In the week from 25 to 28 July the tournaments to follow are many and on all the main circuits. Here are the ones we can’t miss: Challenge Tour – Irish Challenge
This week, from 28 to 31 July, the Road to Mallorca makes a stop in Ireland for the Irish Challenge, at The K Club, in Straffan, Kildare.
The K Club, one of Ireland’s most iconic venues, has already hosted a number of high profile events over the years: the Irish Open on several occasions, the latest being in 2016 with the triumph of Rory McIlroy but the most important occasion was the 2006 Ryder Cup.
The European team was led to victory by Ian Woosnam, winner of the 1991 Masters Tournament. This week marks the beginning of a new era for professional golf in Ireland, following the historic announcement of The K Club’s “long-term” support for the Horizon Irish Open and the Irish Challenge.
In fact, starting this week, the K Club will host the Horizon Irish Open and the Irish Challenge in alternate years until 2027. The Club has two routes: Palmer North and Palmer South and this week’s event will be held on the South.
Named in honor of the designer Arnold Palmer, the course was designed as a links in-land and its features offer a picturesque setting. For a prize pool of $ 250,000 there will be 156 players on the field. There will be seven Italian champions on the field: Stefano Mazzoli, Michele Cea, Matteo Manassero, Aron Zemmer, Jacopo Vecchi Fossa, Enrico Di Nitto and Edoardo Raffaele Lipparelli.
DP World Tour – Hero Open
From 28 to 31 July we return to St. Andrews, but not to the Old Course, but to the Fairmont St. Andrews Resort for the third edition (the second on this course) of the Hero Open. At this time of the year the great champions are taking a break and this becomes a great opportunity for some of the lesser known players on the Tour to shine.
While St. Andrews is famous as the home of golf and the Old Course dates back several centuries, the Fairmont Resort is distinctly different and much more modern. Born from an idea of the American billionaire Don Panoz, the resort was inaugurated at the beginning of the last century and, despite being less than 20 years old, has already undergone several changes.
The complex boasts 36 holes or two courses: The Kittocks and The Torrance. The latter hosts the professionals. Despite its position, it is not a links, but the path is anything but simple The defending champion is Scottish Grant Forrest, who celebrated his first home win in 2021 and will be on the field again this year to defend the title.
Having achieved a good result in Hillside, England last week, he has a very good chance of winning. Ryan Fox is also back on the pitch after a two-week break. The New Zealander missed the cut in the Open Championship, but it was his fifth consecutive week of the tournament and, although he had played well, fatigue was probably a factor.
Among the players with the most participation in the stages of the DP World Tour are two names who stood out in last week’s final round at Hillside: Frenchman Julien Guerrier and Scotch Callum Shinkwin. Experts say they are ready to bet on them too For a prize pool of 1 million and 750 thousand dollars on the field we will closely follow the blues: Edoardo Molinari, Francesco Laporta, Nino Bertasio, Lorenzo Gagli.
We will be able to see the tournament, from 28 to 31 July on GOLFTV / DISCOVERY + and EUROSPORT, with the comments of Maurizio Trezzi and Federico Colombo on the following programming: DATA GOLFTV – Discovery Plus EUROSPORT
28 – Jul 13:00 – 18:00 14:00 – 18:00
29 – Jul 13:00 – 18:00 14:00 – 18:00
30 – Jul 12:00 – 16:30 12:00 – 16:30
31 – Jul 12:00 – 16:30 12:00 – 16:30
PGA Tour – Rocket Mortgage Classic
With the playoffs approaching, a pivotal end-of-season moment, there is movement on the PGA Tour, which this week, from July 28 to July 31, will be at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.
In addition to the challenge to enter the FedExCup top125 for year-end qualifications (or, even better, the top30), there are also several end-of-season awards. The most intriguing is the Rookie Of The Year in a season that sees some really interesting candidates: Will Zalatoris, Sahith Theegala and Open runner-up Cameron Young are all in contention and are all on the pitch this week.
The Detroit Golf Club is one of the oldest in America and boasts two 18-hole Donald Ross courses: the North Course is used for the tournament and has undergone profound changes since it was designed. Critics point out that the changes made to greens and bunkers (especially those along fairways) have not taken into account how much the path has become narrower over the years due to tree growth.
