 and 16 and over; the women’s team must come from players in the 0-19, 20-29 and 30-36 handicaps.

The competition will ultimately produce a men’s and ladies’ team from each of the four provinces, who will then go into the 3 Irish Open Pro-Am Draw.

This draw to select a men’s and ladies’ team from each province in Ireland will be made in the first week of May 2009.

All winners will be notified immediately and the full list of winners will be published in the national and regional press shortly afterwards.

Seamus Smith, General Secretary of the Golfing Union of Ireland (GUI), said the decision to involve the club golfer in the 3 Irish Pro-Am was a most welcome development. “Pro golf stems from the grass roots of amateur golf and I’m thrilled that 3 have restored the opportunity for club golfers to participate. This was such an important part of Irish Opens in the past and the decision to involve the clubs again is a great move at a most exciting time in Irish golf,” he said.

Sinead Herrity, Chief Executive of the Irish Ladies Golf Union (ILGU) has urged all clubs to take part in the 3 Irish Open Pro-Am qualifier. “I’m delighted to see the Pro-Am is going back to its roots. It has moved away from being essentially a corporate event to one which involves the ordinary club golfer and that is a very good development. It deserves the full support of clubs,” she said.

For more details on the 3 Irish Open Pro-Am contact your local club secretary or full details on the 3 Irish Open Pro-Am will be available shortly at www.three.ie/irishopen