Irish Open 2021 [No Covid posts]

big_drive wrote: »

I stayed on the 17th tee for a long while today watching groups pass through.
Things that I noted, I was surprised how low many tee the ball for driver. Was amazed again at the ball flights, something else.
The height on drives was higher that I'd have thought, but on some trajectory
Plus when they say a player draws or fades their drives it's hardly even a movement, couple of yards either way. Their draw or fade is what we'd call a straight shot


Out on the course with irons etc the majority really seem to favour a cut shot


Really grateful I ended up with a ticket today, really enjoyed the day. Shame there isn't more allowed. The one benefit for those lucky to be there is that you can see lot more and get closer than usual

Great place to pass an hour or more is the range or practice putting green. Can see some serious skill on show

I agree with everything you say here except for the crowds. Today was absolutely perfect and the course really isn’t set up to take massive crowds. There are quite a few bottlenecks on some holes and not a whole lot of comfort to be had. Even with the crowd following McIlroy and Lowry’s groups today there were people who couldn’t see a thing. I followed some of the lesser known groups for a few holes each and avoided the Mcilroy and Lowry groups until I could actually see them. Much more enjoyable I thought. Great to see these guys up close and see them navigate the course.

A big mix of people up there today. Huge amount of people with absolutely no interest in golf, I got asked by people if it was the pro-am today. A lot of lads aged around 13 or 14 with pints in both hands “encouraging” (shouting) at different groups and then there were actual golf fans there too. It’s a pity people missed out on tickets while those got them. It is what is though, if they paid their money or got given tickets then there’s nothing that can be done.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post, for anyone wanting to be really entertained just follow any of the players on the longer par 4s or any of the par 5s. Seeing these guys in full flow with a driver in their hands is unbelievable. Their timing, balance and rhythm has to be seen up close to be believed. The game these guys play is just a different level to any of the test of us. The only thing that resembles the game we play are the odd 3 putts.

big_drive wrote: »

I stayed on the 17th tee for a long while today watching groups pass through.
Things that I noted, I was surprised how low many tee the ball for driver. Was amazed again at the ball flights, something else.
The height on drives was higher that I'd have thought, but on some trajectory
Plus when they say a player draws or fades their drives it's hardly even a movement, couple of yards either way. Their draw or fade is what we'd call a straight shot


Out on the course with irons etc the majority really seem to favour a cut shot


Really grateful I ended up with a ticket today, really enjoyed the day. Shame there isn't more allowed. The one benefit for those lucky to be there is that you can see lot more and get closer than usual

Great place to pass an hour or more is the range or practice putting green. Can see some serious skill on show

Was there today as a volunteer on the 7th tee from 1pm until about 6.30 so I saw a lot of tee shots. Noticed the same thing you did with driver and even 3w, hybrid and driving iron seemed to be teed very low to me but they had no trouble. Strangest thing I saw all day was Oliver Wilsons tee/setup, he grabs a wedge, hacks into the turf back towards himself to make a sort of tee for the ball. Props the ball up on the highest point of the divot he just dug and tees from there, no actual tee involved. Mental approach, never seen that done before. He blazed his first well right and had to hit a provisional, his second seemed to catch the divot but still went plenty far.

Other thing I noticed, very few Srixon (probably none actually) sponsored players use their woods or hybrids, almost all of those players had Taylor Made Sim2 instead as their fairways. Saw a fair few older clubs too, M1 Driver, M6 fairway, m3 hybrid etc. Taylor Made definitely the most widely used woods as far as I can tell, Callaway seemed to have the most sponsored players though.

Motivator wrote: »

I agree with everything you say here except for the crowds. Today was absolutely perfect and the course really isn’t set up to take massive crowds. There are quite a few bottlenecks on some holes and not a whole lot of comfort to be had. Even with the crowd following McIlroy and Lowry’s groups today there were people who couldn’t see a thing. I followed some of the lesser known groups for a few holes each and avoided the Mcilroy and Lowry groups until I could actually see them. Much more enjoyable I thought. Great to see these guys up close and see them navigate the course.

A big mix of people up there today. Huge amount of people with absolutely no interest in golf, I got asked by people if it was the pro-am today. A lot of lads aged around 13 or 14 with pints in both hands “encouraging” (shouting) at different groups and then there were actual golf fans there too. It’s a pity people missed out on tickets while those got them. It is what is though, if they paid their money or got given tickets then there’s nothing that can be done.

Didn't see any of that down where I was at the 6th green/7th tee I have to say though heard reports of some drunk eejit following Rory. Seemed quiet to me where I was apart from ten minutes before Rory when it got busy for a while. As soon as he was gone through it was deserted and the rest of the groups had almost nobody watching them. Felt a bit sorry for them, particularly on the 6th which was playing incredibly tough. Saw two birdies all day and both had only myself and 2 other volunteers to applaud them.

billy3sheets wrote: »

Really enjoyed the day at the Irish Open today. Had the place to ourselves. We were literally the only 3 patrons on several of the greens. Crowds following McIlroy and Tommy group.
Watched several of the lesser known groups at different stages of various holes.
As there were so few around, it all felt quite personal. Coetzee took relief from a sprinkler halfway down the 8th, did get a great lie, hit a fairly average shot and turned to us and said "Lads, don't ever bother taking relief!"
On 14th, after applauding Johannes Veerman's birdie, he give me a big smile and a thumbs up. I was the only one there!
Shot of the day on the 4th Robert Rock hits his approach 6 feet past the flag and nearly spins it back into the hole.
Agree with previous poster about the poor range and price of the merchandise. Disagree totally on comment about the Gardai who I found were friendly and helpful.
Overall great day out.

You lost me at patrons...

We had a really enjoyable day at Mount Juliet yesterday for Day 1 of the Irish Open. The venue was easy to find, parking in the general car park was only 5 minutes walk back to the course and everyone was fairly relaxed. You could immediately notice that there was a fairly low adherence to the mask 'rule' and it seemed to be up to yourself as to whether you wore it or not. There was absolutely no hassle from anyone about bringing food and drinks in.

With the exception of the groups following Lowry, McIlroy or McDowell where it was a bit of a free for all you could easily socially distance and most people respected your space. We followed a few smaller groups for a while, then parked ourselves at the landing area for drives on the 9th and got to see loads up pretty close before having another wander around with miscellaneous groups. Like other posters sometimes we were the only ones at a green applauding a good shot.

It's great to see the pros up close in action and how they set themselves up for the shots right through to their reaction afterwards. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the tournament.

Just a question regarding tickets yesterday, a guy I work with said he and a few others got in without his ticket being checked. Did anyone else have this? We had ours scanned when we left Carpark 3 but he went in the same entrance and was just waved through.

Speak Now wrote: »

Dale Whitnell.

Good call, the reserve is doing well, top of the leaderboard!!

big_drive wrote: »

Course looking brilliant

It doesn't look great on TV. Alot of what looks like fairly poor ground on fairways, mixtures of different greens shades on alot of fairways. Amazed that it's not perfect like it always is.

Greens look totally perfect as they always do, but on the overheads, the fairways look poor.

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

I think it's that we're used to the ultra immaculate courses you see on the PGA tour where it looks like the grass is painted green. Even some of our best links courses don't look great on TV. Also hasn't been much rain the last few weeks.

Thought the same re the fairways but also thought some of the greens didn't look hectic from overhead shots, they've only had the course a couple of weeks from the members and the pga tour courses probably have millions pumped into them every year.

yeah not sure its that. Links will always have that with the native grasses. I've played MJ probably 10 times and been there for countless tournaments in the 90's and the WGC's and it's always perfect. It could be may a disease problem they have on some of the fairways? It's uncharacteristic though.

Just saw Lowry drive off the 18th. The fairway looks in very poor condition.

twounderpar wrote: »

Just saw Lowry drive off the 18th. The fairway looks in very poor condition.

Ground is rock hard, fairways are actually perfect as it's just brown grass.

-3 it is, tough on Colm Moriarty.

Trampas wrote: »

Shane 8 behind Herbert and 8 shots worse than him on par 5’s

He’s birdied every par 5 on both days.

That's impressive from Herbert.