Ryder Cup Diary

The 37th Ryder Cup Matches will be held at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville Kentucky. The dates have been set for 19th-21st of September in 2008. This should be a cliff hanger of an event as the US Team try to win back the trophy on home ground. Who will captain the US team? How will he motivate the US stars to victory over the weight of European Ryder Cup experience. Nick Faldo captains the Europeans and will be gearing up to lead the Europeans in their attempt to hold on to the trophy. (more…)

The 36th Ryder Cup will be played out on the Palmer or North Course at the K Club

Let’s hope the weather holds off and the teams get to play some decent golf. Here’s a brief overview of the course on which the two teams will do battle:
No. 1 (Bohereen Road) par 4, 418 yards – The fairway of this par 4 has extensive water along on the left and is protected by trees down the right. A powerful drive will give the player a great chance of an opening birdie. The green is well protected with a bunker to the right. For the big hitters there’s a water hazard cutting into the fairway just over three quaters of the way to the green. (more…)

Arnold Palmer has confirmed that he will attend the Ryder Cup Matches at the K Club in September.

Having both designed the course for the K Club and starred on the victorious Team USA side a record six times, Arnold will have a particular interest in the unfolding drama at the K Club. As the architect of the course, he seems confident that the fine tuning of the parkland style course will provide the platform for an exciting competition. In light of some of the sniping about the suitability of the course, it’s interesting to note that he is very proud of his work on the Straffan course and feels that it is one of his best. It was after all designed specifically to host a major tournament from the outset. (more…)

The pay dispute between greenkeeping staff and management at the K Club has just escalated with the threat of Strike action in the run up to the Ryder Cup event in September. We spoke to Colm Quinlan of the Amicus Trade Union who represents half of the 24 greenkeeping staff at the K Club. Colm told us that the pay dispute has been dragging on since January of this year. His worry is that the K Club management have not embraced the process and that the parties are now deadlocked after three rounds of mediated negotiations. (more…)