Many good things happen very quietly. And, after significant behind-the-scenes negotiations, a new title sponsor and an almost doubling of the prizefund has injected new life into the old tournament: the Horizon Irish Open at Mount Juliet on June 30th-July 3rd will again feature as one of the main tournaments on the DP World Tour.
“It’s the fifth major for an Irish person,” said Pádraig Harrington in stressing what the tournament means to both him and his peers and in welcoming Horizon Therapeutics, a global biotechnology company headquartered in Dublin and with a manufacturing facility in Waterford, on board as title sponsors in a six-year commitment up to 2027.
The Horizon Irish Open will feature a purse of €5.25 million for the tournament, an increase of 66 percent on last year’s prizefund of €3 million.
Given that it also immediately precedes the JP McManus Invitational at Adare Manor, the enhanced tournament purse will likely attract a very strong international field for the national championship’s return to the Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, venue.
Horizon Therapeutics have assumed the title sponsorship from Dubai Duty Free, who first sponsored the tournament in 2015 and continued their association up to last year’s event - played in front of a limited number of spectators - when Australian Lucas Herbert emerged victorious.
This new sponsorship is a beneficiary of the strategic alliance between the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour. “To have the support of Horizon is a huge commitment to Irish golf and it will go from strength to strength. The Irish Open is truly one of the great events on the global calendar, it has been a festival over the years,” said Harrington, who is also sponsored by the company.
“It is a sign of Horizon’s commitment to golf on the island of Ireland that they have committed until at least 2027 and we very much look forward to working with them,” said Guy Kinnings, the deputy chief executive and chief commercial officer of the European Tour group.
For Tim Walbert, the chairman, president and CEO of the company which has been based in Ireland for almost a decade, the title sponsorship of the tournament - first played in 1927 - “solidifies our continued business and community commitment . . . . . we have forged meaningful relationships in lreland and know that serving as title partner of this historic tournament will serve as a platform to positively impact the Irish and global community.”
