A new landmark is being set for this year's Smurfit European Open, with a prize fund of Stg£1.5 million. This represents an increase of 11 per cent on last year's event, which was won by England's Lee Westwood who made up seven strokes on Darren Clarke in a dramatic final round.
The enhanced fund for the tournament, which will be played at The K Club on July 6th to 9th, means a first prize of £250,000. "Lee's success last year in a grandstand finish provided further evidence of our tournament's popularity with the players and the public," said Dr Michael Smurfit, chairman of the sponsoring group.
He added: "The increased fund demonstrates our intention to continue to grow and enhance the Smurfit European Open."
A fascinating element of this year's tournament will be a re-routing of the course, by way of an experiment in crowd control for the staging of the Ryder Cup in 2005. Players will now start on the 10th hole and after the 17th (their eighth), they will progress to the ninth.
They then commence their back nine on the old, par-five first. After the eighth (their 17th) they go on to the existing 18th which remains unchanged as a gamble par-five finishing hole, with water on the left.
Season tickets will be £60 and daily tickets will be £12.50 (Wednesday), £17.50 (Thursday) and £25 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A saving of £5 per ticket on daily tickets may be made by calling the Advance Ticket Hotline - (01) 6621155.
