Irish Open purse set to sky-rocket up to €7m

The purse for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open is set to sky-rocket to €7 million, which would make it one of the richest prizefunds on the European Tour.

This year’s tournament – which has a pot of €4 million – is already one of the biggest of the regular tournaments on the European circuit but it is set to rise significantly in the coming years.

Colm McLoughlin, chief executive and executive vice-chairman of Dubai Duty Free, who are in the second year of a four-year sponsorship deal with an option down the line on a further two, said: “We would be encouraging the prizemoney to go higher and higher. I know the (European) Tour is saying €7 million . . . the quicker they do that, the better.”

McLoughlin added: “(The Irish Open) was very encouraging last year and we think it’s going to grow from our point of view. We know the Tour have an ambition that it would be one of four or five tournaments in Europe with a prize fund of €7 million. Now, I’m not sure what their date for that is but I do see it growing over the next couple of years.”

If the Irish Open jumped to that level, only the four Majors, the four WGC championships and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship would have bigger purses on tour.