• Hitting greens key at the K Club

• McIlroy looking to double up

• Will another past champ take the title?

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Tournament History

The Irish Open has had a bit of a chequered history. There have been spells when the event wasn't played at all and there were even a few years in the 1970s when it was known as the Carroll's International, but it's been an ever-present on the DP World Tour since 1974.

It's a nomadic event and this year we're returning to the 2016 venue, the K Club in County Kildare, for the 68th edition.

The K Club will also host the event in 2025 and 2027.

Venue

The Palmer Ryder Cup Course, the K Club, County Kildare, Ireland.

Course Details

Par 72, 7350 yards

Stroke Average in 2016 - 73.31

Designed in 1991, the Palmer Ryder Cup Course is a parkland course with water in play on 15 holes. The fairways are poa annua/ryegrass and the greens poa annua.

In addition to this event in 2016, the course hosted the Ryder Cup in 2006 and prior to that it was the venue for the European Open between 1995 and 2003, and then again in 2005.

The course changed somewhat in the ten years between the Ryder Cup and the 2016 edition of this event, and this is what the greens superintendent, Gerry Byrne, told the Irish Independent before the off in 2016.

"There is 10 years of additional growth on trees which were planted in the mid-1990s. They're now fully mature and will determine the degree of difficulty for shots hit off-line."

With another seven years' worth of growth, the course will have matured further again so Driving Accuracy may be a more important stat than it's historically been here.

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Weather Forecast

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TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 13:00 on Thursday.

Last Eight Winners with Pre-event Prices

• 2022 - Adrian Meronk -20 40.039/1
• 2021 - Lucas Herbert -19 55.054/1
• 2020 - John Catlin -10 65.064/1
• 2019 - Jon Rahm -16 10.09/1
• 2018 - Russell Knox -14 (playoff) 28.027/1
• 2017 - Jon Rahm -24 17.533/2
• 2016 - Rory McIlroy -12 5.49/2
• 2015 - Soren Kjeldsen -2 (playoff) 340.0339/1

What Will it Take to Win the Irish Open?

The last two editions of the European Open held here were won by Brits that topped the Greens in Regulation stats, and Rory ranked number one when winning this event here in 2016, so accurate iron play looks an important skillset.

Here's a list of the last six winners at the course with their rankings in all the main stats.

• 2016 Rory McIlroy -14 (DD: 9, DA: 23, GIR: 1, PPR 58)
• 2005 Kennie Ferrie-3 (DD: 50, DA: 10, GIR: 1, PPR 72)
• 2003 Philip Price -16 (DD: 82, DA: 85, GIR: 1, PPR 21)
• 2002 Michael Campbell -6 (DD: 49, DA: 66, GIR: 18, PPR 17)
• 2001 Darren Clarke -15 (DD: 37, DA: 47, GIR: 17, PPR 6)
• 2000 Lee Westwood -12 (DD: 23, DA: 35, GIR: 68, PPR 3)

DD= Driving Distance

DA= Driving Accuracy

GIR=Greens In Regulation

PPR=Putts Per Round

Lee Westwood's GIR ranking when winning the European Open here in 2000 was 68^th but the player he edged out by a stroke - Angel Cabrera - ranked first for greens hit and I'd definitely consider that the most important stat to consider given the last three course winners have all topped the rankings.

Neither length nor accuracy from the tee have been especially vital in the past but with the trees filling out, Driving Accuracy was more important in 2016. Tyrrell Hatton, who finished tied for fifth, ranked 36^th for DA but that was the highest any of the top-seven ranked.

Rory managed to get over the line despite a cold putter and Kenny Ferrie didn't putt brilliantly in 2005 but he highlighted perfectly that finding greens is the way to go here. Incredibly, he hit more than 80% of the greens in what at times were appalling conditions and that was 10% more than anyone else in the field.

Will the Ryder Cuppers shine?

Robert MacIntyre has qualified for the European Ryder cup team after finishing tied for 55^th at the Omega European Masters and Sweden's Ludvig Aberg has all but guaranteed his place in the line up after his stunning finish to win in Crans but neither man is in the line-up this week.

He's done it @robert1lefty will make his Ryder Cup debut in Italy.#TeamEurope pic.twitter.com/wZergYWXYL

-- Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) September 3, 2023

That's a shame as I'd have been interested in backing MacIntyre, but Luke Donald's wildcard picks might be of interest.

Shane Lowry is rumoured to be getting a pick and the defending champ, Adrian Meronk, would be a great addition to the team. I can see them performing well on the back of their good news should they both get a pick.

Is There an Identikit Winner?

Rory is going to be very well-fancied this week and favourite backers may well be rewarded as he looks to double-up at the K Club.

We've seen some very high-quality multiple winners of the Irish Open, with the 2021 US Open champ, Jon Rahm, who won the title in 2017 and 2019, the latest to win the event more than once.

In total, 11 players have won the Irish Open on more than one occasion and Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros, and Colin Montgomerie have all won the title three times.

In-Play Tactics

Ferrie won here from a long way back in 2005. The Englishman trailed by nine after round one, by six at halfway, and he was still seven adrift with a round to go.

It's much easier to make up ground in foul weather though, the leader messed up (see below), and he managed to win without shooting a round in the 60s! After an opening 75, three rounds of 70 were enough to see him win by two in conditions that were barely playable at times.

On every other occasion this venue has been used, up with the pace has been the place to be and bizarrely, in ten events, we've never had a playoff.

Other than Ferrie, five strokes are the furthest any of the other nine course winners trailed by after round one and four shots is as far back as any of them have been at halfway.

Like Ferrie, Westwood was seven adrift with a round to go in 1999 but that's a bit misleading given the leader, Darren Clarke, had been six clear before he messed up in round four.

Clarke shot 75 to finish tied second but that's far from the worst mess-up by a 54-hole leader at the K Club. Thomas Bjorn had led by four in 2005 but he finished tied for 33^rd after shooting 86 on Sunday!

Market Leaders

Having been matched at a high of 5.85/1 when the market first opened, Rory McIlroy has shortened up markedly.

He's a course winner in fine form, on a run of 10 straight top-10 finishes in elite fields, and that includes a win in the Scottish Open in July, but his event form, despite the win here in 2016, is a negative.

This will be Rory's 14^th appearance in the Irish Open and so far he has event figures reading MC-7-50-35-34-10-MC-MC-MC-1-MC-28-59 and for that reason alone he looks a bit too short at around 7/24.50.

Tyrrell Hatton's Irish Open form is a curious mixture of good and bad that reads MC-4-5-MC-MC-MC, but his fifth-place finish was here in 2016 so that's a positive.

The Englishman has current form figures reading 20-43-34-15 since he was sixth in the Scottish Open. It's 20 months since he lifted a trophy, so he too looks a little short.

Shane Lowry, who has just been picked by Luke Donald to play in the Ryder Cup, despite not ever bothering to play in the Italian Open at the host course in Rome, has something to prove this week.

The 36-year-old will be aware that he's fortunate to get the nod given he hasn't had a top-10 finish since February and that he missed the cut in the Czech Masters last time out when gracing the DP World Tour with his presence in a run of the mill event, solely to impress the captain.

Lowry defends his BMW PGA Championship title next week so he'll want to find form for that too. But I can see why he's drifted in the market and after looking into his form in depth, even though he'll be keen to justify Donald's faith, he's not for me.

Lowry famously won the Irish Open as an amateur on debut in foul weather way back in 2009 but in 13 event starts since, he has just two top-10 finishes and he was only 23^rd here in 2016.

Selections

Having won the Italian Open at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in May (this year's venue for the Ryder Cup), Adrian Meronk, who also finished second there in 2022, is desperately unlucky not to have been given a wildcard pick by Luke Donald.

He missed out of an automatic place on the team by the slimmest of margins, with Robert MacIntyre finishing just ahead of him in the qualifying standings. While many are debating whether Meronk should have got a place ahead of Nicolai Hojgaard, who's withdrawn form this week's event after getting a pick, it's the aforementioned Lowry who Meronk should have been picked ahead of.

He has every right to feel disappointed, but the defending champ can turn that in to a positive this week. At a venue that may well suit him, I can see the Pole proving a point in emphatic fashion.

Meronk is a fabulous driver of the ball, and his GIR stats are superb too. Although it wasn't quite enough to see him secure a place in Rome, his tied 13^th at Crans last week was a very decent performance.

He's been well supported on the Exchange, but he's still available at 33/134.00 in the Enhanced Win Only market with the Sportsbook.

I'll have a couple of picks at triple-figure prices in the Find Me a 100 Winner column late today but for now my only other selection is Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen, who has a great record in Ireland.

He finished 10^th here in 2016, he's since finished sixth and eighth in this event and he caught the eye last week when ranking number one for GIR when finishing only 40^th at Crans.

That wasn't a brilliant result but he has a terrible record in Crans and this tree-lined parkland layout is much more to his liking.

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*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter