Ryder Cup Ireland

Ryder Cup Ireland

Ireland, through the selection of the great Fred Daly, has been part of the Ryder Cup since 1947 when it was played at the Portland Gold Club, Oregon. 16 Irish professionals have been selected for Ryder Cup teams since then, Harry Bradshaw, Christy O’ Connor Snr, Norman Drew, Hugh Boyle, Jimmy Martin, Eddie Polland, Eamonn Darcy, John O’ Leary, Des Smyth, Christy O’ Connor Jnr, Ronan Rafferty, David Feherty, Philip Walton, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington. Christy O’ Connor Snr. has the distinction of playing on 10 consecutive teams covering a time span from 1955 to 1973.

In the period of 1927 to 1977, the Britain and Ireland team suffered defeat on 18 occasions, was victorious on 3 occasions, with a drawn match in 1969. In the 1979 Continental European Tour, players were included for the first time in what had by now become a European Ryder Cup team selection. This produced a series of encounters in which the balance of golfing superiority has been finely drawn. The European team turned the tables and won at the Belfry, near Birmingham, in 1985. This was followed by a first time ever win in the US at Muirfield Village, Ohio, in 1987. Honours were evenly split at the Belfry in 1989. The United States won was was dubbed the “War on the Shore” on the ocean course, Kiawah Island, South Carolina in 1991, and again in the Belfry in 1993, 1995 saw the Europeans once again dominant following a transatlantic raid at Oak Hill, Rochester, New York. In 1997, the Ryder Cup took place for the first time at a European venue outside Britain in Valderrama, Spain. Once again victory was registered by the European Team. In 1999 the pendulum swung in America’s favour at Brookline, Massachusetts.

With European team selections it was inevitable that its European staging would reflect the wider reaches of European golf interest. In 2006 the event will arrive to Ireland’s East Coast region when it is played at the K Club, County Kildare. It is perhaps a fitting tribute to past and present Irish players who have contributed to a Ryder Cup history extending over 50 years.

Designed by the Arnold Palmer team, the K Club in Co. Kildare, Ireland has hosted the European open each year since 1995. Opened in 1991, the K Club was quickly established as one of Europe’s finest tournament parklands. Running to 7159 yards, all but one of the par fours are in excess of 400 yards and the feature par 5, the 7th over 600 yards!

The only similarity between the front nine and the back is that on both, water comes into play on seven holes. The front nine tends top be more inviting in that there is a string of double-digit index holes from 2 to 5. This generosity however is aggressively counter balanced by the indices five, three and one tests from 14 to 16. 14 an up hill haul of 416 yards from the blues to a plateau green, 15, offers the golfer’s favourite, the downhill drive which then presents a water threaten pitch to the green 16, another knee wobbler, trees and water everywhere. This is the index one, and amazingly is the shortest par four on the course.

When the Ryder Cup visits Ireland the routing of the K Club course will be altered to facilitate spectator viewing and access to the various matches being played. In the new routing arrangement, the back eight and the 9th (from the old front nine) will be played first, followed by the first eight (of the old front nine) finishing with the original 18th. With the threat of disaster hanging on all sides of the finishing four holes, the promise of steel nerved duels to bring out the very best in match play performance is certain to add to supporter’s frenzied delight and passion which has always been part of this magnificent event.