Smurfit looks to get better slot for event

Ireland's top golf sponsors could be on a collision course over one of the most desirable slots on the European Tour schedule. The situation arises from the determination of the Smurfit European Open organisers to move away from the August Bank Holiday weekend for next year's event.

Ideally, Dr Michael Smurfit wants a date closer to the British Open to attract American competitors to the K Club. And with little room for manoeuvre, one of the tournaments likely to come under pressure is the Murphy's Irish Open, which was held this year on July 1st to 4th.

Meanwhile, regarding the Ryder Cup, Smurfit reserved judgment on a proposed season-ticket of Stg£300 by the British PGA for the 2001 staging at the Belfry. But he expressed the view that both horse-racing and golf have been seriously undervalued.

Reflecting on what appeared to be a highly successful tournament last weekend, even though the collapse of Darren Clarke deprived it of an Irish winner, the chairman of the sponsoring company said yesterday: "I don't particularly like the date. In fact it's far from ideal in that a lot of people are on holiday, which is an important consideration in terms of our corporate guests.

"This is the third different date we've had and I can appreciate the problems facing the tour. The best date is obviously immediately before or after a major, which, in this part of the world, is the British Open. Loch Lomond look to have secured their position on the preceding week, for the foreseeable future. And afterwards, there is the Dutch Open.

"The Irish Open obviously got a prime date and there are various other constraints. If better dates become available, we will certainly look at them. Either way, around the British Open is the best possible time."

Smurfit went on to outline the background to this thinking. "We would very much like to have Americans in our field, but I'm not prepared to pay them appearance money," he said.

"I don't get paid to go to work: I'm paid when I'm at work. Obviously this is a point of principle, though we represent only half the tournament. The other half is owned by the European Tour.

"Apart from the right dates, the other way to get Americans is by building up the prize money through various sub-sponsors," he added. "We are already the second richest tournament in Europe (next to the British Open) and I believe our prize money can increase significantly over the next five years.

"Sure, there is big money available each week in the US, but even the leading players can't win all their own tournaments. So the hope is that they would find it attractive to play over here. Naturally, I assume that some of them will want to play here before the Ryder Cup."

Before going into further detail on the matter, Smurfit officials will study the key elements of last weekend's event, especially the attendance figures and corporate hospitality. Galleries were up on last year, but this could be attributable largely to the glorious weather up to Monday morning.

Smurfit went on to re-state his medium to long-term objective that the European Open should become a World Championship event. But further sponsorship would be a crucial element of such a development. And given the size of the commitment, the involvement of multi-national companies would make most sense.

"The game is international now and it's hard to imagine the top players not competing in the main events, whether they are in Australia or South Africa or Britain and Ireland," he said. "I've been getting the views of Mark O'Meara, Tiger Woods and David Duval, whom we've had here at the K Club.

"The top players have played here. Now we want them to compete here. To that end, it's important to know what's important to them. Are they motivated purely by money, or by the pleasure of playing? They're all managed players, and I would like to think that I could understand the business needs of those managers.

"As for the course: I feel it was set up over-generously this year, but we nearly had the pay-off of an historic 59 from Darren. It was a great pity for the home fans that he didn't keep it going, but we had a very fine winner in Lee Westwood."

What of the proposed admission price for the 2001 Ryder Cup at the Belfry? "I don't know what the correct figure should be, but what I do know is that golf and horse-racing have been seriously undervalued for years," he replied.

"People will spend £50 to £100 on a concert for two-and-a-half hours and these events are generally sold out. As chairman of the Racing Board, I found it difficult to understand why they wouldn't pay seven or eight pounds to go to the races. Their values are all over the place.

"So, £300 sterling would be £400 Irish. That's for a season ticket, including two practice days. I can understand the season-ticket approach, certainly from an administrative standpoint, because a tournament organiser has to have some protection if the weather turns foul and the punter decides to stay at home and watch it on TV.

"It would obviously be regrettable if golf were to be seen as exclusive to richer patrons, but it's very difficult to ignore market forces. And we must remember that the Ryder Cup is not your average golf tournament: it involves the top 24 players from either side of the Atlantic and it is accessible to the European fan only once every four years.

"Ticket applications will be 10 or possibly 20 times the number available. No matter how hard you try, it's often impossible to stop market forces. The worst thing that could happen would be to see Ryder Cup tickets sell for £50 and then have scalpers selling them outside the gates here for £300 or £400.

Meanwhile, Clarke was keeping a low profile yesterday, but his manager, Andrew Chandler, has no doubt about the player's ability to bounce back. "These things happen in golf," he said. "Look at what happened in the Volvo Masters at Montecastillo last November."

On that occasion, Westwood was joint leader going into the last round. But he ran up a seven at a par three on the way to a 75 and a share of 12th place, while Clarke was shooting a 63 to take the title by two strokes.

"Darren will have a fresh challenge in the USPGA Championship next week at Medinah, when he will be meeting up with Bob Rotella (the American sports psychologist) and Butch Harmon (his sometimes coach)," added Chandler. "I've no doubts about his ability to snap out of this."