An Opportunity to Make The KPMG Women’s Irish Open the Best in Europe – Sport for Business

The 2024 KPMG Women’s Irish Open has proven a surefire winner with players, fans, sponsors, and everyone associated with golf.

Annabel Dimmock has been crowned the champion after a dramatic play-off. During the week, she set two course records, and still found time to host a clinic with 40 young golfers.

With her near 150,000 Instagram followers and brand association with Adidas, she promises to be a shining star of an ambassador for the tournament.

The pictures beamed from Carton House over the past week, to Ireland on RTÉ, on Sky Sports across Europe and to the United States have once again shown Ireland to be among the very finest venues for the sport.

The temptation for all involved will be to celebrate a job well done and take time out before engaging again to make it even better in 2025.  But that might only be the starting point.

This tournament did not exist three years ago. It was a victim of the economic crash of the early 2010s and has since found its place again.

Two years of staging at Dromoland Castle established it once more as a jewel in the crown of the Ladies European Tour.  In each of the past two years, more than 30,000 fans have followed established stars like Leona Maguire, Georgia Hall and Annabel Dimmock, making it a standout on the Tour.

But still, it can be so much more.

Powerhouse

The United States has become the financial powerhouse of golf in both the men’s and women’s games. The 2024 FM Championship, which took place in Boston this past weekend, had a prize fund of $4 million, which is a massive incentive for the biggest global stars to stay Stateside.

The KPMG Women’s Irish Open has been €400,000 in the three years since its reset.

That puts it among the better-funded European events, which was an important benchmark to establish.

Now though, having proven itself as the best of Ireland, it can have ambitions to being the best of the regular season in Europe.

Outside of the Evian Championship and the AIG Women’s Open Championship, the two majors staged in Europe, the high bar is a prize fund of €520,000.

The promoters, ForeFront Sports, have already shown their courage by moving next year’s event to the end of June, the week before the Evian Championship in France.

It is a week where there will be no tournament on the LPGA Tour, and the prospect of encouraging not only the best players of Europe but also potentially from the US to get their eye in on European soil for that major.

This is then a golden opportunity for an event still in its infancy to take a bold step forward, raise its hand as being the best of Europe, and continue the surge of interest and success for Irish golf on the world stage.

This weekend was also up against the Curtis Cup in Sunningdale in England.  Three of Ireland’s leading amateurs, Sara Byrne, Áine Donegan and Beth Coulter, could not play at Carton House because they were proving crucial to a GB and Ireland Victory over the United States.

Sara Byrne was the leading amateur at last year’s Irish Open. Her successor, Anna Abom, in 2024, left the course this morning to get ready to start her Leaving Cert Year in Dublin. She was one of 13 Irish players coming through in the inspirational wake of Leona Maguire, Stephanie Meadow, and Olivia Mehaffey.

A Golden Generation

We are on the cusp of a golden generation of Irish women golfers in a sport where age is no barrier at either end of the scale and which is recognised as a huge economic winner for Ireland in attracting tourism.

This is an opportunity for Team Ireland to come together and state that case for being the best in Europe.

That involves Government and state agencies like Sport Ireland and Tourism Ireland, who have been instrumental in the tournament’s success to date.

It will also need the continued support of the commercial partners, who, over the last five days, revelled in the glow of being at the heart of enabling such great and accessible sport at the highest level.

KPMG as the Title Sponsor; Amundi, Amgen and Sports Direct as the Premium Partners; Novellus, BMW, Hiscox and Nespresso as co-sponsors; ForeFront Sports, The Ladies European Tour, Carton House, Local Councils, Fáilte Ireland and Sport Ireland as Official Host Partners; UKG, Sigmoid and Ishka among the other sponsors; RTÉ, Sky Sports, Irish Golfer and Sport for Business among the Official media partners; all buzzed by their involvement and every one of which we have spoken with over the past few days inspired to play a part in an ever brighter future.

The fairways and the tents have been host to inspiring conversations and client entertainment that makes for memorable additions to relationships, and so much more.

The ability of a golf tournament pro-am to bring you into the arena with the stars and your clients is a rare privilege for business that is always based on relationships and so golf has always been recognised as a great medium for doing business.

The Amgen Men’s Irish Open at Royal County Down in two weeks’ time was once on the point of collapse but was nurtured back to glorious life by appropriate state backing and commercial partnership initially with Dubai Duty Free and then others.

A Lasting Legacy

In a decade when Ireland will host some of the world’s most prestigious tournaments, from the Open Championship to the Ryder Cup, we have the opportunity and momentum to build a lasting legacy for the Women’s game.

State support, commercial partnerships, the will of golfing supporters, the right people and the right timing make this an exciting aftermath to a great week, one that feels like we are at a tipping point.

Let’s make that happen.

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