Four Dubai Duty Free Irish Open places up for grabs at Moyvalley
Robert Brazill (Naas) lets fly from the 4th tee during round three of the Lytham Trophy at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. 05/05/19 Picture: Thos Caffrey / Golffile
No amateurs. No Michael Hoey. No problem.
While many would prefer to see five-time European Tour winner Hoey and some amateurs guaranteed a spot in the $7 milllion Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Lahinch next week, it’s a conundrum for European Tour CEO Keith Pelley, who is under pressure to give players who graduate from the Challenge Tour and the Qualifying School as many chances as he can to play in the lucrative Rolex Series.
All 15 Challenge Tour graduates and the top-nine finishers from Q-School have made the star-studded field at Lahinch, which features 12 of the world’s top 50 and 29 of the top 100, making it almost as strong as the Scottish Open.
Top world-ranked players in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Lahinch
11 Jon Rahm
20 Tommy Fleetwood
21 Louis Oosthuizen
30 Matthew Fitzpatrick
35 Shane Lowry
36 Ian Poulter
37 Eddie Pepperell
39 Rafa Cabrera Bello
42 Tyrrell Hatton
43 Haotong Li
48 Lucas Bjerregaard
49 Justin Harding
51 Kiradech Aphibarnrat
58 Abraham Ancer
64 Thorbjorn Olesen
68 Jorge Campillo
69 Russell Knox
73 Danny Willett
76 Tom Lewis
77 Lee Westwood
79 Joost Luiten
83 Andrea Pavan
84 Erik van Rooyen
86 Adrian Otaegui
92 Graeme McDowell
93 Martin Kaymer
95 Alexander Bjork
96 Ryan Fox
99 Guido Migliozzi
Colm Moriarty
As a member of the Players’ Committee, Hoey is well aware of this and should he miss the cut in the Andalucia Masters at Valderrama today, there’s a chance he could jet back and make his Saturday afternoon tee time in the 36-hole, €40,000 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open qualifier at Moyvalley Hotel Golf Resort this weekend.
The winner will take home €6,000 but the grand prize is one of four precious spots at Lahinch from July 4-7.
The 136-strong field features the leading figures on the PGA in Ireland circuit, including in-form Colm Moriarty (Glasson Hotel & Golf Club), Michael McGeady (Evolve Golf Coaching), Richard Kilpatrick (Banbridge GC) and Neil O'Briain (Old Conna GC) will be in action alongside reigning Irish PGA champion, Simon Thornton (Tulfarris Golf Resort).
“It's an important part of the year, The Irish Open is such a massive tournament now. It would be great to get a chance to play in Lahinch,” said Moriarty who will take some positive form to Moyvalley after winning the recent Slieve Russell Masters Pro-Am by eight shots on Tuesday.
“I was actually down there [at Lahinch] a few weeks ago and it will be a fantastic event. I have played a lot of golf there over the years and I have had a good bit of success there [he won the 2002 South of Ireland Championship]. It is always a course I have enjoyed playing.”
In last year's inaugural DDF Irish Open qualifier, held at Rosapenna GC, Thornton edged out Neil O'Briain for first place after a play-off. Moriarty claimed third on his own, while Monkstown's Cian McNamara secured the fourth and final Irish Open spot on offer, beating Kevin Phelan in a play-off.
Thornton went on to make the cut at Ballyliffin with rounds of 72 and 70 and followed up with two 74s at the weekend to finish the tournament in a share of 59th place, winning €16,175.
Also in the field for the 36-hole battle are six amateurs selected by the GUI and 12 professionals nominated by the European Tour.
The GUI have nominated a talented group of amateurs to compete including Rob Brazill (Naas GC), the 2018 West of Ireland Champion, Eoin Leonard (Killiney GC), Jack McDonnell (Forrest Little), Robert Moran (Castle), Matthew McClean (Malone GC) and the 2018 Irish Close champion, Robbie Cannon (Balbriggan GC).
A number of Challenge Tour, Europro Tour and Alps Tour regulars are also scheduled to play, the most notable of which is five-time tour winner, Michael Hoey.
The former Dunhill Links champion has accepted an European Tour invitation along with Paul McBride, Conor O’Rourke, John Ross Galbraith, Dermot McElroy, Stuart Grehan, Jonathan Caldwell, David Carey, Rory McNamara, Brian Casey, Brendan McCarroll and Jonathan Yates.
Moyvalley will be a very familiar venue for most of the PGA professional in the field. The Kildare venue played host to the Irish PGA Championship in 2016 when Damien McGrane triumphed and then again in 2017 when Tim Rice went wire-to-wire to collect the trophy.
In the case of a tie for the leading four players a sudden death play-off will be used.
