Irish Open 2015 at Royal County Down

HighLine

The coverage has been pathetic. Not starting until 1:30 today... we won't even see the leading groups tee off!!

HighLine

shaunac93 wrote: »

Anyone who has been up the last couple of days know a good spot on back 9 to sit and watch groups come through, ie see a drive, iron and putt maybe over two holes etc

Some of the places they had roped off were just silly. There were high mounds away from any ball flight lines which were off limits for whatever reason.

One such area was a great spot to watch - it was on the right hand side of the 12th near enough to the green. You could see the approaches into 12 and putting and then the drives on 13. One guy asked the marshal why it was roped off and whatever answer was given resulted in the bank been opened up. It was the perfect spot.


Also for people driving up, the signage for the golf brings traffic from the south via Warrenpoint and along the coast road... advisable to ignore this route and instead head out through Hilltown.

ronnie3585

I was there yesterday and really enjoyed the experience. I have to compliment the way the event was organised. I've been to a lot of sporting events, concerts etc in many countries and nothing has come close to the efficiency and ease of getting to the event. The park and ride system was excellent, everyone was marshalled into their parking spot, then a very quick walk to waiting busses to be shuttled into Newcastle, then we were met with smiling volunteers holding signs pointing us in the right direction. I was very slick, polished and professional and certainly endears me to attending another Irish Open.

RCD looked stunning however it is definitely not a spectator friendly course. I was well aware of this going there so I wasn't disappointed. There weren't many good vantage points and it was difficult to get around given the nature of the course. My biggest criticism relates to the way the three balls were organised. There were certain groups that had two or three big names in them, naturally they drew the biggest crowds. However from a spectator point of view the course wasn't really able to handle such volume of people following one group. I think I would have been much better if they put one big name alone per group, that way it would spread the crowd a lot better.

PS I'd really like to thank the poster here who advised travelling to the course via Hilltown - it saved me a lot of time compared to the route I was originally going to take. Cheers:)

irish_man

Some very low scores out there already today. Can't believe it's not on TV until 1.30.

fullstop

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Ricky saying what the fcuk am I doing in this ****house on a deleted twitter post

Source?

MikeSD

If it becomes a birdie-fest I'd be a little worried about Padraig's chances. Who could beat against him on links though!

LuckyGent88

Hope Lowry can finish off his good round so far with another birdie or two. Weather could change at any time and he will still be in contention.

John Divney

Harrington starting poorly, Lowry double bogey on the 17th, not a good day so far.

LuckyGent88

Superb performance from kjeldson so far.

John Divney

LuckyGent88 wrote: »

Superb performance from kjeldson so far.

Yep, brilliant.

Old diesel

MikeSD wrote: »

If it becomes a birdie-fest I'd be a little worried about Padraig's chances. Who could beat against him on links though!

Gutted for Padraig today as hes having a real nightmare

Stheno

New course record for kiefer

onlyme!

That Joanne doll told us about fowler taking a 8 at the last long before wee see it on telly

fullstop

What the hell happened Rickie??! Eagle 2 on 16 followed by a pair of 8s :eek:

Old diesel

fullstop wrote: »

What the hell happened Rickie??! Eagle 2 on 16 followed by a pair of 8s :eek:

Its mind blowing - he was on level par for the day after eagle - but hes only now two shots ahead of Harrington for the day.

Think they are on the same position on the leaderboard as well

At least with Rickie it was just those two holes - Harringtons round was just a nightmare from almost the word go.

redarmy

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Ricky saying what the fcuk am I doing in this ****house on a deleted twitter post

"Royal County Down is probably my favourite golf course in the world" - Rickie Fowler.:rolleyes:

Pdoghue

Eh.. wtf? why did RTE go off air before the final group finished?

redarmy

Pdoghue wrote: »

Eh.. wtf? why did RTE go off air before the final group finished?

typical rte

Old diesel

redarmy wrote: »

typical rte

Problem is BOTH RTE and the channels they are working with - have schedules to keep.

Unfortunately Golf is hard to squeeze into a schedule if its a tight schedule - I seem to recall mention on this forum a month or 2 back where it was suggested that Henrik Stenson and a few other guys were told to get a move on in the later stages of their final round - as there was a time limit on the TV coverage.

Mantis Toboggan

I was supposed to go with the girlfriend who is now my ex so she ain't going, so if anyone is stuck for a lift/ticket send me a pm.

Old diesel

Buddy Holly wrote: »

I was supposed to go with the girlfriend who is now my ex so she ain't going, so if anyone is stuck for a lift/ticket send me a pm.

Sorry to hear of the break up

postitnote

Just home from my first ever pro tournament. We had a great day out and were fortunate that it stayed dry. Had an early start and saw Clarke going out early. Saw 3 Eagles today including Fowler's and Cabrera Bello's at 16. I thought the crowds were fantastic today and the marshalls did a mostly excellent job.

Favourite place to be was on the mound between the 7th Green, 8th Tee and 13th Tee. It was great to have the backdrop of the mountains to see the flight of the drives off the 8th tee. And our position on the mound was approx 12ft right of the 7th pin position, so there was certainly a feeling of mild peril if you didn't sight the crowd bound shots off the tee box.

Special mention to Tom Lewis for nearly landing his drive on my head. I had it sighted all the way, but still had to duck at the last second.


Getting there was fine for us. We came in via banbridge and used the park and ride which was well organised imho.

beer £4.50
Burgers £4

Getting out was fine too.

Enjoy yourselves tomorrow whoever is going.
Attached is the 1st green early on the day when conditions were just perfect.

OffalyMedic

First day at a Pro tournament and I absolutely loved every minute of it. Got tickets last minute yesterday so was waiting for them to be delivered to Newcastle this morning.

Got into the grounds at around 10.30 and went to find Shane. Found him putting on the 6th and made bogie.

I saw a couple of people on a great mound to the side of the 6th green (inside the blue ropes) so went and joined them it was a great spot. Could see 4th hole (mainly green) 5th tee box where most used driver, 6th hole (approach and green) and 7th tee box (shouts of fore right as an awful lot of balls headed for gallery). Saw most people come through those holes but obviously people saw how good of a spot it was and after about 2 hours of sitting there enjoying what I was seeing we got shifter by a Marshall. In fairness the crowd was that big the drives on 5th tee was going over people's heads.

So I decided to head off and find Shane again. Got him on 16th green and followed him to 18. He hit the guy standing beside me on 17. Would have taken the bruise to get the signed glove horrid double there after a great recovery from where we were standing with a sweet 3iron!! He done some amount of giving out to caddie coming off the green "nothing ever falls for me like ever. I never get a break or any bit of luck'

This was taken in the middle of him giving out thank god he didnt see me.
Asked someone else on 17 was he deaf of something when he didnt put phone away after caddy and stewards asked.

Went on up 18 with him and then set up camp in the stand on 18 so could see approaches and putts there. Saw everyone else come through there.

Even got a free 10min lesson at European tour swing zone!! Loved every minute of today and can't wait for tomorrow. Hopefully rain keeps away like it did today!!

stockdam

A great day today. Was a bit cold at times though and the wind was quite strong. The thing that struck me most was how small a lot of the golfers are and also how straight and pure they hit the ball.

Favourite "non-popular" place today was on the right of the 8th just where the drives were landing. The wind was blowing from the sea so quite a few shots ended up close to or over the ropes. If you are standing close or else behind the players then you get a good sense of how good their shots are.

The 10th is quite a nice par 3 to watch and the 11th blind tee shot is good.

My favourite place is to the left of the 16th as you can clearly see the tee shots and green. There's always a bit of drama here such as Ricky's eagle and Cabrera-Bella driving the green. Harrington had a howler here but his bunker shot spun back about 6 feet and he end up with bogey.

Get there early and move around to watch different holes as it's a great course; not always good for spectators but go before the crowds build.

Favourite moment was finding Kjeldsen having a wizz in the bushes at the 11th (somebody was in the toilet,)

fullstop

shaunac93 wrote: »

So I decided to head off and find Shane again. Got him on 16th green and followed him to 18. He hit the guy standing beside me on 17. Would have taken the bruise to get the signed glove horrid double there after a great recovery from where we were standing with a sweet 3iron!! He done some amount of giving out to caddie coming off the green "nothing ever falls for me like ever. I never get a break or any bit of luck'

This was taken in the middle of him giving out thank god he didnt see me.
Asked someone else on 17 was he deaf of something when he didnt put phone away after caddy and stewards asked.

Went on up 18 with him and then set up camp in the stand on 18 so could see approaches and putts there. Saw everyone else come through there.

Even got a free 10min lesson at European tour swing zone!! Loved every minute of today and can't wait for tomorrow. Hopefully rain keeps away like it did today!!

Thought he might have toned the temper down a bit after having to apologise on Friday

OffalyMedic

Think everyone of us would give out of you went from +2 to +4 in a hole that you didn't even play badly!!

DamienOB

Went to this Saturday. Will try keep this brief

Getting there. I got a coach from Belfast. The town was extremely well sign posted. The driver parked and we had about a 10 min walk to the gate. Along the entire route, spaced out every 20 yards, were very welcoming and helpful volunteers.

Programmes were £6. Draw Sheets (Not just A4 pages) £2 (Bought this and worth it)

The village was impressive. Bigger than Carton and Fota. Charging stations for phones, free too.

Food was just run of the mill chipper van food. Expect anything different and you're mad.

Loadsa kids activities and free comps. Entered the "beat the pro" driving competiton. Made it 229 yards in the darkest tent ever.

The Course.
Top Class. I would agree it is not a spectator course. This needs to be looked at if you are selling 20,000 tickets a day. I have bad knees, and I knew what to expect, but the girlfriend couldnt cope. Some amount of falling going on too

It did lead to great views though.

Some crowds following Fowler, Donald and Harrington.

Got a spot on side of 16 as some other poster said. Got some great pics and vids. Thought I got Fowlers Eagle but didnt hit record.

All in all a long, but great and worthwhile day. RCD done the Irish open a great service.

stockdam

One thing that I thought wasn't organised well was support for disabled or elderly.

The free park and ride worked great but it dropped you too far from the course and for the elderly it wasn't good. One of the lady helpers said that there was a different bus for the elderly that would leave you to the front gate but I didn't see it nor did anyone seem to know where it was.

The stewards/helpers were all great and polite.

Links courses are always going to have hills which are great for getting a good view even from the back of a crowd but be aware that you'll be standing on a slope and climbing quite steep banks. A guy with me also had bad knees and it was a bit difficult for him at times but he was aware that it would be.

Hope the weather is good today and everyone enjoys it.

LuckyGent88

Looks like Donald's run is finished anyway

ninebeanrows

Doesn't seem very easy out there today! Leader all dropping shots.. Lead now -3

Wouldn't be surprised to see a score of PAR or -1 winning it