Course Information - Irish Open

<strong>GREENS </strong><br />Type of grass - Creeping Bent (Penn Cross) with Poa Annua<br />Height of cut - 3mm<br />Speed/stimpmeter reading - 11.2 Tuesday morning aiming for high 11’s by Thursday<br />Any specific comments -<br /><br /><strong>FAIRWAYS </strong><br />Type of grass -  Creeping Bent (Penn Cross) with Poa Annua<br />Height of cut - 11.5mm<br />General width and contouring - Mostly wide with contouring complimenting the bunkering<br /><br /><strong>TEES / COLLARS <br />
</strong>Type of grass - Creeping Bent (Penn Cross) with Poa Annua<br />Height of cut - 8 mm<br />Any specific comments - none

<strong>ROUGH</strong><br />Type of grass - Mixture of Fescue, Brown Tip Bent, Smooth Stalked Meadow grass,  poa and ryegrass<br />Height of cut<br />- semi: 27 mm (cut daily)<br />- intermediate: 63mm (cut daily)<br />- rough: 90mm<br />Any specific comments - Maintained rough topped last weekend. Intermediate band of rough only around fairways.

<strong>WEATHER<br />
</strong>Weather in advance - Quite dry<br />Forecast for tournament - Chance of isolated showers and t-storms Wednesday afternoon/evening. Cloudy start on Thursday and Friday with areas of drizzle then sunny afternoons. Mostly sunny Saturday, partly cloudy Sunday.<br /><br /><strong>COURSE </strong><br />Opened - 1993<br />Course designer - Peter McEvoy. Re designed in 1998 by Jeff Howes.<br />Special features  - Two island type greens (10^th/ 18^th)<br />General playability - Undulating parkland course set in Fota inland waterways. Lower holes set in Deer Park.<br />Tree lined / exposed - Tree lined around the Deer Park<br />Undulating / flat -   undulating<br />Many / few water hazards - Several on Holes 3, 6, 8, 10,11,12,13 and 18<br />Changes to the course - New back tees on holes 4 (+33 yards), 5 (+33 yards), 10 (+37 yards) and 18 (+25 yards). There is a new back tee on the 6^thhole further to the left with the tee shot now played over water. The fairway has been extended to the left to due to the new angle of the tee shot.<br /><br /><strong>OTHER FEATURES</strong><br />The Deerpark Course at Fota Island hosted the Irish Opens in 2001 (Colin Montgomerie won) and 2002 (Soren Hansen won) and the Irish Seniors Open in 2006 (Sam Torrance won)